The Garden Design Journal – March 2023

SINCLAIR MSGD: AN RHS AMBASSADOR ON A MISSION

GOING PROFESSIONAL MEANS BUSINESS

LOOK, SEE, FEEL

DESIGNING VERY SMALL SPACES

TERREMOTO: MAKING ONE RADICAL GARDEN AT A TIME

SHINING A LIGHT ON CHAUMONT-SUR-LOIRE

IN THE CUTTING GARDEN

AS SPRING breaks on gardener and florist Rachel Siegfried’s flower farm in Oxfordshire, the cutting hedges of Prunus spinosa (pictured), Viburnum opulus and Malus sylvestris provide blo ssoming branches for use in her arrangements and double as rough wind breaks for the fields of perennials growing alongside. Woodland borders, meanwhile, produce lungwort and hellebores ahead of geums, Jacob’s ladder, buttercups and black-leaved cow parsley.

‘I see myself primarily as a gardener with a love of plants and a deep connection to nature,’ says Rachel, who worked as a landscape and garden designer for the National Health Service before moving into productive horticulture and eventually setting up her own flower farm and floristry business, Green & Gorgeous, in 2008.

‘It was while tending one of the gardens I had designed that I experienced the pleasure of picking a simple bunch [of flowers]... and presenting it as a gift... It was an encapsulation of the garden I had created.’

Rachel shares her garden-led philosophy for designing and working a successful cutting garden in her new book, The Cut Flower Sourcebook. With particular emphasis on low-impact growing and using perennials and woody plants that return year after year with little effort or waste and which offer valuable habitats to garden wildlife, the book also includes a directory of 128 plants to grow for cutting that Rachel has rigorously trialled herself.

The Cut Flower Sourcebook, by Rachel Siegfried, with photography by Eva Nemeth, £35, published 23 March, Pimpernel Press.

Photograph, Eva Nemeth

Editor: Arabella St John Parker Senior Editor: Lizzie Hufton Publisher: James Houston

Published by: James Pembroke Media, 90 Walcot Street, Bath BA1 5BG, 01225 337777, gdj@jamespembrokemedia.co.uk

Advertising: Harvey Falshaw, Advertising Sales Manager, 020 3198 3092, harvey.falshaw@jamespembrokemedia.co.uk

Up front

03 Look around

In the cutting garden with Rachel Siegfried

07 Newsprint

Industry news, awards and events

Showcase

20 Look back

Andrea Jones on the International Garden Festival at the Domain de Chaumont-sur-Loire, France

24 UK design

Seven designers share their notes on creating plans for small plots

32 International

Darryl Moore examines the work of the Californian landscape design collective, Terremoto

39 Professional skills

Expert advice on developing your design work into a successful business

Regulars

15 Member project

Pre-registered member Cameron Trend unveils his design for a family garden on a steep site

19 Comment

James Alexander-Sinclair MSGD writes about his new role as RHS ambassador for garden design

47 Round up

In the garden designer’s library

47 SGD updates

SGD Awards 2024 judges and critical entry dates

49 Point of interest

A new lease of life for a landmark atrium garden in New York City

Cover image: Photograph, Alister Thorpe – garden design by Stefano Marinaz; see UK Design, page 24

Hello,

As always at this time of the year, I am re-issuing my appeal for news about any recently completed and two- or three-year-old projects that I can consider as features for the magazine. I am always especially keen to hear about those with interesting Spring and Winter planting, but I also want to know about those projects which have challenged you, or which have opened up new avenues of design for your business or encouraged you to expand your range of expertise. Have you started to do more roof or raised-level gardens, design no-irrigation schemes, or work with recycled and salvaged materials on a larger scale, for instance? If you have something that you would be willing to share with your fellow designers, do get in touch.

SHARE YOUR NEWS AND PROJECT UPDATES

email: gdj@ jamespembroke media.co.uk

Letter from Council

The Society of Garden Designers (SGD) is committed to creating a welcoming, inclusive organisation that draws its strength from the diversity of its membership. While the Society has begun to look at how we operate and make steps towards this end, we are acutely aware that many of the issues we face are common throughout the wider landscape and horticulture sector.

There has been a growing recognition of this within other organisations, and the need to deal with the issues in a joined-up way has been acknowledged by the creation of a new initiative for the horticulture, arboriculture, landscaping and garden media professions. We are pleased to be part of this working group, alongside our friends from the British Association of Landscape Industries, Association of Professional Landscapers, Landscape Institute, Royal Horticultural Society, Young People in Horticulture Association, Garden Media Guild, Arboricultural Association, Chartered Institute of Horticulture and the Horticultural Trades Association.

This is the first time all of these organisations have worked collaboratively, and it is a momentous and very welcome move. The group’s first action has been to produce a charter outlining its commitment to creating and promoting an inclusive culture. This has been announced in the press (including the December 2022 issue of Garden Design Journal) and was celebrated with a formal signing at FutureScape London last year. The charter can be read via the new Policy section on the SGD’s website.

The Garden Design Journal is the Journal of the Society of Garden Designers (SGD): the only professional association for garden designers in the UK. The Society has been championing excellence in garden design for 40 years and counts some of the UK’s leading garden and landscape designers among its growing membership. The SGD welcomes everyone working or studying in landscape and garden design to join the Society. It is committed to high standards of professional practice and actively encourages its members in their efforts to raise and maintain these standards.

Categories of Membership

STUDENT MEMBER

Open to students currently attending a suitable course – see website for details.

PRE-REGISTERED MEMBER

Open to all professional garden designers who aspire to Registered Membership. Applicants need to

provide evidence of competence in garden design either by qualification or review, plus evidence of professional indemnity insurance. This category now includes submission for Adjudication as an inclusive fee – there are no additional charges.

REGISTERED MEMBER

The status awarded to professional garden designers who have been assessed and approved by the SGD Adjudication Panel. MSGD (Member of the Society of Garden Designers) or FSGD (Fellow of the Society of Garden Designers) can be used after their name and they are profiled and promoted on the SGD website.

REGISTERED PRACTICE

A category for Registered Members who would also like to advertise their practice alongside their MSGD/FSGD status.

• You can also join the Society as a Friend. To find out more, visit the SGD website: www.sgd.org.uk

The group is very aware, however, that this first step is a small one and that the hard work begins now. We are sharing resources and experience so we can support each other, and we will collate data gathered from each organisation to create a benchmark by which we can all measure our progress. We will also establish clear objectives that must be achieved by the group and within each organisation.

We are aware that these entities have their own distinct membership demographics and challenges associated with these. However, we all believe that working together will help us to break down barriers and create a more equitable industry, one that is representative of the wider society in which we live, and that will appeal to future generations.

Darryl Moore

Darryl Moore, pre-registered member SGD Council - Education, Diversity and Inclusion

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Find out about sponsorship opportunities for the SGD Awards and conferences by contacting Andy Barringer at sponsorship@sgd. org.uk

Image:

Arabella St John Parker, Editor

JOIN US TODAY: BECOME A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF GARDEN DESIGNERS

NEWSPRINT

All that’s new in the world of garden design

Compiled by Zia Allaway

LANDSCAPE SKILLS SHORTAGE HINDERS CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION

BRITAIN’S PLANS FOR CLIMATE change adaptation and nature recovery are being held back by a major skills shortage, according to the latest research by the Landscape Institute (LI).

The industry-wide study, published in the LI’s report Skills for Greener Places, found that the country’s ‘green skills’ gap is forcing businesses to turn down contracts for projects that aim to mitigate climate change, boost nature recovery and increase biodiversity.

The researchers found that market demand for landscape skills is very high, with more than 50 per cent of businesses in the sector having a vacancy classified as hard to fill.

The report also shows that skills gaps exist across all parts of Britain and its sectors, but are particularly acute in the public sector and in areas outside the large cities, which is exacerbating regional inequalities

MEMBER ADJUDICATION UPDATE AND NEW SGD AFFILIATES

in the delivery of ‘green places’. Set against the UK average, employees are older and a greater number are white. Researchers say this aging workforce will make skills shortages worse in the medium term.

The difficult recruitment issues are set against an otherwise buoyant landscape industry. Calculated to be worth around £24.6bn to the British economy, in Gross Value Added terms, the industry is growing almost twice as fast as the wider economy average, with a ratio of 18 per cent to ten per cent since 2010.

As well as highlighting the challenges, the report suggests solutions to the skills shortages. These include increasing the number of highquality training and apprenticeship schemes, and opening up more routes for promotion within the landscape industry to widen its appeal.

The data behind the report has been made available via a searchable online dashboard, making it easier to explore issues of local interest and to collaborate on building the evidence base needed to overcome the challenges being identified.

The research was undertaken by Metro Dynamics and was a cross-UK partnership between Government agencies and industry. Led by the LI, the research partners included the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI), Historic England, Historic Environment Scotland, the recruitment organisation Locri, Natural England, Natural Resource Wales, NatureScot and the Northern Ireland Department for Communities. To download the study, visit landscapeinstitute.org and search for Skills for Greener Places

MANY CONGRATULATIONS to Samuel Moore, who has passed both projects 1 and 2; and to Sarah Kay, Jennifer Berry and Christine Fowler who have all passed their project 2 in the adjudication process. We also extend our congratulations to Joanna Archer who has passed her third project to become a full MSGD.

The SGD would like to welcome the following SGD Affiliates: Glendale Civic Trees (civictrees.co.uk); water management solution company ACO Technologies PLC (aco.co.uk); Elveden Instant Hedge (elvedenhedges.com); Westminster Stone (westminsterstone. com); education and consultancy company The Landscape Academy

(landscapeacademy.co.uk); Kebur Garden Materials (kebur.co.uk); landscaping company Garden House Design (gardenhousedesign. co.uk); lighting specialists Moonlight Design (theartoflight.co); container gardening provider Crescent Garden (crescentgarden.com); and Lighting for Gardens (lightingforgardens.com).

Joe Swift FSGD’s BBC Studios Our Green Planet and RHS Bee Garden, designed for nature recovery and climate change adaption, but the LI warns that delivery of such schemes is limited by the current skills shortage.

