With most of Melbourne still cooped up indoors, Heide Museum of Modern Art has announced that it’s in the process of constructing a new "healing garden” on the museum grounds.
The art museum is working with landscape architecture studio Openwork to create the garden, which has been partly inspired by one of the original residents of Heide, Sunday Reed. Reed (along with her husband John Reed) founded the Heide circle of artists on the property in the 1930s and regarded gardening in the same creative light as art.
The circular Healing Garden will be designed to showcase the curative properties of gardens. It will feature six zones, each with distinct plants and experiences. The Scented Entries zone features strong-scented plants (including Sunday Reed’s original roses); the Haptic Play zone features a tactile water display and is designed for younger visitors and those on the autism spectrum; the Bush Tucker Garden highlights the property’s existing edible native plants; and the Meadow will be the largest of the zones and feature seasonal plants.
The Healing Garden was originally planned as a space most beneficial to vulnerable communities, but Heide has conceded it may be of more general benefit following the current shutdown.
Heide’s Healing Garden is set to open in late 2020.