8 minute read
Landscape News Winter 2022
Tessa Johnstone meets Jason Williams, The Cloud Gardener, and Garden Designer and Association Equity Ambassador, Flo Hedlam
Stretching more than 500 metres along the South Bank of the River Thames, from Westminster Bridge to Lambeth, is the National Covid Memorial Wall. There are now over 150,000 pink and red hearts painted along the wall and one can’t help but be moved by their simplicity. Each one represents someone who was loved. Someone who died from Covid. So many people were affected in different ways during the pandemic - some more lasting than others.
At the end of that South Bank wall sits the slightly out of place and, wonderfully unexpected Garden Museum. A sanctuary at the edge of the Thames, providing a space for learning, art, and history around horticulture. This is where I meet Flo Headlam, garden designer and Association Equity Ambassador, and Jason Williams, social media influencer The Cloud Gardener to talk about their involvement in the industry, and their experiences with horticulture being able to change people’s lives for the better - be it in managing mental health or the way that it seems to bring people together and create communities. Both are needed more than ever post-pandemic.
Flo: “I have always been passionate about education, from my time working for Comic Relief in the Schools Team, and have done a lot of work with organisations going into schools and talking to young people about my career change and hopefully inspiring them to perhaps think about a career they hadn’t considered before When the Association invited me to the Access All Areas panel discussion in December 2021, I saw it as an opportunity to meet with a diverse set of horticulturists, to be in a room where I could be part of an important discussion about the need for change in the industry. So, it was an easy yes to agree to become an Equity Ambassador”.
Credit: Jason Williams
Jason believes seeing people that you look like makes an enormous difference. “Being from a black background, a lot of our parents and grandparents were avid gardeners. It is something that is so ingrained in our culture. People will have picked up tips from their grandparents and stored it but maybe not come back to gardening until later in life and, when they do, there are so few people on television or social media who look like them and because that representation isn’t there, they might not take that natural curiosity any further”. Both Flo and Jason agree they are in a position to change this perception by being visible on television, social media, magazines, and events. Jason recently won the GMG Award 2022 for Social Media Broadcaster of the Year, and Flo is one of the presenters/designers on BBC’s Garden Rescue and previously on Gardeners’ World.
Is the picture perfection that we see on television, online and in magazines realistic? Jason says with a smile “I have a section of my balcony that I call the ‘Struggle Bus’ and anything that is not doing so well will head over there. I find people can discard plants too easily, but I’ve learned they might just need a little bit of extra love and care and maybe a little bit of music! Like mental health, you just need to invest a little extra time.”
Flo agrees.
"I deliberately promote the fact that gardening is a slow joy, something to be celebrated. One of my phrases to clients is that they are now Plant Parents. I tell them, to take a gin & tonic into the garden when they need to water - watch those plants grow and take that time to relax. Gardening can show people it’s a good thing to slow down.”
Jason supports this:
Extending from the slow joy of gardening, Flo highlights how therapeutic gardening can be. Jason agrees and cites his own struggles with mental health. During the pandemic, his previous employer created community Facebook and WhatsApp groups, as well as other ways to keep staff connected when working from home. Unfortunately, when restrictions were lifted, these groups and communities stopped. “I saw that support disappear so quickly. There is a reluctance in many businesses to go that extra mile and get involved in supporting employee’s mental health, because the perception is it then becomes ‘their’ problem. I believe having someone within the organisation who is knowledgeable around mental health and can provide employee support is important. This could be as simple as holding an activity for teams outside of work”. Flo adds: “I feel post lockdown we do need to continue taking care of people - more so now than ever. Within a corporate space,
providing an area for people to go and take time out to clear their heads is so important. Creating somewhere calm, zen-like with plants - just in pots if there’s no outside area - but create that space for your employees”
Flo and Jason find common ground on many subjects during their chat and strongly share a desire to see more people become involved, especially those who perhaps had not seen a role for themselves before in horticulture and landscaping. Jason is an Ambassador for the charity, Thrive. “The work they do is amazingthey help a lot of people perhaps with disabilities and poor mental health by allocating them a plot to plant up and they work with a horticultural therapist. From seeing these people engaged in this way you begin to realise how nurturing gardening can be and provide us with a way to talk around subjects we sometimes find difficult to face up to”
Flo is currently involved in three community gardens. “Sometimes people just turn up for a chat whilst others love to get stuck in. But everyone who’s there learns something. One of the gardens was just a wasteland. There’s a magic there seeing people’s confidence grow while working the land. Not only have they brought a barren space to life - they’ve grown a new community too.” Jason wants to see more communities having a say in what the planting looks like in their towns and cities; “It is mighty frustrating that the planting in city centres looks like old fashioned car park planting - where is the bio-culture? Where are the bees?”
Flo and Jason animatedly discuss the possibility of more allotment spaces being incorporated into residential designs, with Jason highlighting waiting lists in Manchester for allotments are currently averaging a staggering 5 years. “My show garden at RHS Tatton Park this was designed to encourage urban developers to create allotment spaces in the grounds of their residential builds to help create a
sense of community. I also undertook a project for Legal & General at The Fold in Croydon, where I designed 3 balcony gardens with separate themes, ranging from a low maintenance perennial garden, a biodiversity floral haven & an edible garden on the 35th floor. These all show how you can maximise small spaces for big impacts.” Something perhaps for other house builders to consider.
I ask Flo and Jason if Government were to really invest in green infrastructure and horticulture where would they like to see that investment. Both are unanimous that we need to start showing children as early as possible what horticulture is and growing food and flowers. “I worry that kids don’t know where food comes from!” Jason says. “I would also like to see the whole country being considered - North and South - for everyone to be involved.”
So, what have Flo and Jason got lined up over the next 18 months? Jason lists a raft of projects post Chelsea 2022, on top of his already popular YouTube podcast - The Cloud Gardener. He is off to the Greener Gardening Conference later in the month to show what can be grown on a balcony. Flo is filming for TV show Garden Rescue and has numerous design projects on the go, as well as plenty of community garden mentoring.
As we wrap things up, Flo concludes, “I think we agree that even though both of us sort of fell into our horticulture careers - we don’t just say ‘yes’ to everything - that opportunity has to be authentic.” Jason couldn’t agree more “I want to help change things and for it not to just be tokenistic”. Flo nods in agreement and I can see there is a mutual respect on this score.
We wrap things up and whilst having their photos taken, with a mischievous sparkle in her eyes and a jovial laugh Flo says, “Obviously my ultimate goal is Strictly 2025…I’m just putting it out there!”. I don’t think she is joking and with Jason already mentioning his love of music and beauty, I think we might just have two new contenders for the popular BBC show.
Find out more:
flo-the-gardener.com
cloudgardeneruk.co.uk