Photograph, RHS/Tim Sandall

NEWS IN BRIEF WILDLIFE-FRIENDLY ELMS RETURNING TO HISTORIC GREENWICH PARK

RHS partner garden

2022 announced

Nant y Bedd, a small naturefriendly garden within the Brecon Beacons National Park in Monmouthshire, Wales, has been voted overall winner in the Royal Horticultural Society Partner Garden of the Year Competition for 2022. Created by Sue and Ian Mabberley, it captured voters’ hearts with its tranquillity and natural elements that encompassed the competition’s ‘Feel Good’ theme. rhs.org.uk

Wakehust nature reserve closed

Experts at Wakehurst, Royal Botanic Garden Kew’s wild botanic garden in Sussex, have been forced to close the Loder Valley Nature Reserve while a major felling operation to remove trees infected with ash dieback is carried out. Work is needed across the 150-acre haven of wetlands, meadows and woodlands to prevent the diseased trees falling on public paths. kew.org/wakehurst

ASLA calls for ‘zero emissions by 2040’

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has published its ASLA Climate Action Plan and Climate Action Field Guide. The documents set new goals and a pathway for landscape architects to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions in projects and increase carbon sequestration by 2040. Developed by a task force of five landscape architects and a 17-member Advisory Group, the plan outlines 71 action points to be taken by 2025. asla.org

AN £8 MILLION ROYAL PARKS restoration programme is underway, to restore London’s Greenwich Park to its 17thcentury heyday.

The phased project, masterplanned by Head of Landscape Jane Pelly, and project managed by Alice RoseHoile, includes the removal of damaged Turkey oaks that were planted in the 1970s to replace the original elms which had been wiped out by Dutch elm disease. Some damaged beech trees will also be taken out, but no trees planted before 1970 will be removed.

New plantings of native, more resilient, wildlife-friendly lime and elm trees will be put in, in keeping with the original 1660s planting plan used when Henry VIII’s hunting ground was transformed into a formal treescape that linked the River Thames to Blackheath Gate and beyond.

Years two and three will also involve landscape restoration of the parterre banks and giant grass steps (pictured) designed by 17th-century French landscape designer André Le Nôtre. A path that currently cuts across the original formal layout will be removed, and another will be widened.

Irrigation points connected to ground water will be installed and acid grassland habitats expanded to provide more foraging habitats for pollinators and birds. The work is being delivered through Greenwich Park Revealed and is due to be completed by March 2025. royalparks.org.uk

STUDY FINDS EXETER HAS GREENEST URBAN CENTRE

RESEARCHERS FROM the University of Sheffield have found that Exeter (pictured) in Devon has the greenest urban centre in Britain, while Glasgow ranks bottom with the least green infrastructure.

The researchers, led by Dr Paul Brindley, senior author of the work – Urbancentregreen metrics inGreat Britain:Ageospatialand socioecologicalstudy – looked at 68 urban centres that have a central business district and populations of less than 100,000 and compared them, using a range of measurements (trees, vegetation, and access to green spaces), to compile a comprehensive ranking of the greenness of urban

infrastructures in England, Scotland and Wales.

Exeter, Islington, Bristol, Bournemouth and Cambridge top the list while Glasgow, Middlesbrough, Sheffield, Liverpool and Leeds make up the bottom five.

‘Sheffield is a spectacular city for green space, with the Peak District on its doorstep and more trees per person than any other city in Europe,’ comments Dr Brindley. ‘However, its city centre doesn’t rank highly in terms of greenness compared to other urban centres, perhaps due to Sheffield’s industrial heritage and how the city developed.’

Anomalies such as this highlight the importance of the study, the first of its kind, says Dr Brindley, and he adds that there is a ‘vital need to identify green space inequalities, even in the least obvious places and [to] promote measures to address them.’ sheffield.ac.uk; journals.plos.

org/plosone/

SINGLE TREES IN UK WORTH £3.8 BILLION TO ECONOMY

RESEARCH CARRIED OUT by Forest Research and Defra has revealed that individual trees planted in urban and rural settings are worth a total of £3.8 billion to the British economy.

The valuation is based on the critical role ‘single trees’ – making up almost a quarter of the trees currently growing in Great Britain – play in storing carbon, strengthening flood resilience, and reducing noise and air pollution. They also mitigate against climate change, cool cities in summer and improve health and wellbeing.

It is hoped that by quantifying the significant value of single trees, councils, land managers and local communities will be encouraged to plant more of them, contributing to wider Government efforts to treble planting rates in England, and achieve net zero by 2050.

FILIPPO DESTER MSGD RETURNS TO RHS CHELSEA

GARDEN CLUB LONDON’S senior landscape designer, Filippo Dester MSGD, has announced that he will be designing the studio’s second garden for estate agent Hamptons at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

The garden, in the Sanctuary Gardens category, will be a contemporary space redolent with the look, feel and smell of the Mediterranean region. Its focus, says Filippo, will be an outdoor kitchen. A shady, alfresco dining space will be surrounded by scented shrubs, aromatic herbs and ornamental perennials, planting chosen for its biodiversity benefits and drought tolerance. gardenclublondon.co.uk

Photograph, Max Rush

Photograph, Meric Dagli/Unsplash

PLANNING SOUGHT FOR RHS HARLOW CARR DEVELOPMENT

THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY (RHS) is in the final stages of seeking approval for its plan to restore the historic landscape connection between its Yorkshire garden, Harlow Carr and the Harrogate Arms, a Grade II-listed former hotel on the edge of the estate.

The gardening charity has submitted an application to remodel the land immediately surrounding the former hotel and an adjacent bath house, both of which were built in 1844 by the then owner of the estate, Henry Wright, to accommodate visitors to its mineral water spa, and to reinstate connecting views and pathways to the RHS gardens beyond.

The development will include a change of use of land, the construction of a bridge and a new public footpath to accommodate a diverted public right of way.

The bath house was converted to an exhibition and event space in 2011 and if planning is approved, the former hotel will be converted into an RHS-run café, with links to its Harlow Carr Kitchen Garden, while the surrounding area will be landscaped to emphasise views into the garden.

NEW FUNDING FOR RECOVERY AND WELLBEING REWILDING PROJECTS

SEVEN REWILDING PROJECTS

across Britain, which focus on community and public wellbeing as well as landscape recovery, are to be awarded up to £15,000 each from Rewilding Britain’s Rewilding Innovation Fund.

One of the projects is led by Spains Hall Estate in Essex, in partnership with the Wilderness Foundation, a charity that works on mental-health initiatives with the NHS. Another beneficiary is the Yorkshire Rewilding Network, a charity that will be investing in further projects such as the Rewilding Festival this spring.

The charity has already been granted planning and listed building consent for the café but the new application to redevelop the landscape requires the diversion of a public right of way. If the plans are approved, work is due to commence shortly. rhs.org.uk

HTA welcomes biodiversity planning system

In Scotland, four projects are to receive funding, including the Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST), a communitybased charity that works to recover marine habitats around Arran and the Clyde.

The Rewilding Innovation Fund has been made possible through funding from Evolution Education Trust, Charles Langdale, The Vintry and Dormywood Trust.

Rewilding Britain will make several funding rounds each year and the next opportunity to apply will be spring 2023. rewildingbritain.org.uk

CALL FOR ENTRIES TO BBC GARDENERS’WORLD BORDER COMPETITION

THE ORGANISERS OF the BBC Gardeners’ World events are appealing for entries to its Beautiful Borders competition at the Autumn Fair 2023, which takes place from 1 to 3 September at Audley End in Essex.

The competition offers seasoned garden designers, first-time creators and design students alike the perfect opportunity to make their mark and to gain experience in building a small show garden.

The theme for the nine-square-metre borders will be ‘My Garden Escape’ and judges will be looking for imaginative designs that provide inspiration for small gardens and challenging spaces. Visit bbcgardenersworldlive.com, or contact Horticultural Manager Lucy Tremlett at lucy. tremlett@immediate.co.uk; applications must be submitted by 2 May 2023.

The publication of Scotland’s draft Biodiversity Strategy has been welcomed by the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), which engaged with the authors earlier in 2022 on behalf of its 83 Scottish member businesses, which include garden centres, tree and plant growers, and landscapers. These groups called for a Government focus on Scottish- and other UKgrown trees and plants for procurement and ‘green spaces’ investment, and they also backed the strategy’s focus on greenhouse planning and development. hta.org.uk

Design for BBC’s new Birmingham home revealed

A sustainable landscape and urban realm being created by Grant Associates will transform an area alongside the branch canal that was once used to transport tea to the Typhoo building in Digbeth. It is currently being redeveloped to house the BBC’s new studios in Birmingham and the re-imagined public realm will open up views towards the area’s historic warehouses and canal while providing a pedestrian-focused setting for the Typhoo Wharf Masterplan. This will connect HS2 and Paternoster Place to the BBC Birmingham Studios before the doors are opened to BBC staff in 2026.

grant-associates.uk.com

Photograph, RHS/Tim Sandall

Photograph, Debbie Davitt

Yorkshire Rewilding Network at Arkengarthdale.

Last year’s Beautiful Border winner Shona Lockheart receiving her trophy from Adam Frost.

COP15 CELEBRATES HISTORIC AGREEMENT ON BIODIVERSITY

COP15, HELD in Montreal, Canada, in December 2022, marked a new era for sustainability by signing a Global Biodiversity Framework of 23 targets that aim to restore, conserve and manage effectively 30 per cent of Earth’s land and sea by 2030.

Event chair China and co-host Canada pushed the agreement through despite a protest from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) over the responsibility of rich nations to fund conservation in poorer countries.

The agreement has, for the first time, created biodiversity targets on a par with the 2015 Paris climate agreement, which set a goal to limit global warming to 1.5-2°C above preindustrial levels. For details, visit unep.org/news-and-stories/ story/cop15-ends-landmark-biodiversity-agreement

ROBERT HUGHES WINS NORTHERN DESIGN AWARD

PRE-REGISTERED Society of Garden Designers member Robert Hughes won the Landscape Design Award at the 2022 Northern Design Award for his Whitefield Garden (pictured). He beat off stiff competition from three finalists, including fellow member Lee Bestall MSGD.

