Tranquillity, trees and school trips by Alison Levey
Generally we associate gardens with peace and quiet, and I know that we inconvenience ourselves considerably at Veddw in not using noisy machinery…
Is it possible to critique a garden without understanding the designer’s intent? by Felicity Waters
A discussion piece – what do we want from a garden? how important is the designer’s original intention? Given that this piece is a critique of…
Garden History – issues by Sara Venn
The use of ‘historic styles’ in gardens raises some interesting questions and deserves some thought from thinking gardeners. As indeed does the…
Hort Park, Singapore reviewed by Jonathan Fothergill
Travel time, readers from UK and USA – here’s interesting in South East Asia – a great piece from Jonathan Fothergill on Hort park, Singapore. Anne…
On women, landscaping and show gardening by Sue Beesley
“I happen to like physical work and expect to pull my weight and a bit more. Unless it is actually beyond my strength, there’s nothing I can’t or won’t do. Some of my female friends find this inclination towards sweat and dirt a bit perplexing….”
The High Line: more than the sum of its parts
“But it wasn’t Piet Oudolf who got most of the early press about the High Line. New Yorkers are far more interested in architects and landscape architects than garden designers, and in this case it was the elevated rail line itself, and its very costly rehabilitation, that was the focus of public and media hype. Now that the aerial garden has been opened to the public for over a year, the plantings themselves are garnering more public acclaim.”
Gardens Illustrated Award: comment by Anne Wareham
“Gardens are like theatre in that you have to be there to judge them. It is not enough to review a play by looking at the publicity photographs and hearing a second hand account. It is not good enough to judge a restaurant by looking at the menu and hearing what someone else thought. It is not good enough to judge a garden by looking at slides and hearing one person’s opinion of it.”
Can Gardeners be Considered Artists? by Gary Webb
“I tend to think that in professionally tended gardens, the natural occurrence of targets, job descriptions, over-loading, all commonplace in a busy workplace, can quite often mask and tie up the creativity that exists within a gardener …”
Letter from America – further comments
‘When someone describes something as ‘not their cup of tea’, it is telling you far more about them than the garden…..’ Philippa Perry
Letter from America revisited
‘We might say something is ‘crap’ to a friend who understands our reference points, but it isn’t an adequate critical comment. You have to define your parameters for critical discussion, not doing so limits potential response. It becomes yes it is/no it is isn’t…..’
The practicalities of making a garden by Mary Keen
“Like painters, gardeners select, discard and re-arrange. Like them, we are making something that needs vision and patience and skill. We bring out what lies under the surface….”
Aspiring for excellence: Elevating the bar for Landscape Designers
“It happens all the time and quite frankly it lowers the bar :…”
A Letter from America by Suzanne Albinson
I went to 24 gardens.
Some of the gardens were A gardens, some Fs. ……. my three favourites were……
Tim Richardson challenges ‘real gardeners’ over garden design
“The anti-design agenda of some parts of the horticultural world is in part based on a shires-gentry brand of anti-intellectualism which sees design, and talk of design, as essentially vulgar.The country-garden conceit is that you just throw it all together and then, as a result of genetics or feudalism or something, it happens to look good…”
Denmans – Why does it “work” – or rather why do visitors like it?
by John Brookes.
“Gardening is to do with continual regeneration, it is never ending but in a nice way.”
