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He was a model, worked in Las Vegas, was founding member of the Chippendale-like male strip group “Manpower” and became a professional horticulturist along the way. His hobbies include water skiing, scuba diving, surfing, acrobatics, trapeze, volleyball, snowboarding, dance, rollerblading, tennis, soccer and abseiling. Jamie Durie is undoubtedly one of Australia’s most famous garden designers and horticultural talents. He has written numerous gardening books, hosted some of Australia’s most top rated TV shows including The Victory Garden, The Block, Torvill and Deans Dancing on Ice, Skating on Thin Ice and is founder and director of the international award-winning company PATIO Landscape Architecture & Design.

It would probably be possible to fill a whole article enumerating his achievements but it’s surely his role as the host of Channel Nine’s “Backyard Blitz” that made him famous. You’ve heard of it, maybe even seen an episode or two, of the show where Jamie and his team make over the gardens of surprised Australians within 48 hours, inspiring thousands and making gardening chic again. Consequently, Backyard Blitz earned six consecutive Logie Awards for the Most Popular Lifestyle Program.

Nevertheless, it has been a long way since Jamie Paul Durie started investing his time in professional gardening and landscape design in 1996. Spending most of his childhood in the mining town of Tom Price in North Western Australia Durie, like most Australians, early discovered his passion for the outdoors and his inner connection to nature. It may be the combination of this early influences and his interest for Eastern and European culture he discovered during his journeys that finally inspired his unique gardening style.

There is an older Interview with ABC’s George Negus asking if it is possible to plan such a success story or if it is just a question of opportunity. According to Durie it is: “A bit of both, I think. I spent years overseas touring, staring at hotel rooms, thinking, you know, and conjuring up and writing business plans and thinking, “This is what I want to do.”

His interest in gardens always existed. Already four years before he left the Manpower tour and came back to Australia Jamie started dealing with gardening and landscape design, took photographs of beautiful gardens, got inspired by European architecture and putted together a business plan. Now his outdoor concepts earned fame all over Australia and the US allowing him to focus international attention on his environmental projects. Jamie Durie showcases how important it is to follow a passion and that ways to success are often winding.

Image by debaird.