The Artists Garden

This is more than a nursery, it is a peaceful place to meditate and admire nature. I have often popped my head in here when I want a quiet moment to myself — what is it about greenery that makes us so calm?
My house is a borderline rainforest as a result of this feeling. I have numerous plants scattered around the house — even one in my shower! And the vast majority of these have come from The Artists Garden. They have a wide range of indoor and outdoor plants, pots, soil and all sorts of other knick-​knacks that you might need.
The thing that impresses me most about The Artists Garden is the impressive knowledge the staff have of each and every plant in their space. Whether it’s a little cactus or a giant fiddle leaf fig, they’ll show you how to care for it.
Yes, it is a bit more expensive than your average nursery, but these plants are practically designer — they are the cream of the crop when it comes to greenery.
The Artists Garden great place to buy a gift for someone — everybody loves a plant, right?!

I walk past The Artists Garden a number of times a week and I finally had reason to pay a visit when my terrarium needed a bit of a spruce up. I originally went in thinking they might be able to point me in the direction of a speciality store that sold terrarium plants and equipment, but it turns out that they themselves have a section dedicated to these mini gardens. I should have known. This is hipster central after all.
The staff were able to help me choose plants that would suit my open terrarium and gave advice about which were the easiest to grow. I went with two plants. One a «can’t kill» pink leafed plant and one a «needs a bit of love» green crawler (that’s totally the technical botanic name by the way). Well turns out that I’m not much of a green thumb because three weeks later my «needs a bit of love» green crawler is looking a bit sick while the other plant is thriving.
There’s a wide variety of plants here, suitable for indoors and out. It’s probably not the place to come for major garden overhauls but for small amounts of greenery, including hipster favourites like terrariums this is an excellent choice.

Considering the money that the Fitzroy Nursery makes grows on trees it is a very expensive Nursery. On impulse I have brought a couple of things here but could have found the same stuff elsewhere. This place is amazing nonetheless, and whenever I am in the area I pop in just to unwind the good old hustle and bustle of city life.
They sure have created a unique space here, I am sure that the seat out the front of the store has seen some crazy nights.

This is such a great little getaway from the hustle and bustle of Brunswick Street.
I visited Artists Garden when my little courtyard in my Carlton residence needed some love. I weeded it and put down some mulch and looked far and wide for a garden nursery and my closest local one was here, Artists Garden.
The shop consist of all the needs to get some great items either plant based or decorative into your backyard. The items found there are mainly from local designers so you know your buying something that is one-​of-​a-​kind.
The staff are pleasant and happy to chat with you about what you would like to do with your graden. Theres the beautiful two story victorian shop as well as a small garden patch to the left that you can enter and explore. Coming here is a highlight for me, it’s so peaceful and serene.

A full and lush nursery right in the middle of Brunswick St. It’s funny how often I’d walked past Fitzroy Nursery or waited for the tram right outside its doors before I realised that the cascading greenery springing from the wall was cloaking a large indoor-​outdoor garden with many plants for sale. I think I’d always just assumed it was private land or something.
Head inside and check out the beaut range of potted plants, trees, flowers and outdoor decorations. My favourite are the tin animals, hand-​crafted using pieced together bits of metal and painted in different colours, then given names on their tags. The cows are pretty cute.
They also sell great little chilli plants, which are perfect as gifts.

This fantastic nursery is right in the thick of it on Brunswick Street. A little out of place or perhaps a little oasis amongst all the stores. The nursery is great even to just have a relaxing wander through every now and then.
They have some incredible sculptures and water features to bring your garden to life, although imagine you’d have to have a pretty big garden to start with. Made from steel and copper, these marvels are a sight to behold. Of course they lean towards the pricey side of things, but they are quite clever.
Perhaps actual plants are more your thing. In that case they have a wide variety of potted plants as gifts of perhaps a few citrus plants to whack in your garden. There’s plenty of herbs and lots of colourful flowers.
A nice succulent section tucked away proves that they really do have a nice mix of plants. A wonderful little oasis amongst busy Brunswick Street.

When my girlfriend takes me shopping on Brunswick Street and I have just had too much of the polka dot dresses and smiling shop assistants, I slip quietly into the Fitzroy Nursery to dream of having an oasis half as nice as the yard of this beautifully set out plant shop.
After a timeless moment spent wandering around the ornate plants and trickling water displays I flip back to reality and realise that I probably won’t buy anything. Not because I am not in to gardening, in fact quite the opposite, I want to buy every single thing in this place. It’s just that I can never be bothered carrying plants around with me on what I am sure is going to be hours more of this current shopping excursion.
It is at this point that I make a wish that one day they will serve coffee in this beautiful little yard so I can sit and relax here for hours on end. Until that time, I buy a flowering plant in the hope of charming my significant other into perhaps cutting this particular shopping trip short. I buy the biggest one I can find in the knowledge that I can always make her carry the gift I have just given her and if nothing else tire her that little bit more into going home or to the pub.

I remember this little oasis from my childhood. It’s the type of place I would love to take my children and teach them about flowers and plants.
It is a little patch of luxury and beauty on a busy and trendy street.
It’s the Fitzroy Nursery.
An institution along Brunswick Street the nursery has been around for well over 30 years now and remains a popular destination for green thumbs and plant lovers.
A great herb and veggie section, a kickass bonsai corner, and some interesting sculptures are just some of the things you’ll come across as you wind your way between the plants.
Expect great customer service and wonderful knowledge. The staff are always friendly and always up for a chat about products.
The prices are very reasonable, and their diverse selection of plants makes it an ideal place to pick up a present (the orchids are divine), or start planning your future garden.
The Fitzroy Nursery is also a famous destination for landscape design, and looking around and their little green creation, it isn’t hard to see why.

Need a giant, corrugated iron cow sculpture for your urbane Melbourne oasis? Head to Fitzroy Nursery. A slightly incongruous Brunswick Street mainstay for the best part of the last 30 years, the Fitzroy Nursery is a veritable haven in the middle of bar/​café/​vintage shop central Fitzroy and is just as impressive a garden centre as any of those on Melbourne’s periphery.
Predictably selling a range of plants, trees and seeds alongside an impressive range of pots, sculptures and water features, and even offering landscape design services — which I may just have to bend my landlord’s ear about — the Fitzroy Nursery is an awesome, if pricey garden centre right in the middle of Fitzroy.
I particularly like this modern nursery’s range of oversized pots made from a variety of different materials in a range of shapes and sizes, which would be perfect planted with one of Fitzroy Nursery’s lush looking kaffir lime trees. Ah that I had $ 600 to spare…

There isn’t really much you can say about a nursery or garden centre. What you can say about the Fitzroy Nursery is that it is immaculately kept and the guys that run it are always friendly and willing to help out if anything to ask of them. On a recent visit I decided to try and replant my herb garden that had gone through some hard times during the winter. I asked the guy how I should go about growing coriander because it has been an absolute bitch each time I tried previous. Then we had a weird situation where Coriander decided to break up with me through the medium of the guy serving me.
He said, «It’s not you, it’s coriander.»
So in conclusion… it’s a pretty chilled place with good advice. If you buy plenty of herbs you get a 10% discount too.