Robert’s winning design was a response to a brief for a family garden that focused on the play needs of the owners’ children while also providing a grown-up space for the parents. Its chic aesthetic was inspired by the interiors of the house and it includes bespoke features such as a marine-ply climbing wall and a playhouse with a mezzanine and slide that ejects the children out into a small jungle area of the garden.

A large, modern pavilion forms an open-sided outdoor living, cinema and dining room. ‘The success of the project is thanks to lots of meticulous design detailing and the incredible talent of the landscaper, WM Exteriors, who took my vision and executed it perfectly,’ Robert comments. roberthughesgardendesign.co.uk ; northerndesignawards.com

GARDEN ART FROM INTERWAR YEARS GOES ON SHOW IN LONDON

A NEW EXHIBITION at the Garden Museum will celebrate artists who took refuge in nature during the interwar years, by planting and painting gardens.

Featuring work by Eric Ravilious, Charles Mahoney, Evelyn Dunbar and Ithell Colquhoun, among others. Private & public: finding the modern British garden will

also include depictions of parks, secret courtyards and green pockets in the city.

Most of the artworks will be for sale, with profits going towards the Museum’s community programmes.

The exhibition runs from 22 March to 25 June 2023 in partnership with fine art dealers Liss Llewellyn. gardenmuseum.org.uk

SEARCH FOR RARE PLANTS

PLANT HERITAGE has launched its fourth annual Threatened Plant of the Year competition and is asking people to search their gardens for hidden gems that have the potential to become this year’s winner.

Anyone can enter, but all plants submitted must be a named cultivar grown or sold in the UK or Ireland before 2013, and entries must be filed by 20 May 2023. A shortlist of plants will be put on display at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival (4 to 9 July 2023), where the overall winner will be announced. Visit plantheritage.org.uk for an entry form.

SCOTLAND’S GARDENS SCHEME LAUNCHES FOR 2023

SCOTLAND’S GARDENS SCHEME returns for 2023 with highlights that launch the gardening year in style.

Scone Palace opens under the scheme for the first time, as part of the Scottish Snowdrop Festival from 25 January to 11 March, while glorious daffodil displays will offer an early spring celebration at Westhall Castle in Aberdeenshire and Winton Castle in East Lothian, where a family fun day in March will mark the latter’s 89th year of opening with the charity.

Other must-see gardens include Humbie Dean (pictured) in East Lothian, which has monthly open days starting in March, when visitors can see hellebores, spring bulbs and primulas; the small cottage garden at The Steading at Clunie in Perthshire, with its profusion of primroses, wood anemones and snake’s head fritillaries; and The Limes in Dumfries & Galloway, a plantswoman’s garden that in March is filled with colourful spring flowers. scotlandsgardens.org

Photograph, Lāsma Artmane/Unsplash

Photograph, Caroline Stone

Last year’s winner was Paeonia ‘Gleam of Light’.

Brunswick Square, c1940 by John Moody (1906-93).

WHAT’S ON WHAT’S ON

10 FEBRUARY TO 29 MAY

Exhibition: Living Soil Artist Natalie Taylor brings together her extensive research in an exhibition celebrating the life beneath our feet, exploring our relationship with soil. rbge.org.uk/whats-on

2 MARCH

Lecture: Silent Earth: Saving our Insects Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum hosts Professor Dave Goulson as he explains how vital and fascinating insects are, and why we should be concerned about their decline. obga.ox.ac.uk

3 MARCH

Talk: WhyWomenGrow: Stories of soil, sisterhood and survival

Writer Alice Vincent and herbologist, chef, and writer Maya Thomas will talk about Alice’s book, WhyWomen Grow: Stories of soil, sisterhood and survival chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk

7 TO 8 MARCH

SGD CPD Digital: Cut through the noise – part two

Award-winning business coach and SGD Affiliated Business Partner Denise Quinlan hosts this Zoom workshop for those who have completed her first course. sgd.org.uk – ‘Events’

7 TO 9 MARCH

Futurebuild

This free event returns to ExCeL, London, with inspiring ideas for sustainable built environments and landscapes. The programme includes talks by Tom Massey MSGD and Dusty Gedge. futurebuild.co.uk

CW STUDIO DESIGNS RAIN GARDENS FOR LEA GREEN CYCLOPS JUNCTION

CW STUDIO, led by pre-registered SGD member Carolyn Willitts and working with St Helens Council and Wilde Consulting Engineers, has designed three rain gardens (drawing pictured) for a new Southern Gateway Cycle Optimised Protected Signals (CYCLOPS) junction at Lea Green railway station. CYCLOPS junctions prioritise the safety of pedestrians and cyclists by segregating them from motorists to reduce the risk of collision. The gardens have been designed to suit ground conditions and varying depths of utilities, and include meadow

EUROPE-WIDE

planting and SuDS-enabled trees.

The scheme is the first of its kind in Merseyside and is part of a £15 million St Helens Southern Gateway project. cwstudio.co.uk

8 MARCH

Masterclass: Gardening with Ferns

Richie Steffen, co-author of the Plant Lovers’Guide to Ferns (Timber Press), presents this online class about the different species of ferns and how to use them in garden designs. gardenmasterclass.org

11 TO 12 MARCH

RHS Garden Rosemoor

Spring Flower Show

Focusing on camellias, early magnolias and rhododendrons, this event kicks off the 2023 RHS Flower Shows programme and includes suppliers with shrubs, bulbs and flowers to buy. rhs. org.uk/gardens/rosemoor

23 MARCH TO 16 APRIL

Exhibition: Coast &Country

the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), and the Atlantic Technological University, Ireland.

A NEW EUROPE-wide awareness campaign is calling on gardeners and others to prevent the spread of invasive non-native species that can threaten other wildlife, damage infrastructure, and put human health at risk.

A series of posters, animations and social media graphics that communicate key messages to different audiences have been developed through a European Commission-funded project led by

The new campaign urges people and businesses to ‘Beware of Aliens’ and warns that the seeds or root fragments of invasive species can stick to shoes, vehicle tyres and equipment, and be transported into forests and other habitats. Some non-native garden plants, such as Ailanthus altissima (the tree of heaven) and Impatiens glandulifera (Himalayan balsam) can also become invasive if they spread into the wild.

The Intergovernmental SciencePolicy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has highlighted invasive alien species as one of five major causes of biodiversity loss, along with changes in land and sea use, exploitation of organisms, climate change and pollution. To download the posters and animations, visit easin.jrc.ec.europa. eu/easin

Hosted by RHS Garden Harlow Carr, this exhibition by the British Association for Modern Mosaic includes works inspired by the local landscape by Yorkshire-based mosaic artists. rhs.org.uk/gardens/harlow-carr

24 MARCH

Talk: Luton Hoo Estate, Bedfordshire

A member of Luton Hoo’s Walled Garden Project team will present this talk about the 21-year journey to revive the historic garden. Tickets, Trybooking.co.uk/BWLV

18 AND 25 MARCH

Course: The Sustainable Designer

The London College of Garden Design hosts this two-day course at Regent’s University, London, by lecturer and landscape consultant Mima Taylor. lcgd.org.uk

Drawing, CW Studio

Photograph, Luke Galloway/Unsplash

Impatiens glandulifera, a weed found on riverbanks and wasteland in Europe.

CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED TO TARGET NON-NATIVE SPECIES INVASION

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON?

Pre-registered SGD member Cameron Trend speaks to Zia Allaway about how he has used terracing and steps instead of dominant retaining walls to moderate a steeply sloping four-acre garden in north Kent

AFTER LEAVING SCHOOL, pre-registered Society of Garden Designers member Cameron Trend worked at a vineyard in Kent before studying horticulture part time at Hadlow College. While still at college, he started a garden maintenance and landscaping business, which he ran for five years before deciding to study for a career in garden design. In 2020, Cameron graduated with distinction from the Inchbald School of Design and subsequently set up his own practice.

How did you win this commission?

My clients had recently bought an Arts and Crafts-style house set in four acres of garden and woodland, and they were looking for a fresh approach for the landscape design. In an internet search for young garden designers in the region, my name popped up and they got in touch. I believe they asked a couple of other designers for ideas and quotes and, obviously, liked mine.

Did the owners give you a brief?

The couple asked for a garden that would marry the traditional elements of the house architecture with the modern interiors they had created. As a young family, they wanted space for the children to play, a generous dining terrace and a hot tub. They also discussed with me the idea of installing an infinity swimming pool that would reflect the surrounding woodland and lie in front of an existing pool house and drinks bar that stand on one side of the main house.

What challenges did you face?

The garden is on a 25 per cent undulating slope, with the house at the top and mature woodland at the bottom, so my main challenge was how to deal with the changes of level. The owners asked me to keep the view of the woods as seen from the bifold doors at the back of the house, but wanted this to be done without the

addition of any retaining walls as they would look too imposing when seen from the foot of the hill. The infinity pool was also very ambitious and, as this was one of my first commissions, the design and installation has been a steep learning curve. Fortunately, my father is a landscaper and his years of experience have been a huge help.

Tell us more about your design I made the flattest area outside the front of the house into a sports lawn, so the children can kick a ball around. I also designed four terraces to flow out from the back of the house: an evening terrace lies immediately outside the bifold doors, with a large dining terrace below it, linked by a wide flight of steps. Adjacent to these, in front of the pool house, I created a sun terrace that overlooks the new infinity pool and below that, the hot tub and a small lounge area sit on a fourth terrace. All the terraces look out over generous meadow planting on either side of a mown lawn that takes you down to a

Masterplan, Cameron Trend Design

Masterplan (top) by pre-registered SGD member Cameron Trend.

treehouse. Beyond that, an area of ornamental trees and shrubs blends the garden into the mature woodland. Feature steps in the sloping lawn, which narrow in width as you approach the woods, slow the transition between built spaces and open lawn, while mown paths cut through the meadows to provide a more horizontal journey around the garden. The terraces are linked by porcelain-lined steps with dark-coloured risers that make the steps almost invisible when seen from the garden below while creating horizontal lines that reflect the Arts and Craftsinspired timber details on the gables of the house. Banks of mixed planting are used instead of hard retaining walls to soften the design and to further blur the change from one level to the next.

