What I took away from FutureScape.....

I’m not talking about the sample piece of artificial turf courtesy of namgrass, which my ten year old creatively utilised in his Lego ‘Hagrid’s Hut’ installation, nor the Toro light pen, which is annihilating our house in its laser gun guise assumed by my youngest, but as a industry novice and inspiring garden designer I wanted to share a relatively serious comment on this event and its relevancy to my new career path.

FutureScape is in its infancy, the second annual single day event occurred on Nov 19^th 2013 at Kempton Park Racecourse, and given the exponential growth of visitors from its inauguration last year, it is sure to need re-housing in the near future. It is aimed at both designers and landscapers, delivering product stands, seminars and expert Q&A sessions across a variety of related subjects.

Community spirit still alive and well

Responding to a call for help from a designer I greatly admire, I dashed up the A1(M) to Peterborough last week. Chris Beardshaw had been invited by the DIY SOS Big Build Team ‘Children in Need Special’, to design a landscaped garden and playground surrounding a newly built community center that will primarily house the Little Miracles Charity, a parent led support group for families with children that have additional needs, disabilities and life limiting conditions.

The project commenced on Tue 17th Sept 2013 and by the time I arrived a week later the entire main building had been completed externally and the landscaping was in full swing although with completion due in three days, there was a significant amount of work still to do. So all checked in and hard hat adorned, I entered the site to get stuck in.

Main building and surround

Contemporary Temporary?

‘Really, are you sure, an arch spanning the Long Walk?’ For those who don’t know the Long Walk is a perfectly straight path/road that stretches 2.64 miles from her majesty’s castle residence in Windsor up Snow Hill terminating near the foot of the imposing ‘Copper Horse’ statue. You receive stunning vistas from either end, in fact from any point along it!

I'm a big fan of modern art sculpture, specifically the large outdoor varieties and appreciate installations that contrast against classic architecture. This however would have to be something truly spectacular to have any sort of impact in this location, particularly in terms of scale.

Un Jardin Magnifique

It’s been a long break since my last post, I've been enjoying an actual summer with sun this year and given that our choice of family holiday was decidedly risky weather-wise, we were extremely lucky!

Our destination was a small chambre d’hôte in Saint Denis sur Sarthon, Normandy. What do you mean you've not heard of it? To be honest I’m glad, I think it’s generally and somewhat inappropriately only used as a stopover for those heading further south or a quick weekend break for Parisians, but as our fellow short staying guests frequently exclaimed as we told them we were staying for 10 days ‘I wish we’d booked our stay here longer,’ this house and location definitely deserve more time.

It's not just what's inside that counts

It's all relative

There’s a little hotel ‘round our way, called Cowarth Park, you may have even heard of it! Part of its attraction, and there are plenty, are the sumptuous gardens, constantly maintained by the knowledgeable and friendly garden staff.

Food for too much thought

Like most, I enjoy the barbecue season, and I don’t just mean guarding the grill, beer in hand, tong armed and comedy apron attired. I mean the whole process, food preparation, marinades, sauces, salads, cooking, alfresco dining etc. As a mild pyromaniac, I was introduced to the barbecue at a fairly early age, perhaps as a vain attempt to channel my fire obsession, but more likely as a cleverly disguised chore. In those days our cooking device was little more than a stack of un-mortared bricks and a wire grill rack, but I used to revel in the process of getting the temperature/coals just right to ensure that my mum’s Indonesian recipe skewers (more on those in a future post) were cooked to perfection, and I rarely failed.

Recycle and re-buy British

It used to pain me, the way my parents and grandparents labelled us the ‘throw away’ generation.

“It’s not worth replacing, it’ll cost almost as much as buying new,” I would argue. Or “Don’t blame us, were the consumers not the manufacturers.”

But now as a parent myself, a little older and slightly more responsible (!), I now discover myself agreeing with them to a certain degree, but don’t let on.

Now I’m not saying every product built today is inferior to those of yesteryear, that would be ridiculous, although quite why advancements in technology and our so called increased intelligence do not allow the smartphone devices we urgently rely upon today to last longer than a couple of years annoys me, but I guess that’s the point, intelligence has taught us that we need to replace items frequently to maintain positive economical sustainment. Confusing isn’t it?

Whilst I do find myself reluctantly accepting of shorter product lifecycles, I am also instinctively becoming more attracted to older and solidly made items particularly with interior and exterior furniture and now more recently garden tools.

Have I found a 'free lunch'?

If you ever wanted a clear example of the importance pricing plays in a marketing strategy to increase the desirability of a product or service, then look no further than The Royal Landscape, part of The Crown Estate near Windsor.

