Charlie’s back for a deep dive into landscape design, the importance of turf selection in gardens as well as the logistics of building gardens here and abroad (along with some questionable accommodation).
Sit down with Joe and his special guest this week Charlie Albone.
To listen to more episodes of the Turf Talk Podcast check it out on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts here – https://lawnsolutionsaustralia.buzzsprout.com/
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Hi everyone it’s Joe here from lawn Solutions Australia and welcome to another episode of turf talk where it’s bring an expert to work day that that all right we’re joined by uh Better Homes and Gardens Dancing with the Stars not quite a finalist but I not
Quite a finalist we close and the owner and founder of inspired exteriors Charlie alurn Charlie thanks for being on again pleasure so Charlie’s been on here a couple of times if you want to check out previous episodes the first one we did which was one of the first
Turf talks we did was a deep dive into your life your experience how you got here and then we spoke a little bit about what you’ve been up to over the the last sort of few months uh and so on but today is going to be all about the
Other side of you that people probably don’t see as much on TV well they see parts of it but you’re not just a a TV guy uh you run and own uh landscape design construction and maintenance well it’s gone through a restructure so it’s just designed now but um I still make
Sure I’m still involved with the project from the start us okay so used to be design construction and maintenance but with everything I was doing like last year got a little bit crazy and I needed to kind of work out what I actually enjoyed and what I wanted to do managing
Staff was just becoming my life y um and so I I restructured it um got a shareholders agreement with one of the designers I used to work with so he still works we still work together designing Gardens my construction manager started his own business and basically builds all our work so exactly
The same and then I I got rid of Maintenance because I found um I had guys that were working with me that were great but then say Betty out at wherever she lives would want me to come out and have a look and give my opinion and I’m like I’m coming
Out to tell you you need to spray for scale and my guys have told you this and do you really need me to come to this and it just wasn’t working out so I Betty liked you yeah I mean Betty does make a great a te and a slice but you
Know it just wasn’t the best use of my time so I kind of had to work out what I really enjoyed doing which was the design so that’s kind of what we do so it come from two angles one the need to do less and two that’s where your
Passion really lies with design yeah which is a great feeling to kind of work out okay this is what I’m going to do and and kind of work towards that and and it’s it’s nice to have a bit more time and do what you enjoy more so is it
Just you now no no I’ve got two designers so I’m in partnership with one of the guys that used to work with we an employee together okay so so a job will come along your desk saying hey build me a garden um and you guys will basically
Just design it so we do everything from like a consultation where you just turn up and I can give advice on I think this is where your pool should go these are some plants that would work everything up to we’ve got a blank canvas make us a
Nice Garden we don’t know what we want does that mean you’re still just around the Sydney area or does that mean you can go a little bit we we work everywhere like thanks to co people realize you can do these things over the internet yeah so we’ve got some designs
In Melbourne some up in Queensland all over the place yeah okay and what’s the what’s the time period for you to put together a garden design I know it’s probably some variables in this but pick a standard one like how long’s it take you to do this uh so from the time we
Meet someone to producing plans for them and sitting down and giving the first presentation could be 3 to four weeks yeah and then normally there’s changes that takes a couple of weeks and then it depends if it needs to go through da or not you have all the extra documentation
That needs doing if it’s exemp devel then you got to meet with contractors or show it to contract you got to do that Council side of things too yeah yeah what’s harder designing the Garden or doing that working to council is difficult because people also want a garden that might be exempt development
Which is quite hard to design something where they want everything but they don’t want to that’s difficult complying development which is a much easier process has restrictions but you can do a bit bit more with it and da you can do more with but you got to go through
Council and are you finding in the the design world with Gardens it is it a trend based thing do things come and go or do you sort of stick to your own um TRS Trends are difficult because gard and Gardens and Trends are difficult because you put a garden in and then you
Need it’s got to look good when it goes in but it’s got to look better as it evolves and matures and if you’ve got a trend and you put it in and then it starts to look good in five years and then it’s out of trend then you’re
Stuffed right so Timeless design always works best m um yeah and I I try to steer away from from Trends with with clients you might pick some colors that might be trendy like Grays or maybe it might be like a red or something like that that’s in
