William Martin (garden designer)

William Martin (Born Rutherglen Scotland 25 June 1953) is an award winning plantsman and garden designer (or "Spatial Dramatist"). His garden Wigandia in south west Victoria, at Noorat was twice voted Australia's best garden. Martin, who has lived in Australia since 1965, has had no formal art training.

Martin is an outspoken advocate for a new approach to gardening in Australia. He eschews approaches to gardening in Australia that emphasise rigorous preparation of soil and selection of plants based on traditions. Climactic suitability is taken for granted as a necessary prerequisite for inclusion. Writing in Australian magazine Your Garden, Martin has written: "Choose the right plant types for your given growing conditions and area and the rest will fall into place". Elsewhere, Martin is described as "independent of mind, individual in style". He has argued that most Australian gardening is still in a "Northern Hemisphere style" and therefore does not truly reflect Australian identity. However, this does not by any means suggest a focus on endemic Australian plants. In another idiosyncratic reference he has been recorded as stating "Practice gongoozling, or gazing, rather than gardening too much."

Martin's references to influential gardens include the one created by Derek Jarman at Dungeness and Ian Hamilton Finlay's Little Sparta. In a blog entry Martin has himself cited an early Australian painting by John Glover as 'lurking in his sub-conscious' as a primary source.

Martin began work on Wigandia, named after the Wigandia caracasana, in 1989. Martin's perspective as an artist can be said to be in a constant state of flux. Early written work on Wigandia frequently highlight his objection to the "pampered woody European legacy" that has informed the Australian garden in the past. However, with the establishment of Wigandia as a working model of what can be achieved with minimal irrigation, Martin's attention has shown signs of shifting focus to the development of an understanding of his garden as art. Media attention may have 'focused' on the 'dry' aspect of this garden for its own purposes, considering the prolonged drought of Eastern Australia at the time.

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Wikipedia