The area is broken down into three areas, namely The Savill Garden, Virginia Water and The Valley Gardens all housed within the Windsor Great Park. Very fortunately I live on the doorstep of this thousand acre site, and utilise its entirety often for various family activities.

Arguably the leading attraction is The Savill Garden, a 35 acre site wonderfully fronted by the strikingly modern The Savill Building, a 2007 RIBA Sterling Award Finalist. As you would expect this garden offers diverse planting with a myriad of plants, design and landscaping and of particular splendour is the fairly new contemporary rose garden addition, designed by RHS judge Andrew Wilson.

There’s no such thing as a small garden project!

I have a little lawn to the north facing front of my house. Over time I've added some box hedging to line the front path, some birch trees, that I intend to keep small with regular pruning, a few pale narcissus that pop up briefly in the spring and a Rosa banksiae 'Lutea' rambling rose which I'm currently training along the wall and adjacent fence.

Unfortunately the lawn is a bit of eyesore, with neglect leaving it overrun with moss and a brown colour suggesting a small infestation of Chafer grubs, and whilst I do like a bit of the old green blades, I’m still finding the area fairly featureless and so decided to attempt a little bit of simple landscaping to create a new central bed.

Providing even more treasure

Dorney Court Kitchen Garden is a delightful collective nursery, café, children’s play area and garden providing the perfect coffee and cake destination for all the family to enjoy. Obviously the main attractions for us are the three ride-on pedal tractors that our children use to explore the site, keeping them amused and allowing our uninterrupted cappuccino supping! 

Does mint feature in Chris’ Arthritis Research UK Garden?

While watching the opening coverage of the RHS Chelsea on the BBC yesterday, I was enchanted with the Arthritis Research UK garden that Chris Beardshaw has designed and constructed for the show this year, and engaged by his typically eloquent description of the journey it represents. I was also surprised to learn of his personal battle with the disease and could relate to his previous personal choice not to expose his diagnosis.

La crème de la crème anglaise and a splash of sake

I recently visited Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire. Oooh! I here you cry as you raise your imaginary handbags to your chin, but ‘hey’ how else do you celebrate your grandmother's 90th year milestone? If you want to eat great food, it's best done in terrific settings, I’d say. After reading and viewing images of the gardens, I desperately wanted to take a look. The place had so much to offer, so here’s just a little snippet of our outing.

Wand 'er' lust?

Listen, I’m as bigger admirer as most of all things ‘non-muggle’. I delight in the creativity of the stories and the pleasure it gives my children to re-enact these adventures.

After a recent trip to the Warner Bros Harry Potter studios, I was equally impressed with the tour and marvelled at the work and detail that has gone into producing this magical world to the screen, and was particularly entertained by Warwick Davis and Nick Dudman’s beautifully comical guide to special effects.

However with all these things the tour throws you out into the gift shop, and whilst you always attempt to prepare yourself for the worst, my surprise at the merchandise prices was matched only by my realisation that Professor Snape was one of the good guys.

Blue Cliveden

I've been visiting Cliveden since I was a small child, so I’m thrilled that my three young children get as much as I did and still do from this amazing setting. But hey, what’s not to like? Woodland, river, formal gardens, sculpture, great architecture, history, pond gardens, maze, secret paths, wildlife, play parks, picnic areas, not forgetting cappuccino and ice cream. No wonder it’s the flagship attraction for the National Trust.

Cliveden - southerly view of the house from the bluebell woods 

Hocus Crocus - now you see it.

Rosa banksiae ' Lutea'

I’m a long term fan of Crocus, but surprisingly and probably disappointingly for them I've never made a single purchase from their website and tend to use it for inspiration purposes and then source my plants elsewhere. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I just like to see exactly what I’m buying!

Anyhow, I was in the market for a Rosa banksiae 'Lutea', (a thorn-less rambling rose, displaying abundant beautiful small yellow flowers at this time of year) and noticed that Crocus were opening their doors to the public for a day, so I took the opportunity to check out their operation with my family and make a direct purchase.

The Crocus story appears to be a remarkable one; it started in 2000, with sales of 15 plants in the first few months to becoming one of the leading online plant retailers in the UK whilst also supplying a succession of highly acclaimed designers and achieving 'best in show' at Chelsea for 5 out of the last 6 years.

Remarkably my three young children enjoy a day out at a plant nursery, always keeping themselves entertained and today was no exception, particularly when my wife suggested ‘if you look hard enough among all those bamboo varieties you may find a panda.’ So off they hunted!