If any proof were needed of our appetite for all things gardening, you only needed to see the torrent of people braving the lashings of rain during the opening hours of this year’s Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show.

Nothing can keep a gardening enthusiast away from a festival showcasing the latest ideas about how to grow stuff.

Over five days, the event continued to flesh out the different ways in which we might approach our patches. Here are some of the themes that got us thinking.

Less can be more

Highlighting a plant’s sculptural form is one of the surest ways to play up horticultural drama. Gnarly, hard-pruned olives, shapely fan aloes and columnar cacti lent punch to a number of exhibits, including the show garden designed by Charlie Albone. This unfussy, predominantly green and grey display, which wound around and over two recycled shipping containers, was just one of the spaces highlighting how the best move is sometimes to take things out rather than add stuff in.

Recycled or repurposed elements

There’s no denying that show gardens soak up a lot of resources given their miniscule lifespan but many still addressed issues of sustainability, especially by incorporating “found” materials. Recycled brick and reclaimed timber featured in a string of displays, not only lending green credentials but creating the sense of character that comes with the passage of time.

The prize for the most quirky re-purpose option, though, would have to go to the Melbourne Flower School for its indoor installation arranged around canary yellow milk crates. Multitudes of sunflowers, amaranth, fig branches (with some of the fruit sliced open to reveal the crimson insides) and other foliage and flowers were cheekily woven through fun and funky plastic.