Carolyn Blackman  whose gardening company called Vivid Design , a multi gold medal award winning garden designer  was our presenter at last Tuesday Zoom Rotary  meeting .  She gave a wonderful display of her gardening achievements over the years .  Carolyn has been competing at Garden shows around Australia for many years and has in fact won the prize at the Melbourne Show many times .  Last year Vivid Design won their 19th MIFGS Gold award Australian Shows  including Sydney, Perth and 20 show gardens for MIFGS  We were fortunate to have Carolyn joining us as she lives locally in East Keilor and some of our members have used her services. She features regularly on the ABC radio on Saturday mornings . She respects Rotary especially as her father was a charter member of the Rotary Club of Keilor East. Her video show displayed some amazing work that her company has done to decorate and modernize some large gardens  Those of us who have visited some of these gardens such as the Point Leo vineyard were able to relate to the subject and admire her work .  
Her company  called Vivid Design was formed in 1996 by Carolyn and her husband Joby . The combined influence of Joby and Carolyn has ensured that  gardens have equal emphasis on hard landscape design and planting design. "Our approach to landscape design is always contextual – the people, the architecture and surrounding environment being the major influential factors in the finished design. Our philosophy is that the gardens we design should be unique and devoid of authorship. The subtle weaving in of history, ‘stories’ or other more personal elements is also a particular design influence."
 
The focus of the combination of skills and influence is to design gardens that have equal emphasis on hard landscape design and planting design. The Vivid approach to landscape design is always contextual – with the architecture and surrounding environment being major influential factors in the finished design. The subtle weaving in of history, ‘stories’ or other more personal elements is also a particular design influence for Vivid.
Vivid Design’s gardens are designed to:
❖ Compliment and enhance the environment in which they are situated (including architecture of the buildings and surrounds)
❖ Reflect the needs of the client and ultimately those people that will use the space
❖ Meet achievable maintenance levels to ensure the gardens long-term success  .  
 
 
Vivid Design’s clients include residential developments in Melbourne, Sydney and rural areas of Victoria. and Commercial clients