Trend stick to paint that can be changed quickly but the overall layout and and concept has to be sound in itself cuz that’d be something that would go wrong a lot I’d imagine I I know absolutely nothing about garden design on my I don’t put plants in my place just grass
Water War cuz nothing else works but up on the fences but um it’ be something that go wrong I see a lot of gardens all the time go that looks beautiful I wonder how that’s going to look in 2 and a half years time I wonder how that’s
Going to look in 5 years time how do you manage that period is it just about it’s all about uh you got to get from the client how much maintenance they can give the garden yeah right and that’s got to influence the design if they say
I don’t want anything to do with it but I’m happy to pay someone once a week to come in and do it yeah then you can go nuts if I really want to be involved but I can only give it one one day a month or something then you’ve got to go down
To more low maintenance yeah and pick plants that are going to stay smaller and that kind of stuff yeah so education and knowledge on plants are so important in a situation like this it’s everything plants is everything yeah plants and turf plants and turf well Turf is plants
Right well yeah but anyway can you not correct me please anymore that’s right and um the with we spoke about this last episode but the the beautiful garden that you designed and built at mgus do you do you get a lot of a lot of work from something like that is that the
Reason you do it I know it’s not the sole reason but is that part of the reason you do that’s nice can I get one of them yeah that’s that’s part of it getting your name out there and proving that you can do it yeah cuz I think
That’s why a lot of people do shows like myus obviously isn’t it is to say hey this is what I can do come and get me to do it for you that that’s always part of it but it shouldn’t be the driving force in it it should be the passion to want
To show people something different and produce something out there that’s completely in your own mind because every Garden will have constraints to it and you’re building it for a client so really when you’re doing it for a client you have to do something for them you might you might not like what you’re
Doing for someone but You’ you’ve got to do the best Gard you can for them and they’ve got to be happy with it is that have you put you would have put something over the years where you just gone I absolutely despise this but you want it so I’ll do it yeah absolutely
But if the client’s happy and you’ve worked through some issues and it’s the best that that space can have in their style yeah then you’ve done a good job do it and with your show Garden so again referring back to myus because that’s the one You’ you’ve probably done most
Recently do you get many that come in and say hey build me that uh people say I really like that I really like say the planting of that can I have some planting like that or there was an element like I’ve got a shipping container I want to use or I’ve you know
Got a monal carriage I want to use how can we use it or something like that so yeah so you will get some weird and unique things that you got to build in and build around yeah right yeah I’ve got a monal carriage in my gard actually
You didn’t just make that up didn’t make that up no so a client a while ago when the monal is getting taken down said I I just saw on on Sunrise that there monal is being sent to trash so I bought two containers two two of the carriages
One’s going to my place send one to your place and I like ah don’t really want it because you got if you pay for the uh shipping you can have it so I was just like oh okay it’s like 100 bucks or something so now I have a mon his is
Much nicer than mine so he’s like I want to do mine up so we got a car pster to do all leather interior for it and we did like a tesselated tile floor put a fridge in it and some shelving so you going there and sitting there yeah so it
Was like a scotch drinking Dent at the bottom of the garden so you walk through this party Garden it’s got like a little button the door do open and then you’ve got like all your fridge and scotches and and glasses and you can go sit out
There and enjoy the garden and what is yours do mine’s just an old monal C with a with a rose growing on it I’ve got Grand plans like I was going to make it into a potting shed and then I thought got built-in seats already so I really
Should do something like that and then you know I haven’t done anything with it I’ve cleaned it out and that’s about it so when when you design these Gardens now um is are you still like prone to going on site during the build and making sure everything’s abely you you
Have to as the designer you have to see the project through to completion cuz I don’t have in-house construction but the guy that does all my construction used to work for me we work really well together so uh he gets me in when I’m needed he knows when I’m needed and and
So go in and advise the clients then and there and our last episode we spoke more about your on screen stuff that you’re doing I don’t think people realize that a 60-minute episode of bed Homes and Gardens doesn’t take 60 Minutes to film um it’s a it’s a couple of day fair so
How do you manage everything cuz obviously you’re out on site filming it’s pretty hard to design a garden when you’re sitting on site on and you can’t really be contacted when you’re filming because you can’t have your phone on either so there’s a lot of that was
