Hampton Court Show 2010 reviewed by Stephen Anderton
“the question crying out to be asked is what does conceptual mean?”
Supper: January 2010
A garden is meaningless without good spaces.
In which Michael Balston froths, and also insists that water in gardens should feature “no turds, no alligators”…
Supper: June 2009
Is garden design a frivolous luxury in straitened times?
“Clearly, it all centres on one’s appreciation of gardens…”
Supper: May 2009
Do gardens have to include plants?
“…..And indeed, in some circumstances plants alone can be used conceptually to shock people…”
Nurture not Nature
Society of Garden Designers Conference with Hugh Ryan, Erik Dhont, Jinny Blom, Tim Rees, Roberta Silva, Ulf Nordfjell.
Report by Anne Wareham.
“Sometimes, rarely, like a good designer should you might well think, they keep to the brief. Jinny did.”
Chelsea 2008
Three of the thinkinGardens Group made a short film recording their thoughts.
“But for me, when I look over an edge and down into a space, I want to be rewarded and uplifted ….”
The TARDIS Garden: thinking big about small spaces
Society of Garden Designers Conference, November 2007.
Reviewed by Darryl Moore.
“Whilst his style of presentation was no doubt intended to be irreverent and humourous, it became less coherent and relevant as his talk progressed.”
Putting Gardens Back on the Cultural Map
thinkinGardens Symposium.
Report by Stephen Anderton.
“Gardens should be evaluated by all as an multidimensional dynamic art form, but no one should fear being judged because of that. A romantic vision and an intellectual approach are not mutually exclusive….”
A Tribute to Linnaeus designed by Ulf Nordfiell reviewed by Anne Wareham
“The light echoes of Swedish countryside were one thing, but the effort to bring the Swedish botanist into the picture was the usual over literal, over ‘spelt out’ stuff…”
A Tribute to Linnaeus designed by Ulf Nordfiell reviewed by Stephen Anderton
“It might not be a bad for any garden to start from a default position of absolute simplicity. Only then would certain elements be expanded and explored, as and when the design required them.”
Germaine Greer: Yes, Gardens can be works of art – but you’d never know it from the Chelsea Flower show.
by Germaine Greer.
“Most of our best-known, most-visited gardens are merely pretty, or, worse, picturesque…”
with responses by Anne Wareham, Andrew Wilson, Leigh Hunt, Amanda Patton.
Is a Garden an Artwork?
Debated at the oxford Literary Festival 2007.
Reviewed by Matthew Appleby with comments by Anne Wareham.
“I loathe places like Hestercombe, but then on the other hand you have places like the Barbara Hepworth Garden which is more of an outdoor gallery.”
3-D Gardens: Thinking outside the concrete box
Society of Garden Designers Conference.
Report by Anne Wareham.
“…plants are incidental to gardens…”
Recent Posts from: Veddw
Favour the Ferns
Many years ago The Financial Times sent me to do a feature on the RHS ‘Flower Show’ at Tatton Park . I was totally naïve and had no idea what I was supposed to do or to write about. So my excitement was tempered by acute anxiety. The term ‘imposter syndrome’ could have been invented for me. […]
Snowdrop mania is coming…
In the UK, right now, the horticultural world is about to drive us all mad with snowdrops. Pictures of. Articles about. Gardens with them. Anything people can think of to bash us over the head with snowdrops.
Brilliant Brecon
Recently we made a visit to Brecon. This is not far from us, in case anyone was getting over excited about the possibility that I might have been travelling again. It’s in Wales, in the Brecon Beacons, recently re-christened Bannau Brycheiniog.
You should have been here Next Year
Charles made a complaint recently when we were walking in the garden.
When I complained about him complaining he told me that it was good for me to have complaints about the planting.
Garden Seats – to make and sit on.
I am discovering more and more often that it is important to have a great many seats in the garden. In fact there should probably be one every three feet or so.