Has the build encountered any issues?

Water runs off the clay-rich soil and flows down the slope, but the planting I am introducing – which includes tough plants

such as Phlomis russeliana, nepeta and geraniums, as well as the meadows – will soak up some of the moisture. The trees, shrubs, and expanse of mature woodland at the bottom of the hill will help by absorbing the excess.

What about ongoing maintenance?

The owners have a gardener and I have tried to make the design relatively easy to look after. The feature steps in the sloping lawn, for example, each have a gap at one end so that a mower can pass through, and once the perennial meadow is established, it will only need to be cut once a year.

camerontrenddesign.co.uk

Perspective drawing, Cameron Trend Design

‘THE DESIGN AND INSTALLATION OF THE INFINITY POOL WAS A STEEP LEARNING CURVE.’

A perspective drawing showing the rear terraces and sloping lawn and meadows, designed by pre-registered SGD member Cameron Trend (pictured on page 15) for a family home in Kent.

TOGETHER WE ARE STRONGER

I HAVE WORKED quite a lot with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) over the last couple of decades. In the beginning, I complained a lot (about Chelsea, about judging, about perceived stuffiness and so on). I was a nuisance until I realised that the RHS is an extraordinary charity that works in so many varied areas, and that helping it was going to be more satisfying than sniping.

Last year, I was made an RHS ambassador for garden design (there are others with different responsibilities including Kate Bradbury, who talks about wildlife; Mark Gregory for landscaping; and pre-registered Society of Garden Designers member Manoj Malde for inclusivity). This was terribly nice and made me itch for some knee breeches and a Ferrero Rocher, but there needed to be more purpose behind the idea – more than just a title. The purpose of RHS ambassadors is to spread the gardening message and to help foster relationships with other organisations. It is not a terribly formal position, but I want to make it a good use of my time.

Unsurprisingly, the RHS is big on garden design. All five of its own permanent gardens feature work from some of the greats in the profession: Tom Stuart-Smith FSGD and design studio Harris Bugg at RHS Bridgewater, Xa Tollemache MSGD at RHS Hyde Hall, Jo Thompson MSGD at RHS Rosemoor, and Ann-Marie Powell FSGD at RHS Wisley.

The charity’s Shows department employs some of the most inspiring people I have ever met – they all go the extra mile to help – and the RHS includes designers at every stage of their careers, from the big cheeses at RHS Chelsea Flower Show to young designers just starting out at RHS Flower Show Tatton Park and RHS Malvern Spring Festival. All we designers need to do to enter is to convince the selection panel our idea is worthy of exhibition, and we are in – provided, of course, that we have sorted the small problem of securing sponsorship.

The RHS recruits its show judges from all parts of the industry, and it treasures the designers, landscapers and plant specialists who give freely of their time and expertise to fulfil these roles. Many of

them are members of the SGD, so it is important that garden designers remember that their gardens are judged not by the RHS, but by a feistily independent panel of their peers.

So, what will this newly minted ambassador be adding to the pot? My first thought (obviously) was to pester the SGD. There are a number of different organisations and charities in horticulture, and it seems odd that sometimes we are all doing the same thing separately when it would make much more sense to do it together.

This is particularly important when it comes to the big issues of today. Climate change is not an RHS or an SGD problem, it is a world problem. Sustainability is another biggie: both the RHS and the SGD have excellent policies and where the two organisations dovetail, so should their positions on such important issues. The lack of diversity in horticulture cannot be underplayed and we should be encouraging people of every gender and from every culture to get involved. Education is another huge subject: both that of our children at school and the education of the next generation of designers, gardeners, horticulturists, landscapers and nursery people. We need to recruit and nurture our successors.

All of us, from professional designers to the most amateur of new gardeners and children still in school, have the same aim: to make the world a better place. The RHS does it through shows, publications, communities, education, science and so on. SGD members do it by designing drop-dead-gorgeous gardens for public spaces and private clients. We all do it by encouraging everyone to understand that gardens can make a difference.

If any of you have any interesting ideas, then please shout and we will do what we can. I am easy to find and being ambassadorial has to be better for me than sitting at my desk eating biscuits…

‘CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT AN RHS OR AN SGD PROBLEM, IT IS A WORLD PROBLEM.’

JAMES ALEXANDERSINCLAIR MSGD has designed gardens across the United Kingdom, is an awardwinning writer, gardens judge, speaker and television presenter. He is a former member of the RHS Council, one of its Trustees, and was Vice-President in 2021. jamesalexandersinclair.com

James Alexander-Sinclair MSGD and RHS ambassador for garden design, calls for the RHS and the SGD to join forces on the big issues of today such as climate change, sustainability, education, and diversity in horticulture

SON ET LUMIÈRE

Style, subtlety and environmental sensitivity were the hallmarks of a music and light show that enchanted night visitors to the 30th edition of the International Garden Festival at the Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire in the Loire Valley

WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS: Andrea Jones

If you have never visited the International Garden Festival held at the Domain of Chaumont-surLoire, then I recommend you plan a trip and prepare to be inspired.

The château of Chaumont, in its original form, dates back to 1000, but its current incarnation was built in the late-15th to early-16th centuries and was recently listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. If its romantic architecture is not enough to move you, the art exhibitions of varying genres and installations that fill each floor and every possible surrounding outbuilding will surely set your creative juices flowing.

Outside, the gardens are lined with stylish herbaceous borders designed by the festival’s director, Chantal Colleu-Dumond, and the surrounding parkland is peppered with notable contemporary sculptures by artists of international repute.

The annual International Garden Festival, founded in 1992, is the icing on this beautiful Loire Valley cake. Devised as ‘a laboratory for contemporary garden and landscape design worldwide’, the organisers’ brief is to present a show that is diverse and of the highest quality, as ‘a source of ideas and a nursery for talent’.

The formula is simple: every year, 30 garden designers of international standing are each invited to present a show garden within the park, with designs that represent their response to a theme set by the organisers. In 2022, to mark the festival’s 30th anniversary, the theme was ‘The Ideal Garden’.

As the festival runs for six months, between April and November, the gardens must be built so they hold up in all weathers from spring to autumn.

Also, since 2012, a 24-acre area of the park called Les Prés du Goualoup has been used to feature sustainable show gardens. These have been included by special invitation or have been carefully selected from previous years’ temporary exhibits and given permanent space and status.

In recent years, some of the competition gardens have been enhanced by summer evening shows of son et lumière, giving a new dimension to the theatrics of the festival.

The 15 to 18 chosen gardens are selected for their aesthetic criteria and with safety and accessibility in mind, and the displays are designed with style, subtlety and environmental sensitivity. Each is, says Chantal, ‘a work of art in itself that has been created from another work of art.

‘With infinite gentleness, the gardens are transformed to take on astonishing colours and amaze the gaze with subtle reflections or moving shadows,’ she continues. ‘Spectators let themselves be carried away to new atmospheres, unusual, magical, mysterious.’

With sustainability and concern for the environment in mind, designers are using more solarpowered LED lighting, which consumes less energy and gives off negligible heat, thus limiting the damage to garden plants.

Also, the solar batteries are smaller, which means lighter equipment and simpler installation requirements, resulting in fewer trenches being dug to bring light into the heart of each garden.

The economical light-emitting diodes are also used to cast a changing display on the face of the château and the stunning overall effect has won professional plaudits with it receiving first prize, in 2020, from SERCE (the union of electrical and climatic engineering companies), which runs an annual lumières competition.

SWEET TUNES

The tone of the 30th anniversary event was set by Chantal, who selected a soundtrack of orchestral film music so the guests could ‘make their own cinema’ as they wandered around the gardens.

My own night-time visit began with an introduction to the scene by one of the small army of young, polite, well-scripted guides. Then, as the orchestra began to play, its sound diffused from four points, and the scent of the plants and nature’s own soundtrack of frogs and insects began to fill the warm evening air, we were led to the first garden to witness

OPPOSITE: at night, Chaumont becomes unusual, magical, mysterious. BELOW: in Le Jardin Idéal, the agaves were tinged with blue light.

‘THE SCENT OF THE PLANTS AND NATURE’S OWN SOUNDTRACK OF FROGS AND INSECTS BEGAN TO FILL THE WARM EVENING AIR.’

FESTIVAL TECHNOLOGY

Putting on the Festival’s light show is a team effort, with work shared between director Chantal ColleuDumond, lighting designer Philippe Berthomé (who is perhaps better known for his work in theatres and opera houses around the world. He also created the atmospheric lighting for Chaumont’s new on-site hotel, Le Bois des Chambres, and its restaurant, Le Grand Chaume), the suppliers, the technicians and, of course, the garden designers.

The number of lights in each garden varies but ranges from as many as 70 in some cases to as few as a dozen in others and with 65W of power per metre for the most inefficient, and as little as 2W for the smaller installations. A mixture of colour and natural (warm and cold white) bulbs are used, with filters introduced where a more precise effect is required.

Lessons have been learnt along the way. Some of the early lighting effects were far too complex and abrupt colour changes were not a great success. Having several lights connected to a programmed digital multiplex (a type of equaliser for lighting) also caused problems because, whenever there was a power cut, the system had to be connected to a PC-based back-up before the lights could be rebooted and that PC was often unavailable at short notice.

Embracing new technology, which is often more affordable and reliable, the festival team now has different power options and keeps the lighting effects as simple as possible.

Although some trenches are still necessary, they are mostly used for the sound system wiring, which has been designed to reach all parts of the festival estate and is based on a professional concert and PA system made by Rondson. It consists of pre-amps, amplifiers and professional, directional, outdoor speaker units – of which there are 20 in total.

