GARDEN designer Peter Donegan has received a prestigious international industry award.
The Dublin based landscape architect received a Silver Award at The APLD International Landscape Design Awards 2025 which is hosted by The Association of Professional Landscape Designers in the US.
It honoured his show garden A Moment in Time which featured at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show in 2024.
Built by Semken Landscaping with Yards Landscaping, the garden tells the story of an Air Force veteran who returns to a place he hoped to be able to call home.
Built over nine days, the piece won the People’s Choice Award and a Silver Medal at the Melbourne show.
The idea for the garden – which features a fragmented path winding to an aged, grassed roof wood cabin and a Piper PA-28 Cherokee aircraft – was born during Donegan’s time designing the gardens at 13th Century Château de Péronne in France and the Irish World War 1 centenary peace garden.
Peter Donegan’s show garden A Moment in TimeLast week the APLD International Landscape Design Awards judges described the piece as “a very symbolic garden for people who served in the military”.
“The plane certainly projects a very anxious and haunting mood to the garden, and overtakes other aspects, such as the interesting walkway to the home,” they added.
“I suspect to show how one’s time in the military hangs over you forever afterwards.
They also said it boasted “a sense of abandonment and loneliness, and perhaps betrayal, something many vets deal with”.
The garden was created in support of the Defence Force Welfare Association (DFWA) whose purpose is to promote and protect the interests of serving and former members of the Australian Defence Force and their families.
The garden took nine days to build“The Defence Force Welfare Association (Victoria) was pleased to be associated with the award winning garden deigned by Peter Donegan for the 2024 Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show,” DFWA Victoria RAAF Vice President, Michael Gahan said.
“Peter’s design and story very aptly represented the issues faced by Veterans worldwide and is truly worthy of international recognition.
“His connection both philosophically and in spirit with Australian Veterans will be strengthened in 2026 with the design and construction of a permanent memorial garden in the Melbourne suburbs.“