Melbourne Garden Bed Inventory With Condition And Species Data

City of Melbourne's inventory details over 4,100 garden bed assets. The dataset includes bed type, plant species inventory, habitat condition, and overall condition ratings, collected by the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria between 2023 and 2024.

Use Cases

• Analyze the distribution of bed type origin categories (indigenous, native, exotic, mixed) across the municipality's 4,100+ assets.
• Model overall condition rating using predictors like plant cover, weed cover, and mulch condition.
• Study plant inventory completeness by examining the level of certainty for species identification and the recorded scientific names.
• Assess habitat condition by correlating the presence of logs and rocks with the dominant species recorded.

Strengths

• Contains data on over 4,100 individual garden bed assets.
• Includes detailed plant inventory with scientific names, origin, form, and identification certainty.
• Assessments conducted by a specialized horticulture team (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria).
• Accompanied by shapefiles for spatial linking of assessed shrub bed locations.

Limitations

• The dataset is a static snapshot from a 2023-2024 assessment period and does not reflect ongoing changes.
• Sample data and specific column structure are unavailable for review prior to download.
• Focus is exclusively on the City of Melbourne municipality, limiting geographic generalizability.

Provenance

Source

Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (Horticulture Team Cranbourne).

Collection Method

Field assessments visiting all mapped shrub bed assets, recording detailed attributes as per the 'Renewals for Nature' report methodology.

Time Range

2023 to 2024.

Freshness

Data collection completed in June 2024; metadata last updated March 2026.

Geography

City of Melbourne municipality, Australia.