In the beginning, individual playlists were created for each garden, but even with the volume scrupulously controlled, the overall effect was always a cacophony. Today, a single playlist is broadcast across the grounds, to create a general ambience as visitors enjoy the evening show.

its transformation from daytime space to night – a world of subtle reflections and moving shadows.

In Le Banquet, a garden by Camille Chevrier, Florian Dominicy and Pauline Dominicy, its long ribbon of tables was lit by footlights and the dishes on each top were sprinkled with luminous stars. An olive tree appeared sculpted by a few points of light.

As we continued our stroll, I glimpsed through the door of Le Jardin Idéal, designed by Jacqueline Osty. Peering beneath the lantern, I saw the crescent moon rising above it and reflected in the narrow black strip of the blue-edged raised pool. Agaves in the border were also tinged with blue.

In the middle of the festival square, we admired

the towers of the castle. The movement of the light holds the audience, enraptured.

The enchantment continued: Le Cocon Végétal and its emerging birches, and upwards to the clouds of Inch Lim’s Living Batik, which appear to be floating away into the night.

The 2022 festival closed just a few weeks ago, but the event team is keen to receive new design entries for 2024. Chantal wants to grow the number of international, recognised designers taking part, and to encourage new talent into the theatre that is Chaumont-sur-Loire.

Any members of the Society of Garden Designers who are interested in applying should note that the next deadline is the last Friday in October 2023.

Email Elizabeth Mettling, elizabeth. mettling@domaine-chaumont.fr; domaine-chaumont.fr

A fig tree underplanted with white yarrow, southern globethistles and perennials, including edible pink wood sorrel, forms the heart of Le Verger Idéal, by the gardeners of the Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire.

THE TRANSFORMATION CREATES A WORLD OF SUBTLE REFLECTIONS AND MOVING SHADOWS.

Adolfo has used shapely colouredstemmed Golden Chinese bamboo in groups, combined with York stone, to lead eyes and feet through the open space, while Trachelospermum jasminoides covers the upright RSJs and monkey-bar pergola and creates a sense of enclosure.

SMALL BUT PERFECTLY FORMED

All gardens demand a clear and concise approach to their layout, and designers need to be versatile to deal with a wide range of spaces, large and small, while budgets and the desires of the client all need to be agreed early on. These are some of the givens and designers choose different ways to achieve good outcomes. Barbara Segall speaks to seven garden designers, who share some of their design notes

Adolfo Harrison MSGD

Designing for very small spaces is something that Adolfo Harrison MSGD particularly enjoys, especially if the sites are smaller than the typical rectangular terraced house garden.

People respond better to a courtyard space, he says, and his approach is to treat the confined space rather like a stage. His designs aim to create a circular movement, with multiple focal points and a narrative that leads the owner or visitor around the space.

‘We try to use reclaimed materials as much as possible, and we try to keep existing features – an old wall, for instance – something that offers a story and links to the past of the garden.’

Plants are used rather like characters in the theatrical setting and there must, says Adolfo, be a very good reason for every inclusion or exclusion; everything must have a purpose.

‘In most small spaces there is likely to be quite a bit of shade so, while the plant palette can be repetitive, the aim is to give plants the best opportunity to thrive and shine in the context.’

In his 2020 SGD Judges’ Award and Garden Jewel award-winning courtyard garden, Bamboo & Mirror (pictured), Adolfo used mirrors and living walls, sedum roofs and decking to enlarge the small triangular shape. ‘Even though the space is small,’ he adds, ‘it was important to create a sense of enclosure using climbers on the pergola.’ adolfoharrison.com

FROM ADOLFO’S ADDRESS BOOK

• Off-site reclamation materials, Norfolk Antique & Reclamation Centre, norfolkreclamation.co.uk

• Plants, Palmstead Nursery, palmstead.co.uk

Photograph (Bamboo and mirror garden by Adolfo Harrison), Richard Bloom

Tom Massey MSGD

In 2022, the Society of Garden Designers (SGD) awarded Tom Massey the accolade of Best Small Residential Landscape & Garden for his design for this small outside space in Twickenham (pictured). Looking at it today, the designer comments: ‘There is nowhere to hide in a small garden. You need to get the details right and make use of every inch of the space, even the awkward corners.’

At the start of every project, Tom aims to have a clear and defined brief from the client, which he refines to be sure nothing will be wasted or gratuitous.

He plans in as much planting as possible as he feels that in a small space, too much hard landscaping can look cold and hard. ‘I find including trees works very well as they give life and vibrancy to smaller gardens, as well as dappled light.’ Amelanchier lamarckii, Crataegus monogyna and the characterful old orchard pear, Pyrus communis ‘Conference’, are among his choices for this winning design.

The designer also suggests that larger shrubs, including witchhazel and Viburnum x bodnantense, can work well in a smaller setting since shrubs can be pruned up to reveal the lower stems, creating attractive forms akin to multi-stem trees.

Instead of having to look at a hard bank of steps, the owners of the Twickenham garden asked Tom to explore more visually appealing ways of getting from

‘Trees and dense planting with plenty of movement give life and vibrancy to small gardens‘, says Tom, who included an Amelanchier lamarckii and a Pyrus communis ‘Conference’ in this London garden.

the lower level of their modern basement extension to the garden up above, and to make it soft and richly planted. The designer explains that he and the owners share a love for Cornwall, with its cliff paths that traverse steep slopes and babbling streams, so he offered a Cubist representation of a cliff path journey, with concrete stepping-stones that were cast on site and which can also double as seating. A shallow Corten steel water feature adds a touch of fun and authenticity to the coastal path journey, where a slip of the foot might lead to wet feet. tommassey.co.uk

FROM

TOM’S ADDRESS BOOK

• Landscaper, Landscape Associates, landscapeassociates.co.uk

• Concrete floors, Lazenby Ltd, lazenby.co.uk

• Metalwork and welding, Surrey Ironcraft, surreyironcraft.com

• Water features, Water Artisans, waterartisans.com

• Planting, Deepdale Trees, deepdale-trees.co.uk; The Palm Centre, palmcentre.co.uk

Photographs (Twickenham garden), Alister Thorpe

Mandy Buckland MSGD

Taking the time to think after a site visit is a vital part of Norfolkbased Mandy Buckland MSGD’s work process. Many of her clients are in the south-east of Britain and she likes to arrange two days of site visits, back-to-back, before returning to her base.

‘My reward for the site visit is to go for a long walk of about two hours, which is when I think about the site and the conversation with the client.’ The walk clears her head and allows her to mull her ideas more effectively. ‘Then I go old-fashioned,’ she says, ‘and I draw the design, layering it onto the survey before I go anywhere near a computer design. I also send material boards to the client, as well as my videos of their space.’

Prior to that, however, Mandy asks the owners for their own photographs and then, using the digital mapping website Promap, she downloads the boundaries from which she can work out the size of the space and can give a ballpark figure of the costs. The site visit follows.

‘We start the process with our own survey for small gardens and make further analysis before drafting up a footprint of the property,’ she explains. ‘We take photos of everything, right down to the last manhole cover, gates, outdoor taps, fences, walls and so on.’

Lighting plans, perspective plans and the videos – ‘the landscapers and the owners love these,’ says Mandy – follow and much later, once the design has

been signed off by the owner, it is put out to tender. In a small garden such as her Small City Garden (pictured), for which Mandy won the SGD award for Big Ideas, Small Budget in 2022, Mandy likes to provide storage solutions that double as benches and makes repeated use of materials, to give the design a sense of rhythm and cohesion.

Sustainable materials, especially wood, are her first choice and she particularly likes to use larch, western red cedar, or thermo ash cladding. The latter is a sustainable softwood that is baked to give it the qualities and durability of a hardwood.

Large plants are another preference for small sites. ‘Plants are my remit and shapely tree ferns, foliagerich Fatsias and clipped, sculptural plants such as bay, Pittosporum and Teuchrium, are among my choices that provide great structure.’

She is mindful too about keeping any existing large and useful plants in situ. ‘I never rip the guts out of a garden. I work with the owners to assess what can stay and I sometimes do remedial work to crown-lift trees and shrubs. I tie ribbons on plants or elements that we want kept so they don’t disappear when the landscapers come in.’ greencubedesign.co.uk

FROM MANDY’S ADDRESS BOOK

• Photographs, from the garden owner

• Digital mapping service, Promap, promap.co.uk

• Modified ash decking, Thermory, thermory.com/benchmarkthermo-ash-decking

Mandy uses large, shapely plants to give small spaces a sense of structure. Repeated use of hard materials, especially wood, create rhythm and cohesion.

Stefano approaches small garden design with ‘minimalism’ in mind, especially as far as the layout (which needs to be simple and clear) and hard landscaping materials are concerned. ‘Too many changes of material could overcomplicate the space,’ he comments.

He also likens the design process to choosing particular clothes. ‘Dressing a garden is a matter of combining all the elements so that it looks at its best in all seasons.’

As many small gardens are in cities that are generally noisy, crowded, and stressful, Stefano aims to introduce a sense of peace and calm.

When it comes to the planting palette, however, particularly the bulb, perennial and grass layer, this can be complex and dense, to contribute colour and texture to the different seasons.

Pleached or clipped trees usually help provide screening and offer privacy from adjacent properties.

‘I keep the shrub and tree layer simple and to a minimum, though. I opt for trees that can be used in clipped form or have see-through, multi-stem silhouettes and in winter, scent is most important,’ he says.

His Sense of Discovery garden (pictured), which won the SGD’s awards for Planting Design and Garden Jewel in 2022, epitomises his process. A simple gravel path leads through an upper canopy of tree ferns, aralia and maples with a generously planted understorey of hydrangeas, geraniums and astrantia, all contributing to the feeling of an urban forest. ‘Because the planting is so full, it’s hard to tell when you reach the boundaries,’ says Stefano. stefanomarinaz.com

FROM STEFANO’S ADDRESS BOOK

• Pots, water features and firepits, Atelier Vierkant, ateliervierkant.com

• Trees, How Green Nursery, howgreennursery.co.uk

• Plants, Arvensis, arvensisperennials.co.uk

Finding the boundaries of this small garden becomes an adventurous journey through Stefano’s urban forest of tree ferns, aralia and maples underplanted with hydrangeas, geraniums and astrantia.

