With Sunday marking the start of DonateLife Week, it's timely to get an update on the new Gift of Life garden about to take shape at the National Arboretum Canberra.
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Funded by the ACT and federal governments, as well as by private donations, the Gift of Life venture joins the Gallery of Gardens on the Events Terrace.
Four gardens have already opened there and the Gift of Life one is scheduled to open by the end of the year.
Inspired by the gift of organ donation, the garden will reflect the ebb and flow of life, capturing a sense of both the grief around an organ donor and the joy around an organ recipient.
The cycle of life theme is expressed in some plantings blooming and others falling away; a shifting palette that changes with the seasons.
The Gift of Life garden will also be reflective, calm place with little nooks for people to sit with their memories or contemplate the literally life-changing act of organ donation. Birch trees will be planted as well as grasses, perennials and native plants including some unusual native bulbs.
Wagga Wagga firm Somewhere Landscape Architects has designed the garden.
DonateLife Week is about urging Australians to join the Australian Organ Donor Register at donatelife.gov.au and discuss their donation decisions with their loved ones.
