Tender
Nature Festival SA
NATURE: Plant x Art, Public Engagement
SCOPE: Planting design, engagement, media
TIMELINE: 2023 Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show
DESIGN PARTNERS: Nature Festival SA, Adelaide Botanic Gardens
Community grown Meadow
Nature Festival SA is exploring a theme of ‘tend’ throughout its program in 2022.
Jac Semmler of Super Bloom joined as the first Gardener-In-Residence to cultivate the theme within the community. More than 64 community members grew a meadow curated for the festival, ‘Tender’, showcased in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens for Nature Festival SA October - November 2022.
Find out more about Nature Festival SA
CULTIVATED VALUE
Creative Interpretation of the Festival Theme
Super Bloom developed a community grown meadow as a temporary installation for the Nature Festival at the Adelaide Botanic Garden, creating a project that meaningfully responded to the festival theme of “Tend” through planting, participation and shared care.
Community Participation & Collective Growing
Super Bloom designed and facilitated a community-grown meadow initiative that invited residents and local gardeners to actively participate in the project by growing plants from supplied seed at home before contributing them to the final installation, creating a powerful and accessible form of public engagement.
Low-Resource, High-Impact Delivery
Working with a simple and low-budget approach, Super Bloom demonstrated how modest resources could create a highly memorable and impactful public experience, cultivating beauty, wonder and connection through thoughtful and participatory design.
Extended Legacy Beyond the Festival
Although developed as a temporary installation, the meadow continued well beyond the festival period, creating ongoing value, visibility and public enjoyment while extending the life and impact of the original project.
Cultural Engagement, Media & Public Connection
Through media participation, public programming and community activation, Super Bloom contributed significant additional value to the festival experience, strengthening engagement between audiences, the botanic gardens and the broader themes of nature, care and collective participation.