Stefano Marinaz MSGD

‘I KEEP THE SHRUB AND TREE LAYER SIMPLE AND TO A MINIMUM. I OPT FOR TREES THAT CAN BE USED IN CLIPPED FORM OR HAVE SEE-THROUGH, MULTI-STEM SILHOUETTES.’

Photographs (Sense of Discovery garden), Alister Thorpe

Kristina Clode, pre-registered SGD member

‘I try to be as environmental as possible in all my designs and aim to use more plants and less hardlandscaping,’ says Kristina Clode, whose Wildlife-friendly Eco-house Garden (pictured) at Winchelsea Beach won the SGD Design for the Environment award in 2022.

‘In all gardens, but particularly small ones,’ she continues, ‘I make the borders as large as the space allows so I can layer planting to give varied height, seasonality and opportunities for wildlife.’

The brief for this particular design was to create a sustainable and varied habitat which would be especially suitable for wildlife. The owners also wanted the garden to have a minimal care regime and as low a carbon footprint as possible.

Kristina has used a combination of droughttolerant Mediterranean shrubs and perennials for the front garden and created a wildflower meadow and plant-rich borders in the back garden.

In general, the designer explains, she prefers to steer clients away from having a large open space at the centre of a garden as she feels the result can be formulaic and unexciting. Instead, she shapes borders towards and into the central space, creating more varied views and interesting pathways, and giving the whole garden a sense of destination.

Clothing the edges of the garden with plants helps to mask the boundaries, making the garden

seem larger but, she adds, ‘I aim to balance the mass and voids in a design. Spaces can get over-crowded and some open space is welcome as a balance, and for seating areas and paths.’ kristinaclodegardendesign.co.uk

FROM KRISTINA’S ADDRESS BOOK

• Plants, How Green Nursery, howgreennursery.co.uk

• Trees, English Woodlands, ewburrownursery.co.uk

• Unusual plants, Great Dixter, greatdixter.co.uk/the-nursery; Beth Chatto, bethchatto.co.uk; Madrona Nursery, madrona.co.uk; Marchants Gardens and Nursery, marchantshardyplants.co.uk; Plant Base, plantbase.co.uk

• Landscape contractors, Michell’s Construction, mitchellsconstruction.co.uk; SR Avard, sravard.com

Kristina had raised vegetable beds made from sleepers and lined the paths of this small coastal garden with brick pavers sourced from the local Bexhill brickworks. The damp clay soil at the far end is planted as a bog garden and ornamented with sculptural reclaimed sea timbers while offcuts of York stone capping from the landscaper’s yard were used to line the existing pond nearby.

Mike Harvey, pre-registered SGD member

In his design for a small private garden (pictured) in Richmond, for which he was a shortlisted finalist in the SGD Awards 2021, pre-registered SGD member Mike Harvey made the most of the large picture windows of the house by bringing the garden all the way up to the glass, so the owners would feel surrounded by it at all times. He also created a space for them to sit outside that is situated deep in among the planting.

‘When you put the garden centre-stage and on full view like this,’ Mike says, ‘you know it has to look good night and day as well as all year round and if you have room for only one seating area, make sure it is comfortable, and possibly doubles in some way as space-saving storage.’

His choice of tree for this or any small setting was equally important since dense shade in such a site needs to be avoided. Many people see trees as problematic in a small garden, suggesting that their inclusion will make the garden look smaller. For Mike, the placing is crucial. ‘If you can look through a multi-stem tree, or round an attractively shaped one such as an olive, it makes the garden feel larger and it fulfils the role of sculpture.’

In this small garden in particular, the positioning of the olive trees is doubly important as they act as a light screen from neighbouring properties. Mike also adds: ‘If you light a tree from below, you increase

its ornamental and sculptural value considerably, as it becomes highly visible, day and night.’ mikeharveygardens.com

FROM MIKE’S ADDRESS BOOK

• Plants, Allgreen, allgreen.uk; North Hill Nurseries, northhillnurseries.co.uk; Griffin Nurseries, griffinnurseries.co.uk

• Grasses, Knoll Gardens, knollgardens.co.uk

• Hard materials, London Stone, londonstone.co.uk; CD Bricks and Stone, cdbands.co.uk

• Lighting, Lighting for Gardens, lightingforgardens.com

THIS PAGE: possibly a bit bigger than the average ‘small garden’, Mike’s design for this site shows his thinking: interesting trees that look good all year round and act as focal points; seating areas away from the house; lots of planting; and a great view from the kitchen.

Tony Woods MSGD

‘Once we have the brief from the client, I take myself off-site and play with scale, shape and flow,’ says Tony Woods MSGD, whose Garden Club London studio has extensive experience in designing small gardens.

‘Considering most of our gardens are urban ones, boundaries are probably the most important elements. We look at privacy issues, overlooking windows and ugly sites in the background. Shrubs such as Garrya elliptica and pyracantha, as well as roses trained against walls, are excellent for training as wall shrubs or espaliers, to create interest on boundaries.’

However, it is a mistake to push everything around the edge of the space, he says, as that reduces the flow of movement that plants provide.

In his design for a Borough City Sanctuary garden, which was a finalist in the SGD’s Peoples’ Award category for 2022, he retained existing old roses that were growing against the walls and elsewhere, left the brickwork exposed to enhance the narrative of the garden.

As well as considering the view of a small garden from inside the house, how it links to that inside space is also important. The trend for all- or mostly glass rear extensions developed in part to remove the boundary between inside and out. While Tony and his team understand this desire, they would suggest avoiding replication of materials that are linked to the interior.

Instead, they prefer to come up with a palette of hard landscape materials that adds intricate detail and interest to the outside space. ‘I like to use patterns on fabric or prints as inspiration for layouts,’ he says. ‘You can move the shapes and sizes around. That can help you bring out shapes and flows.

‘I really like geometric patterns and shapes of the fabric on the seating of the London Underground. If you look at a small section, [you can see] interesting shapes and these provide me with ideas for integrating borders and hard landscaping.’

The choice of tree, or a shrub that can be worked up to a tree size, is crucial. ‘We prefer to use deciduous trees to evergreens as they offer such individual shapes in autumn and winter,’ says Tony.

‘We also favour multi-stem magnolias and parasolor table-top-shaped trees, or crab apples which can be espaliered, as they are light and airy, creating divisions but not lowering light levels in the garden.’ gardenclublondon.co.uk

FROM TONY’S ADDRESS BOOK • Specialist nurseries, edrom-nurseries.co.uk

The view of a small garden from inside the house is just as important as that outside but as they did for this small London site, Tony and his team prefer to use a palette of hard landscape materials that is separate from that used in the house.

‘WE LOOK AT PRIVACY ISSUES, OVERLOOKING WINDOWS AND UGLY SITES IN THE BACKGROUND.’

Photographs (Borough city sanctuary), GAP Photos/Jo Kossak

CALIFORNIA DREAMING

Untypical, collective in spirit and a champion of simplicity, sustainability and equality, California-based Terremoto landscape architect practice, founded by David Godshall and Alain Peauroi, is changing attitudes – one radical garden at a time

WORDS: Darryl Moore

Set in the hills of Hollywood, Terremoto has created this ‘avant-garde intervention, a botanical dream garden’ with the likes of Cercis canadensis, Kalanchoe beharensis and Brahea armata

ABOVE: old and new co-exist in this no-irrigation-system project, called Museum. RIGHT: Platform Park is an underpass in Culver City that has been transformed into a simple park for people seeking respite from the surrounding city buzz. FAR RIGHT: construction underway at Glen Oaks, a residential garden project.

The website of California-based landscape architect Terremoto is untypical of the slick commercial affairs of many of its industry peers. Instead, it proffers an assemblage of text and images, where formal descriptions of projects are replaced by freestyle narratives evoking the rationale and essence of the gardens while photographs reveal the construction process as well as delivered states, often replete with occupants putting them to good use.

The overall impression conveys much of the ethos and aesthetic of the practice, established by David Godshall and Alain Peauroi, who bonded while both were working at Surface Design Inc. in San Francisco. ‘At a certain point, it crystalised in my mind that I wanted to create gardens in a way that I felt was missing in the United States,’ says David.

Setting out on their journey together ten years ago, the duo has grown the practice to 23 staff split between offices in Los Angeles (LA) and San Francisco, curated by David and Alain respectively. Between them all, they have created around 400 gardens.

ETHOS AND STRUCTURE

Terremoto aims to create environments that are aesthetically, ecologically, and metaphysically provocative and productive, rebalancing the ways in which power is manifested in the landscape. Their work is deeply connected to the places where they practice in California, confronting issues of land ownership imbued with the legacies and inequities of colonialism and capitalism, as well as exploring the ecological bonds between regional flora and fauna.

‘If I can’t walk into a place and tell if the ecosystem is in or out of balance,’ says David, ‘then I am

probably not the person who should be working on this project because it is easier to do harm, whether intentionally or unintentionally, in an environment with which you are not familiar.’

In keeping with their principled mission-oriented approach, the office structure rejects a top-down power hierarchy in favour of one that David describes as ‘very collective in spirit’.

Both the offices operate independently, but in ‘spiritual alignment’, and independence within the office is also evident. ‘People want to be able to reflect their own design acumen,’ David explains, ‘and so, through giving them a great deal of autonomy, it’s like having twenty-three small practices within our office that Alain and I art direct.’

Collective decisions determine which projects are undertaken and how they are allocated to team members – each of whom has a personal workload of five to 12 projects. As the larger of the two offices the LA team usually has about 60 or 70 projects on the go, ranging from small modest homes to large estates. While studying landscape architecture in 2001–7, David noticed that residential design was not embraced in the prevailing pedagogy. Later, as a fledgling practice without a track record, however, smaller residential projects were the most readily available. He recalls that it provided an opportunity to ‘build tons of residential small gardens, making a million mistakes, learning and experimenting, trying to push it forward’.