Another part of the reason why I had to scale it back to just design because there was just too much to catch up on in the mornings and the evenings after filming so it gives you a little bit more flexibility now so abely so how do
You manage things do you have a a set thing or you just do it when you can when you can and having a a mobile phone now that can do it all is great for that yeah you know cuz sometimes it’s just a onew answer that needs replying so you
Can just do it then and there like do you remember when you used to have to go and start computer app and to to reply to emails and stuff like that it’s just much easier now I I don’t actually do these sketches say say sorry
Um say you come in with a client are you are you a hand Sketcher are you like an old school sort of artist where you’ll draw it first or are you straight on the computer I can’t set up a computer page with a plan okay wouldn’t even know where to start
With Vector Works no idea whatsoever so I’ll go and I kind of visualize what um when I’m in the space I kind of visualize how things will go and get an idea for scale and proportion and is what they’re talking about going to fit or is what they’re talking about
Absolute nonsense and is there another way that it could be done better so do that and then I will take a scale plan and hand sketch in over the top you will draw I will draw uh to scale in and I’m a terrible drawer as well I’m not a this
Is not a great advert for me is it but I if I can do Line work to work out the scale and the proportion of where everything’s going then I can give that to someone and they can put it into a vector workor file and make it look
Really nice graphically and then you stand behind them and point when you want things and then I say look what I’ve done people go wow that looks amazing thank you very much uh but then putting the plant list together is what I really enjoy so that’s where I really
Get into putting down what plants are going to work work in what area and how they’re going to combine together so Beret cigarette drawing the drawing the plan um and then so you get it to the vector stage you choose the plant and then you just sit back and put it all
Together is that sort of what we’re so a concept package generally consists of the concept plan and normally they quite large garden so then you’ll split those up and go into more detail into different sections which you’ll be written through uh there’s a plant list of all the stuff with pictures of all
That concept imagery so I’m thinking of a bigace chimney here it could look like a or C which then then you show it to the client which one do you prefer this is the one I prefer and you kind of discuss what can you can you draw them
Like a 3D thing so they can see what it looks like or all so then we used to do 3D you can someone you know do that it’s so much cheaper to get it done overseas so we’ve got this guy we work with he’s a kiwi guy but he lives over in the
Philippines and you deal with him and he just you send him the plan and this is what I’m thinking and you get this amazing 3DS back and normally a fly through video and all that stuff which is what most clients actually they don’t really care about the plans you show
Them a fly through video and that like and that does it yeah yeah yeah so you can’t draw you can’t use a vector program and I’m a landscape designer scary scary no you um you you’ve done some wonderful projects over the years I know um I’ve checked out your website
Just recently inspired exteriors and some of the stuff you guys do is really really cool but is is there one that really stands out for you on you’ve gone overseas and done a lot um I love all the flower shows but they’re kind of strange in the sense that you’re you put
So much planning into them you put so much effort into the design and making sure everything in the design sense works then you put all the effort into building it and it’s super intense building it cuz you’re there every day but then after the show it just comes
Down and never exists ever again and there’s something I like about that and something I don’t like about that it’s a little disheartening in a way is it or in a way but then it’s kind of nice to know that there was a moment in time that something existed that’ll never
Exist again yeah there something about it that I obviously enjoy um but apart from garden shows there was a garden we did in Singapore for the Shang art in the lobby which was that’s like a a big one for us that’s still there still there yeah yeah still there and still
Looking great which is which is pretty cool so how do you get approached to do something like that that was through Chelsea flower show so I built a garden and one of the owners of the shangala their their people I guess uh saw it and realized that I was born in Hong Kong
And they’re like you want to come back to Hong Kong and build a garden for one of the owners so I went and built their private residence did a design went over and did a bit of work in the garden there and they said are you doing an all
Right job in this do you want to come and have a look at one of our hotels like we’re doing a flagship renovation so yeah one thing loads to another and that’s how we did that one and so there’s some pretty prestigious locations and that that comes directly
From building a garden at Chelsea yeah yeah and where else in the world is it taking is it taking you um I’ve done some stuff in France I’m hopefully doing a garden in Singapore the garden show in Singapore so yeah and I suppose like you said that the new role that you’ve taken
