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Arnhem Gardens
Our Business
Arnhem Gardens is a business that has developed from decades of experience specific to the Darwin region and in nearly every industry plants are part of here. We would like to live in a world where our outdoor spaces reflect a sense of personality and purpose. Where the space was about comfort, fun, family, friends, experiences and the love of life. So that is what we do, create designs and offer advice to allow you to live in a space that reflects who you are and what you love. Whatever the budget, style, or experience level, we will help find the path from where you are to an outdoor space befitting your imagination.
Our History
Arnhem Gardens started life as Arnhem Nursery, the brain child of Sandra and Kerry Byrnes, whose history in Darwin was just one of the extraordinary stories from this part of the world. They arrived here in 1971, had a series of businesses, including a newspaper (The Darwin Star), a supermarket, an earthmoving business, and of course Arnhem Nursery.
The Nursery was very much a gradual creation created from home, beginning as a 20 acre block in McMinns Lagoon, that had been cleared and grazed to within an inch of its life. The very first tree planted was a Ficus elastica (Rubber Tree) off Sandra's desk at the newspaper, and it's still there now. Through a whole lot of trial and error, success and failure, travel and research, they created a paradise out of nothing, and one day they decided they were going to help other people do the same.
The initial idea was to do this by offering landscaping, with the nursery as a sideline, but Kerry soon decided he would rather let Sandra be in charge, and the nursery became their life. For many years Kerry and Sandra would talk about the challenges for new gardeners in our region, and how every customer had to be 'retrained', to the point that they started doing 'Garden Consults', and would spend literal hours in the nursery talking customers through why their plans weren't working, and Kerry even became the local Talkback Gardener on the ABC Radio.
After a decade or so in business as a nursery, employing every single family member for at least a school holiday or two, the succession plan determined that Charlotte would take over. And we promise it isn't nepotism, or at least not on purpose, but not only did she take over the business, she is also a local Talkback Gardener on the ABC Radio (how that came to be is its own special story).
After 30 years, Kerry and Sandra passed within a few years of each other, and the nursery became something a little different. Instead of growing and selling plants, we now focus on helping people use those plants in the best way possible. This feels like the natural evolution of the nursery, and the absolute best way to continue a legacy of education, and true appreciation of the unique place we live in. A self described 'holistic gardener' Charlotte likes the concept of living within the environment, while making the space yours. So her ambition for you and all the gardeners who will listen is to make our outdoor spaces a little easier, and just a little more part of the fun in our lives. That means understanding what you are working with, and creating a plan that works for you rather than makes more work for you.
A little about Charlotte -
I am Darwin born and bred, and grew up in a world of proper 'plant people', so while being fond of them, I am reluctant to embrace the title completely. I have come to this business in a rather roundabout fashion, working in a number of industries in a number of roles. A childhood spent visiting sites with Dad (Kerry) and potting plants with Mum (Sandra) did the job though and fate has done its thing. To be fair this was all set in stone with a frantic call early one Saturday morning many years ago, Dad was completely unwilling to leave the safety of the toilet to do Talkback Gardening on the ABC Radio, and there was exactly 40 minutes till someone need to be in the studio. So with a 30 minute drive ahead, I enlisted the partner for driving (which meant the child came too), and attempted to prepare for something I'd never done before and honestly hadn't really listened to either. I scraped through that experience by the skin of my teeth, and a few months later got the call from the ABC to ask if I could fill in for the other gardener for a few months.
And here began a new path of helping people understand the problem. With a bit of reflection I came to understand that what I really enjoyed, no matter what industry I was in, was helping people understand what they were looking at, and find a way to make it what they wanted to see.