The duo soon found a comfortable niche, which has since become the mainstay of Terremoto’s work. Occasional smaller commercial projects are also part of the mix, but public projects are conspicuous by their absence, which David credits to the near impossibility of dealing with unresponsive municipal bureaucracy. His description of a garden as ‘a human-curated manifestation of materials and botany, built and maintained by labour on a medium of land’ allows for an ideas-based approach to design, exploring the conditions and contexts of gardens and acknowledging their histories. While the Terremoto people are aware of garden traditions, they cautiously avoid styles and instead, their work exhibits an aesthetic born of the marriage of materials, plants and place.

MATERIALS-LED DESIGNS

Terremoto

Terremoto is a landscape architecture design studio co-founded by David Godshall, who studied history of art and architecture at University of California Santa Barbara and landscape architecture at University of California Berkeley, and Alain Peauroi, who studied landscape architecture at California Poly SLO and industrial design at Design Academy, Eindhoven NL. The studio has offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. terremoto.la

They believe that materials should determine the detail and not vice versa and hold no truck with ornament and complexity, favouring instead materials that are simple and local, and construction methods that are straightforward and durable and not reliant on external infrastructure.

‘Thinking about materials through the lens of climate change,’ explains David, ‘our profession suffers from a horrifying weight of cognitive dissonance in calling things environmentally sustainable when they are not. That does us and our society a disservice.’

The Terremoto designers are adamant that expensive does not mean better and eschew the material consumption culture of luxury lifestyles that many designers espouse. Instead, they prefer to

Photographs (Hollywood Hills, Museum, Glen Oak) Caitlin Atkinson; (Platform Park) Stephen Schauer

do as little as possible to honour the land and meet a client’s brief, retaining what is already on site, reusing, reinventing and employing hyperlocal materials.

Their Museum project is an apt example. Avoiding any major earthworks, a terraced sandstone hillside faced with crumbling cinderblock and cracked zoo rock was renovated with cheap but characterful materials. Paths and seating areas were made with old pavers and a new staircase added to connect the upper and lower terraces. Native plants were retained and enhanced to avoid the need for irrigation systems, and the owners have been actively involved in nurturing the garden themselves. Past and present are clearly visible and harmoniously co-exist in a way that David and Alain describe as ‘carbon-light, poetically rich and beautiful in a next civilisation sort of a way’.

Celebrating the labour that has gone into a garden project is central to the office’s ethos. This runs counter to the bias that gives landscape architects prestige over the underpaid workers who often go uncredited for their input in bringing garden schematics to life. Terremoto is critical of other practices with portfolios that represent gardens as immaculate conceptions, rather than the results of collaborations with contractors. ‘The long game is that we’re interested in gardens that reflect the desire for a more egalitarian world,’ says David. ‘Showcasing the labour is one part of that greater goal.’

Acknowledging this is especially important in LA, where the labour force consists largely of Latino immigrants who are already subject to economic discrimination and passive systemic racism. Terremoto has formalised a land and labour working group within the studio. It meets regularly to analyse the business’s working practices and members write articles to raise public awareness of the issue. They also discuss these issues directly with clients, being transparent about the real costs of gardens and helping them understand that their gardens are devalued by undervaluing and poorly compensating the people who build and maintain them.

AN EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH

Terremoto’s dense planting style – abundant in form and texture – has evolved, from an early sculptural approach to an intermingled curated wildness. With a growing ecological awareness, it has skewed largely towards native plants that are adapted to the extreme conditions faced in the region, such as heat, drought and fire.

Water management is a crucial problem in LA, so native plants that have no need of irrigation are an easy low-tech solution to creating resilient gardens that also provide obvious benefits for local animals, birds and insects. ‘If you think about a garden, it may only be used by humans for a small percentage of the time during its existence,’ reflects David. ‘We lead busy lives, and our gardens have these lives without us so by using mostly native planting, it makes them more useful to the creatures who also interact with them.’

On larger long-term projects, he outlines an ambition ‘to start actually propagating on site when appropriate and when we are able to. From a closed-

TERREMOTO’S

–

IN FORM

loop perspective, that seems to be the best way of doing it.’

TOP: the KX Lab garden is arranged around ‘big, good trees’ – 25 California sycamores – with reused gravels to create the sense of a creek bed and concrete, stone and wood for seating.

BOTTOM:

Native plants are at the heart of an experimental project called Test Plot, organised by Terremoto and in operation in Elysian Park in east LA where, over decades, the pre-existing native vegetation had been erased. An ongoing community landcare process has been established and, stewarded by local resident volunteers, it straddles the line between native gardening and ecological restoration. Four 30-foot-diameter plots with different aspects have been established, and any unwanted existing vegetation systematically removed before they are planted with a wide range of regionally appropriate species. Monitoring the plots provides information for possible future plantings that can challenge the invasive species that otherwise dominate the park. Working with educational and municipal partners, a wider programme has since been developed in other sites across the city.

Terremoto’s dedication to discarding industry assumptions, and to continually asking themselves the question ‘how can we make gardens that are truly good?’, involves addressing the contradictions the designers encounter in their work as honestly as possible. It is an unending process, but one that, to their credit, increasingly results in projects that are beautiful, different and succinct realisations of their ambition to make ‘radical gardens of love and interconnectedness’.

Argus, a blank, sloping site, was transformed during the pandemic into three levels, one for dining and two for the children to play, all linked by drifts of native buckwheat, sages, and grasses, and with Sambucus mexicana to soak up excess grey water.

DENSE PLANTING STYLE

ABUNDANT

AND TEXTURE – HAS EVOLVED FROM AN EARLY SCULPTURAL APPROACH TO AN INTERMINGLED CURATED WILDNESS.

Photographs (KX Lab) Stephen Schauer; (Argus) Caitlin Atkinson

GOING PRO

Setting your garden design practice on a firm professional footing takes lots of planning, groundwork and expert advice, says Jane Moore

As a garden designer, you just never know what that next phone call will be,’ says Alan Sargent. ‘I’ve known one designer who went from a border design commission for a couple of thousand pounds after making a small garden at RHS Hampton Court, to the next commission which was a million-pound job.’

Those are the sorts of commissions that a designer dreams of but Alan, a multiple-

award-winning show and garden designer, believes that having a good business practice and strategy in place to cope with this escalation is essential, or it could all go horribly wrong.

‘Too many designers are not business people, but I firmly believe that you should start as you mean to go on,’ says Alan, who has spent the last 30 years using his experience to host workshops and seminars that are especially crafted so garden designers can focus on their business foundations.

Alison Warner, founder of Evolve and Grow Coaching, which specialises in developing businesses in the construction sector, agrees: ‘If you want to grow, the reality is that you will become the owner of a garden design business, as opposed to a garden designer. The two roles are very different and that’s why it’s so important to receive help developing this new skill set.’

‘Set clear guidelines from the outset and take time to build networks of contractors,’ advises award-winning show and garden designer Alan Sargent (above)

Main photograph, Markus Spiske/Unsplash

‘IF YOU WANT TO GROW, THE REALITY IS THAT YOU WILL BECOME THE OWNER OF A GARDEN DESIGN BUSINESS, AS OPPOSED TO A GARDEN DESIGNER.’

‘I was advised that it’s essential to be disciplined and to measure absolutely everything

your

Understand the finances

Alison advocates getting to grips with financial planning from the start, investing in business skills as well as technical skills. She adds that, when they first get in touch, 95 per cent of her clients want to improve their understanding of the numbers involved.

Many are inexperienced with profit and loss analysis and cashflow and, as Alison says, this lack of knowledge can break a business. ‘Know your numbers; your cost of sales, your monthly overheads, and the sales you need to make to break even once you have paid yourself.’

That is advice that Tom Simpson, of Tom Simpson Garden Design, took very much to heart when he began to develop his own business. ‘I was advised that it’s essential to be disciplined and to measure absolutely everything that your business does financially, be it cashflow, sales or expenditure,’ he says. ‘It sounds basic, but if you can monitor these simple things, you will have much more control, which makes the more challenging periods easier to manage.’

First steps

‘The very first thing I did after graduating was to set up a website for my student portfolio,’ Tom reveals. ‘There wasn’t much there, but it was enough to draw in my first few clients.’

Alison emphasises that any business needs to focus on getting that first crucial customer, then ensuring that you do a great job and asking for a testimonial. After that, you can move on to the

that

business does financially,’ says Tom Simpson, who is currently designing a series of gardens, including this pool house area (left), on an estate in Bath.

next and do the same, building up your portfolio and experience.

Alan has a word of caution, however. He is concerned that designers need to be careful from the outset as, unless there are clear guidelines established at the beginning, clients will change deadlines and specifications as the project develops.

‘Not all clients are Mr and Mrs Pleasant,’ he says. ‘They can eat an unwary designer for breakfast if you’re not careful.’

Both he and Alison advise that every designer should put contracts, insurance, and other relevant paperwork in order swiftly, and that setting up systems for invoicing and accounting is an equally important early task to undertake when setting up a business.

‘If customers have a fantastic experience, they’re bound to recommend you,’ says Alison Warner (top). That and things like entering the SGD Awards have certainly been the case for Sheila Jack MSGD (above), designer of this ‘secret’ garden (left) in Kensington.

Alison also advocates the creation of product packages, rather than standalone services, and building in a retaining service such as an annual review, to keep customers coming back to you.

Hone your soft skills

Throughout your business, from first steps to establishment, it is the soft skills such as dealing with people and being easy to contact, as well as being available, that come into play; they are every bit as important as leadership and financial management.

‘Being successful in all businesses means being good with people,’ says Alison. ‘If you ensure that each customer has a fantastic experience, they are bound to recommend you.’

‘CREATE PRODUCT PACKAGES AND BUILD IN A RETAINING SERVICE SUCH AS AN ANNUAL REVIEW, TO KEEP CUSTOMERS COMING BACK TO YOU.’