On it’s getting you very used to working remotely with people so you can do this kind of stuff with language barriers with thousand K difference between you you can still get it done pretty effectively can yeah absolutely yeah so what um the focus for you now obviously
TV and the on screen stuff you do is take up a lot of your time but what do you see over the next sort of 2 3 4 5 years for inspired exteriors you going to continue to sort of do what you’re doing or is there I know we’ve been
Doing quite a bit of stuff uh in the commercial space which I think like doing some stuff some hotels in in Sydney which is quite exciting knowing that a lot of people are going to use and interact with the space and there’s a lot of emphasis being put on exterior
Space and how how important it is really so that’s quite exciting um which we’ll be focusing a bit more on going into that area but I just love residential landscape design changes people’s sounds odd to say it but a good Garden will change a family’s life the way they use
The space you know uh you’ve houses and houses getting bit blocks are getting smaller so outdoor space is so important and you’ve got to get it right because it will completely change the way you use your home uh and it’s nice to know that when you first meet someone that
You know that by the end of the project and years to come they’re going to have a better life for what you’re doing with them yeah absolutely and and even even in I was see my experience with this sort of stuff compared to yours but even things as little as rfing someone’s
Backyard um it makes such a difference and people don’t understand it so I I always say to people if if you’re not happy with your outdoor space think about how much time you actually spend out there and it’s always worth investing even if it’s small in improving something um even in the
Slightest bit and it’s it’s not just from a personal point of view but I think people also under underestimate the value it actually adds to your place even if you’re spending I don’t want to put numbers too much in here but a smaller amount of money it can change so
Many things for you and if you if you want to do something more drastic then you can get someone like inspiring Series in there to do it for you and it it makes a massive massive difference that’s I love inspired series for that but I also like doing TV for that as
Well because TV inspires a lot of people to do stuff and Better Homes and Gardens is more budget conscious so it’s like how can you get a similar look how can you do stuff yourself for less of the price yeah but still gets people into the thing that we love which is
Gardening being outdoors yeah absolutely absolutely and just just on the stuff you did overseas is is pretty incredible but one thing I didn’t touch on before which I’ve only sort of just stumbled across now is the first ones you did initially you were involved right through weren’t you it wasn’t just a
Design thing how do you manage Construction in a project on the other side of the world it’s yeah it’s crazy cuz you’ve got 21 days to build a show Garden at Chelsea so you’re away from your family take a team from Australia with you okay a lot of the guys that
Were coming over were working for free they just come over and do it for the love of it so you’re staying in these places and you’re working from 700 in the morning till like 9:00 at night on one of those and you’re doing it for 21 days straight so it’s super intense yeah
But an amazing experience like it’s quite funny we as the Australians go over where Fleming started this you all wear the same uniform so you’re all in you got to wear hi so we all had the same hi shirts on and like all the English were super jealous that we turn
Up in like the hi outfits right and we were staying at this place in Chelsea we found the cheapest apartments we could because this takes a huge part out of the budget yeah so we’re like great found these apartments that they’re in walking distance to the show we can stay
There all good great fantastic we’re down at the um service station just getting food and stuff in the morning and this guy goes what are you guys all doing here dressed up like that and I said oh we’re from Australia we’re building a garden at the Chelsea FL show
Is and you’re staying in the brothel I was like uh what what do you mean is that place you w down of on the top two floors it’s a broth I’m like no no no we’re staying like on on the left I like yeah right and walked off I was
Just like all the boys ears pricked off and I was like oh no so who booked it it was me and it wasn’t your first time in Chelsea was it well first time staying there no it was the first time I actually booked it to a a housing agent
Guy who’s like I know you’re coming out I can help you with cheap accommodations you’re building a couple $100,000 Garden at the most prestigious flowering Garden Cho world where where the queen goes to and you’re living in a br um admittedly we only spent not much time there not
Much time upstairs because we were working yeah sorry an interesting story did you meet the queen I didn’t meet the queen I met uh that’s a horrible segue by the way it really is how’ you come up with that um God rest of us Soul anyway back to it um
Yeah I didn’t meet the queen well when I was there she walked straight past me so I realized I didn’t do that great in the judging but I met Prince William and Princess Katherine and Harry when he wasn’t so crazy um and so they they turn up right they’re standing at the Garden
