Show garden music to visitors' ears

There's more to some gardens than meets the eye.

Visitors to the 10th anniversary Ellerslie Flower Show can hear one garden before even entering the show grounds.

With its paua sound-shell backdrop, the Phonak Soundscape Garden features not visual beauty, but the beauty of sound.

"It's designed to be a celebration of sound," said Tim Feather, the garden's award-winning designer.

Despite on-and-off rain yesterday, visitors to the show crowded around Mr Feather's creation to hear performances by Strike, a Wellington-based percussion group.

Mr Feather, who has been hearing impaired since 30, said he hoped the exhibit helped listeners to appreciate sound the way he did now that his hearing had been corrected by hearing aids.

He designed the ASB Discovery Marquee at last year's show and won a gold medal in 2002 for his Fire Garden.

This year, he created his garden with paua, wave images, calla lilies and grasses that sway with the wind to create an abstract representation of sound's movement. A moat surrounds the stage and recorded music plays over speakers when there is no live musician.

By night, the movement of sound is illustrated by multi-coloured lighting when the garden transforms for the twilight show. The last sound and light show will be tonight until 10.

Auckland Philharmonia's principal percussionist, Lenny Sakofsky, will also perform from 2-5pm today and tomorrow.