Photographs (Sheila Jack), Lisa Linder

That advice is certainly borne out in the experience of garden designer Sheila Jack MSGD, of Sheila Jack Landscapes. ‘Almost all of my clients have come through a referral of one kind or another,’ says Sheila. ‘Garden designers I have worked with were also all very kind in putting me forward for jobs that they couldn’t take on, and some clients have found their way to me via things like the SGD Awards.’

Fellow designer Tom agrees that building relationships is crucial to establishing a fluid client base. ‘Nurturing good working relationships leads to recommendations,’ he says. ‘Some of the best enquiries I get these days come through the other design professionals I have worked with, particularly architects.’

That chimes with one of Alan’s top tips for establishing a fledgling design business:

‘Take some time to build networks with contractors and join the Association of Professional Landscapers and other professional bodies such as the Society of Garden Designers,’ he says. ‘Also, try to develop relationships locally, ten miles or so around your home town.’

Alan advocates targeting local parish magazines for features and advertising rather than focusing efforts solely on social media, which he believes is too broadreaching and has a ‘scatter gun’ effect.

Keep it small or go large?

Sheila and Tom both believe that keeping your company small means you stay firmly in control creatively, and that you remain close to the client. However, as a business grows, the principal designer is often pulled in different directions, as Tom has

ADDRESS BOOK

• Alan Sargent, alansargent. co.uk – offers bespoke one-to-one business coaching, and one-day Garden Designers Practice Workshops on 24 March and 26 May; further dates to be announced.

• Alison Warner, evolveandgrowcoaching.com

– Build and Grow Academy courses run online throughout the year. Bespoke one-to-one business coaching also available.

• Sheila Jack MSGD, Sheila Jack Landscapes, sheilajack.com

• Tom Simpson, Tom Simpson Garden Design, tomsimpsondesign.com

witnessed. ‘The drawback to working alone is that you have a finite capacity to take on new work so it’s inevitable [you’ll want] to grow your team in order to grow your business,’ he says.

For Sheila, it is the close contact with clients that is paramount; it enables her to provide each one with an individual, personalised service. Alison agrees that this hands-on, friendly approach is good for both business owner and client, and adds that it also keeps the business more agile and flexible.

‘As a small business, you make the decisions there and then, to do what is right for the client.

‘The thing is to focus on what you enjoy and do best. Then, as you grow, make sure you surround yourself with people who love doing the things you hate.’

Photograph, Chad Madden/Unsplash

SGD AWARDS 2024 JUDGES NAMED

With the deadline to apply for early-bird fees and entry forms for the Main Awards of the SGD Awards 2024 fast approaching (29 March and 12 April 2023 should be writ large in your diaries), names of the Awards’ judges have been announced.

The panel for the Main Awards includes Richard Sneesby CMLI; Julie Toll FSGD; Robin Templar Williams FSGD; Dr Phil Askew CMLI; Helen ElksSmith FSGD; Chris Young, editor of The Garden; Dan Lobb MSGD; Clare Foggett, editor of The English Garden; and garden writer, researcher, and historian Advolly Richmond.

The Student Awards will be judged by a panel formed of Sarah Morgan FSGD, David Stevens FSGD and Tom Massey MSGD.

A new media partner for the Awards has also been signed up, with The English Garden taking up the mantle from Homes & Gardens

SGD AWARDS 2024 – DATES TO REMEMBER:

8 February 2023

SGD Awards open for entries

29 March 2023

MAIN AWARDS deadline for ‘early-bird’ fees and entry forms

12 April 2023

MAIN AWARDS deadline for standard fees and entry forms

26 April 2023

MAIN AWARDS deadline for submissions

2 August 2023

STUDENT AWARDS deadline for early-bird fees and entry forms

ROUND UP IN THE GARDEN DESIGNER’S LIBRARY…

Over dinner at the SGD Awards ceremony last year, Matthew Wilson MSGD and I began discussing gardening books. Which titles are on your bookshelf, I asked him, and which of them is the most important to you? Which do you pick up or refer to constantly? Matthew writes…

23 August 2023

STUDENT AWARDS deadline for standard fees and entry forms

6 September 2023

STUDENT AWARDS deadline for submissions

27 September 2023

MAIN AWARDS shortlists announced

10 October 2023

STUDENT AWARDS shortlists announced

2 February 2024

SGD Awards Ceremony

BY: Graham Stuart Thomas

PUBLISHER: JM Dent & Sons, in association with the RHS BUY: try Abe Books, abebooks.co.uk

‘The third edition of Graham Stuart Thomas’s Perennial Garden Plants or the Modern Florilegium, printed in 1990, was on my required reading list at Hadlow College, where I studied horticulture, although I was aware of it thanks to my father, who was a nurseryman, lecturer (at Hadlow) and, latterly, a head gardener. Dad’s copy was a very well-thumbed and slightly grubby first edition, which I inherited along with a slew of other great gardening books when he died. But it is my copy, in the updated third edition format, that I refer to most.

‘Along with luminaries such as EA Bowles, Christopher Lloyd, and Beth Chatto, Thomas had the wonderful gift of describing the characteristics of plants almost as personalities. He understood his subjects

intimately from observation in his work with the National Trust, where he helped restore more than 100 gardens.

‘The book is organised alphabetically, with plants listed by genus, species, and cultivar, but avoids being a dry list, thanks to Thomas’s sharp wit and occasional self-deprecation. On Anemone nemorosa he notes:

“Refusing to be bullied by my self-imposed rules about height, I am including this species because it is a woodland gem.” Along with comprehensive descriptions of the plants, soil and aspect, are listed quotations from great gardeners of the past such as Gertrude Jekyll (who mentored Thomas), and helpful tips, such as whether a plant needs staking. Thomas did not approve of staking, by the way.

‘The late Fred Whitsey, gardening correspondent for The SundayTelegraph and then The DailyTelegraph, described Perennial Garden Plants as “one of the most important gardening books of our age” and that is as true now as it was then. An invaluable reference and an entertaining read.’ matthewwilsongardens.com

Round Up, Arabella St John Parker

RESTORATION PROCESS

The Ford Foundation Centre for Social Justice is a landmark building in New York City with a 12-storey glass-walled atrium that broke new ground when it opened in 1967. Designed by the office of Dan Kiley, the third-of-an-acre atrium garden was the first of its kind in the US, incorporating a dramatic 13-foot change in level and a large pond.

The usually Modernist Kiley conceived of the garden as a temperate New England forest and realised his vision with a naturalistic plant selection that included more than 40 trees, 1,000 shrubs and 22,000 vines. However, by 2015, the original scheme had sadly declined and Raymond Jungles, Inc (RJI) was engaged to restore the garden to its former glory.

RJI Senior Associate Guy Champin led the project team. ‘Understanding and honouring Dan Kiley’s design intent was most important, and we were determined to follow his lead and plant directly into the soil,’ says Guy. ‘But the preservation of existing structures and finishes was also a priority that represented challenges in terms of construction, logistics and schedule.’

LINES OF SIGHT AND LIGHT

A combination of low-growing plants and high canopies ensured transparent sightlines and visual connections across the garden. Begonias, jasmine and ferns highlight the main staircase, where light levels are lower, and on the brighter eastern side, there is a sensory garden of fragrant flowering plants. Planting around the pond, where light conditions are also good, focuses on flowering plants and interesting foliage, with medinilla and ferns forming the majority of these.

EXISTING FEATURES

Working with the fabric of a building of historic importance also presented various challenges, not least the need to protect paving, mullions, railings and other features. ‘We strived to keep Dan Kiley’s intent and not add any foreign elements to the design,’ says Guy. ‘Drainage and slopes as great as one-to-one were a challenge but were mitigated by using a geofibre soil mix.

‘Early in the project,’ he adds, ‘it was determined that the best approach to avoid overwatering and flooding was to hand water, which would also ensure close monitoring of the garden, but we did install grow lights to improve conditions in specific areas.’ This was a significant challenge because the only appropriate niches were limited in size and located on the existing ceiling, ten storeys above the trees.

Working with architectural lighting design firm Fisher Marantz Stone, the team selected optimal directional fixtures which could be carefully directed towards specific areas of the garden, to supplement the amount of light that reaches certain plants.

SOIL MATTERS

‘Overgrown plants, monocultures of traditional interior plants, and the introduction of foreign design elements were all issues,’ says Guy. ‘Access to the atrium was also limited, meaning the larger trees (measuring some 18-19 feet in height) had to come in when windows were being replaced.’

The team followed the original tree layout and planted the same number of different species, but with a carefully researched new selection chosen for improved resilience and survival rates. ‘It was interesting to see that the original root aeration/irrigation system was very similar to what you can now find on the market [and] testing [the] existing soil in the atrium proved it to be of excellent quality,’ says Guy.

However, erosion was considered to be an issue, so a mixture that included geofibres was developed to mitigate this problem. Biochar was used as a soil enhancer and upper-level planters on the sloping site were filled with lightweight aggregate to avoid the need to employ expensive structural reinforcements.

A notable New England forest-style garden in New York City has been revived using new techniques and innovations

TREE PREPARATION

The Missouri Gravel Bed method was used for the larger trees – which included Calliandra haematocephala, Podocarpus gracilior and Gustavia augusta – being brought into the atrium. ‘This involved purchasing the trees ahead of time, washing all soil from their root balls, then replanting them in custom-made boxes filled with gravel,’ explains Guy.

‘For this project, the gravel was graded with the same slope that the trees would eventually find in the Ford Foundation atrium, which gave their root systems time to shape according to the conditions of their final location. The trees were acclimated in a shade house in Florida for more than a year, before being removed from their boxes and transported in bare-root form back to New York City.’ Not only did this significantly reduce the weight of the trees, and therefore freight costs, the interim process also gave them time to develop more fibrous root growth, which meant the shock to their root systems as they settled into their final positions was significantly reduced and they were able to establish themselves more quickly.

Raymond Jungles, Inc, raymondjungles. com; Fisher Marantz Stone, fmsp. com; James Urban, jamesurban.net; SiteWorks, siteworkscm.com; Gensler, gensler.com

Photographs, Ford Foundation/Barrett Doherty