It’s super surreal CU they’re like the most recognized people in the world right they’re say there and he’s like oh this is quite delightful he this plant over there what is that hedging you have and I said Ah that’s that’s buxus and Princess C goes babe we’ve got loads of
That back at our place I was just think like how weird is this I’m like your Palace you’ve got lots of boxes back at your Palace and they just it was just a weird experience so did you have was that the end of the interaction or did
They like I said you can come and have a look if you like and they were super Ken they’re like yeah we’d love to and then all the SC like no no no on a time frame and weird experience so what’s the what’s the criteria to meet the queen
You got to you got to do really well you got to do real how how did you did okay over there but didn’t you yeah we got the second highest medal you can get yeah right which is I’m proud of it absolutely the ones you do in Singapore
And that sort of stuff do you ever use Crews from over there or you always fly your own crew over normally use my own crew yeah yeah um we use we try and get help from a local landscaper just cuz you like Singapore is a crazy place there’s not the
Same um you can’t go to the hardware store there’s no Bunnings there right there’s no like DIY culture there so we found one hardware store like all the way across town and it was just crazy to try and like we needed a cad drill right
So we’re like we’ll buy a cad drill from Hilty and they’re like no we can only you can only pick one up from FedEx because we’ve got to deal with FedEx but you can’t just go and pick one up from FedEx you’ve got to become a FedEx agent
To go and pick one up because people just don’t buy drills here how do they like work and do I have no idea how it works like when we’re taking and and they only build for like a 15year time frame so when we’re taking the Lobby part the formwork they used for concrete
Like there was Coke cans and bits of cardboard to like patch up the holes I was just like what is this they’re like oh well it’s only going to last 15 years and then we know it’s going to come down so that’s fine it’s wild and and with I
Look at Singapore and I know parts of Sydney and Melbourne are go on the same way with the hotels and the like but rooftop gardens and growing plants in spaces that plants aren’t meant to be grown how do you get away with that now like even with soil profiles for example
On a rooftop garden like Singapore is an amazing climate for plants oh that’s true CU it just it’s tropical like it rains all the time it’s nice and warm like the the soil’s just it just all grows yeah the hot to to go over there and kill plants is is a very difficult
Thing to have you put Turf on rooftops yet uh no I haven’t right it’d be an interesting one we get questions from I talk to Landscape Architects pretty regularly and we often get questions on there but what’s the secret to to getting plants to succeed in in an
Australian climate on a rooftop garden is it all about selection it’s all about selection yeah it’s it’s hot it’s dry uh and the the soils drain really quickly cuz they have to and they generally have to be quite lightweight as well so there’s not much to them so
Mediterranean plants do really well um drought tolerant plants like succulents and things do really well but then the trick is trying to make it look like a nice Lush Oasis that doesn’t look dry yeah so it’s an interesting line of work I don’t know what you do in general is
Interesting being on TV but there’s this whole other side of that people probably don’t understand or probably don’t realize there a it’s it’s not just someone who’s like you said before just an actor but it’s not it’s not just someone on TV it’s someone who really really knows what they’re doing and
You’ve been doing this a really long time and if again if people want to get a more in-depth view of Charlie story it’s a really interesting one and you should check it out on one of our earlier podcast episodes but if people want to keep up with you and find out
What you’ve been doing where can they find you on the on the social pipes on the social pipes on the Instagrams uh yeah look I I sometimes post things on Instagram I’ve been meaning to do it more and more it’s one of those things like it’s just another thing you have to
Do isn’t it it’s part of life these days but um yeah so Instagram would be a good way yeah what do they actually have to search so you got Instagram is you just search I thought it was going to be some fancy handle or something like that but it’s just I don’t
Know and what what was my bio lived in a brothel for a bit didn’t meet the queen didn’t meet the queen but I Liv in a rot for a bit Charlie Al and everyone type that in Inspire xterious and you able to check him out you can check out inspire
And Charlie alurn two SE we want we just edit all that nonsense about brothels out that’s where we we go there no but it’s a really interesting line of work and the stuff you guys do is incredible um I think the landscape industry is a
Fantastic uh line of work to be in and there’s not enough people getting into it but you hear that in in every trade at the moment but yeah it’s a good one yeah coming I think a lot of our audience are like me where they’re very obviously Turf Centric and and we don’t
Hate plants but we like Turf everywhere but from a totally different perspective you can do some really really cool things with Gardens so I think it’s definitely worth checking out but um great to chat again than you for it’s always interesting you’re a very interesting person who does lots of
Interesting things so um it was cool and we’ll we’ll do this again sometime soon we shall indeed