Ellerslie International Flower Show is New Zealand’s premier week-long Garden Party in Christchurch’s North Hagley Park from 10 to 14 March. The Show celebrates Christchurch’s Garden City heritage and the best of national and international garden design

Last year’s gold award-winning Ellerslie designer Carl Pickens is asking all New Zealanders a simple question: “What can we do to make the world a better place?”. He’s taking a novel approach to garden design by asking the entire population of New Zealand to go on line and take a few minutes responding to the Ellerslie Question.

Pickens says: “As a human race, we seem to be at a tipping point where if we continue the way we are, our very existence and experience of life on earth is under threat. To make the world a better place, the answers have to come from all of us; everyone has something to offer.”

The sustainable landscape architect and organic horticulturalist needs at least 2000 responses to his question by the end of January to help create his exhibition garden for the Ellerslie International Flower Show in March.

Details of the garden design are being kept under wraps until the Show, however, everyone who responds will find their answer “embedded in the design”, he says.

The 2010 exhibition garden will be built using the same sustainable principles within a contemporary setting which won him gold at this year’s Show. Carl’s award-winning 2009 Ellerslie garden, Take Five, featured a rain garden, ecodeck, green walls and no-mow lawn, and showcased a range of ideas on sustainability.

Go online at www.oneearthmatters.co.nz to enter a response.

Check out the Ellerslie International Flower Show website for further information www.ellerslieflowershow.co.nz