About Phil

Phillip Johnson is an award-winning Australian landscape designer, horticulturist and founder of Phillip Johnson Landscapes. A University of Melbourne Bachelor of Applied Science (Horticulture) graduate and 1998 John Inglis Lothian Memorial Prize recipient, he has spent almost three decades pioneering regenerative, water-sensitive landscapes. He has designed and built thousands of residential gardens across Australia and pioneered natural swimming pools that use biological filtration in place of chemicals. His signature billabong systems slow, store and naturally filter stormwater while creating habitat. Sustainability, water conservation and biodiversity restoration define his practice. His show gardens have earned multiple Gold Medals, Best in Show and sustainability awards.

In 2013, Phillip represented Australia at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, where the Australian Garden became the first - and remains the only - Australian garden to win Best in Show, alongside a Gold Medal; it was also the first in the show’s 100-year history to be unanimously judged Best in Show. Phillip then led a ten-year campaign to bring its legacy home as a permanent public garden, refusing to let the vision lapse and securing State and Federal Government and philanthropic funding. Opened at the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden in Olinda in 2023, the re-creation is 28 times the original’s size, with 15,000 plants from over 400 Australian species. Its systems capture and clean one million litres of stormwater for reuse and bushfire protection; solar and battery power run the waterfalls without mains water or electricity. It won the 2024 World Urban Parks Most Outstanding New Park Project. Through Chelsea, Phillip also met members of the Royal Family, including the late Queen Elizabeth II on two occasions.

Phillip’s public work includes 5000 Poppies collaborations in Australia, London and France, including the 62,000 Poppies display at the Australian War Memorial and a commemoration at Parliament House, Canberra, marking the centenary of the end of the First World War. A decade ago, he was also instrumental in establishing Open Gardens Victoria and organising the seed funding that enabled it to launch. He is the author of Connected: The Sustainable Landscapes of Phillip Johnson, winner of a Horticultural Media Association Australia Book Laurel, and was named the Australian Institute of Horticulture’s Horticulturist of the Year in 2019. Phillip has spoken in Chile, China, the United Kingdom and across Europe, and at universities, TAFEs, industry and community events. His work has featured repeatedly on Gardening Australia and Better Homes and Gardens, with multiple projects profiled on ABC’s Dream Gardens and Grand Designs Australia. His principles apply worldwide.