NMBU students exhibit their designs at Norway’s largest garden fair

Hagemessen is Norway’s largest event for garden and outdoor living. Each year, thousands of visitors come to get inspired and to see show gardens, plants and design solutions all built inside the halls of NOVA Spektrum.

For the first time, two of the gardens were designed and built by students from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU).

24 students developed garden design proposals as part of the course Urban Landscape Design and Constructions in NMBU’s master’s degree in Landscape Architecture. Two were selected.

“The standard was very high. We could have made ten gardens!” says planting design teacher and Associate Professor at NMBU, Sally O’Halloran.

O’Halloran was originally invited by the Norwegian Garden Designers Association to produce a student garden for Hagemessen. Instead, she proposed that the project be incorporated into teaching, resulting in the garden fair being part of the urban landscaping course.

“For selecting the winners, the designs were divided into two groups: one more concept-driven, the other more focused on the use of materials.”

Juni Østli Evensen’s winning design is called Sustainable Turning Point with a focus on biodiversity.

“Juni’s design stood out because it drew clear inspiration from Norwegian nature, while using a minimal palette of plants to create an immersive and inviting space. It also focused on the process of gardening itself, encouraging the re-use of materials to create features such as dead hedges that support wildlife.”

Ellisiv Hjelme's winning garden design was based on the concept of a woven carpet with threads woven across and into each other. This pattern is reflected in both the paving and the planting design.

“Ellisiv’s design stood out for its confident and innovative use of both hard and soft materials. She demonstrated advanced planting design knowledge through her use of matrix planting,” explains O’Halloran.

From design to build

Landscape architecture students at NMBU are expected to take ideas all the way through from concept to construction.

Something that became apparent is the importance of effectively communicating the meaning and purpose of the garden designs.

“The students realised that how they communicate the design is just as important as the design itself,” says O’Halloran.

Evensen and Hjelme were helped to build their designs by pupils of Hvam high school and had to step into a supervisory role. Ensuring that the constructions were made according to their designs and standards was a valuable experience in garden design.

“It was their first time in that role,” confirms O’Halloran. “We had to step back and let them handle it.”

Creating wildlife habitats

Evensen’s garden was about re-using as much plant material as possible. It was also about creating habitats to support wildlife such as birds and insects. These so-called dead hedges were built from cut branches.

Rows of native hazel (Corylus avellana) were added to create a sense of moving through different spaces shaped by both living and dead vegetation.

“I want everyone to have a dead hedge in their garden!” says Evensen. “I want people to turn their garden waste into compost, into homes for wildlife. Not everything has to look perfectly tidy all the time - let nature take over a bit.”

Gardens within gardens

Evensen’s garden incorporated enclosed spaces within it, forming small ‘rooms’ and interesting paths.

“A garden doesn’t have to be open with boundaries only at the edges. You can also create boundaries within it, creating sensory moments as you move through it.”

Building the garden changed Evensen’s understanding of scale.

“Things look different on paper than they do at full scale,” she said. “I wanted the garden to look lush with ferns, but they weren’t available in April. I had also drawn the dead hedges too wide and too tall, so they had to be downsized. It was a useful project for testing scale.”

“It was an exciting project to work on. I think I prefer working at a larger scale, like parks and bigger urban spaces, but it was interesting to see how much you can actually do with 60 square metres. It’s probably healthy to do a bit of both, so I’m definitely open to designing more gardens in the future.”

Shaped by patterns

Hjelme’s garden was designed to work like a passage, leading you forward through a combination of colours and textures.

“I want people to feel a sense of calm in the balance between the structured slate paving and the more organic planting,” says Hjelme. 

She built her garden using a technique called matrix planting. This is a way of planting a dominant base layer that fills the space with one main plant type, and then repeatedly adding other plants to create a natural, cohesive pattern.

“You can think of it like a fruitcake,” explains Hjelme. “The matrix layer is the dough. These plants form a base and fill the space between the others. In my design, the matrix is made up of ornamental grasses that cover the ground.”

“Scattered through it are groups of other plants: flowering perennials or shrubs that stand out. These are the fruit pieces that create contrast.”

Over time, the plants will spread, and with the right mix of perennials you can create an interesting, low-maintenance bed with a natural look.

Building the garden has been a lesson in problem-solving and how to keep calm and carry on.

“Everything takes longer than you think,” says Hjelme. “It’s important to stay calm and solution-oriented when things don’t go to plan. For example, the shrubs we had ordered weren’t usable. Many of the plants in my design weren’t available in April. Nurseries in Norway can’t sell perennials that early because they’re still under snow. I hadn’t thought about that. We had to walk around the fair and find replacements. We were also lucky to borrow a tree from another garden, which helped fill the space vertically.”

Hjelme would also prefer to work on larger public projects in future:

“It’s been very educational to experience the whole process. It was useful to test it at a relatively small scale the first time, so you can quickly see progress. I’d definitely like to do it again, and I’ve even got some ideas for my own garden—but in the long run, I’d prefer to work on larger public projects.”

Real-world experience

For NMBU, the goal is to train landscape designers who understand place, materials and time.

“We wanted visitors to our gardens to understand that design is about more than colourful planting,” says O’Halloran. “You have to start with ‘Where am I?’ and try to understand place, context and climate.”

“Our students are taught through a combination of theory and real-world practice. Projects like Hagemessen give them the opportunity to bring their ideas to life, test them in a real setting, and experience how both professionals and the public respond,” adds the associate professor.

Interested in working with these themes?

Explore the following degrees at NMBU:

• Master in Landscape Architecture
• Master in Landscape Architecture for Global Sustainability
• Bachelor in Landscape Engineering