As you might start planning for the 2010 Chelsea Flower Show... you may like to know about the Brompton Borders: This is last year's pitch! '
Garden and outdoor furniture will be on display in numerous imaginative and experimental settings across Brompton in west London next month.
Artists,
gardeners, museums and shops will be joining in the cultural heart of
Kensington for Brompton Borders, a fringe garden festival coinciding
with the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
From May 16th to 24th, garden
enthusiasts will have a chance to enjoy hidden green spaces and
'contemporary visions of urban nature' in the historic London borough.
Organised by Arts Co in response to the ideas of influential garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, Brompton Borders will see art intermingle with gardening in a variety of unique ways.
Iconic
retailers including Few and Far, Skandium and The Conran Shop will be
creating small gardens in their windows and outside spaces, while
restaurants such as Bibendum and Le Pain will provide special menus.
Meanwhile, art
collective House of Fairy Tales is to host a secret garden festival in
a disused car park on May 23rd and artists El & Abe will be
decorating hidden spaces with their striking moss graffiti.
The term 'Recycled designs' for many means dull ,shabby and boring designs... I think this is a brilliant example of how chic and cool a good garden designer can make recycled.J'adore! Hats off to Mandy Buckland of Green Cube Landscapes
RHS Chelsea Flower Show - Silver Medal Winning - Recycling theme for Chelsea 2005 garden, with wine bottle water feature, crushed car, recycled glass and recycled paving.
I was reading Marie Claire - a girly girl fashion magazine.What a change : they are getting really serious that your fashion creds are not in the IT bag but in your active participation in saving the planet.
They show private home wind turbines ( still only OK out of cities) but it got me searching.
And I found this new idea to make the roof top an energy provider.
I guess designers need to integrate quite a few new parameters!
Charlotte Rowe is a garden designer based in London serving a fast growing number of international clients. This week I guess the whole of the UK knows not only her name but also her smile as she made the front page ( and many inside) of a major UK newspaper supplement.
I am very happy for her. She was in my initial garden designer A-list ... She is unique in that she does not try to be radical or edgy but brings that extra feminine touch to the modern/sleek garden ...remarkably easy to live with chic.Link to see her portfolio : here
She manages to make real live-in gardens. From her unique green amphitheater to cool roof tops in Notting Hill, her successful work for a growing international clientele demonstrates a wonderful openness I enjoy.
Then I wanted to add the recent winner of the ASLA awards Vladimir Djurovic - His site http://www.vladimirdjurovic.com/ is an invitation to dream. I love his work I discovered on LandLiving
Previously I wrote:
The new urban garden is not about flowers and that is great.Yes. (Sorry this is not a gardening site!)
It is about an oddly undiscovered space in so many homes.A place reserved for the green fingered. Now designers, hi-tech brands, architects, etc.. are creating new options.
The new UG caters to more needs, dreams and wants.The deco fan meets the hi tech lover who meets the gourmet and so on...This site aims to reveal those options.
My A-list includes a young designer who brings italian chic to the new school of designers, driven by lines rather than flowers.He has shown a great ability to make true outdoor rooms, made to entertain.Totally elegant in a forward driven way. http://www.lucianogiubbilei.com/ .
I now believe the time has come when any garden designer offering to create a garden without this feature or not offering to make the garden productive( ie edible) is very 'out of it' ! And no, I am not even a 'green forefront fighter' ...It just is common sense.It seems vain and ...well vulgar to just want a couple of flowers for the show ?
As the image chosen by the Telegraph shows it can be done in style. Below you will find the very good review by the Telegraph of a book called 'RAIN gardens' by Nigel Dunnett and Andy Clayden which can be a good place to start thinking about the whole issue.
Rain gardens
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 17/07/2007
Elspeth Thompson investigates how to turn the rain to your advantage
Earlier in the year, we were dreading another drought, but as I write vast tracts of the country are still recovering from flash flooding.
Valuable resource: Use rain to make a water feature
The weather over the past few summers has taught us that global warming is not just about higher temperatures; it's about coping with extremes at either end of the scale - downpours as well as drought, unseasonal cold as well as scorching heat.
A few years ago, gardeners were looking to the Mediterranean for inspiration to beat climate change, but drought-tolerant plants such as lavender and santolina don't take kindly to having their roots standing in cold water week after week. What we need, clearly, is a style of gardening that can cope with periods of hot and dry, and cold and wet weather.
It's a tall order, but a new book, Rain Gardens by Nigel Dunnett and Andy Clayden (Timber Press), has come up with some pretty good answers.
Building on practices developed in Oregon, in the north-west United States, over the past five years, it suggests that we make the most of rainfall whenever it happens - storing water for use during drier times, and incorporating features into our gardens that not only help prevent flood damage but also enhance the aesthetic, sensory and wildlife potential of the space.
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This doesn't just mean installing a water-butt or two; it involves a complete re-think about how we value water as a resource.
At present, rainwater that falls on to buildings or hard surfaces is directed straight into drains, which rush it away as fast as possible into rivers, sewers or massive urban treatment centres, while we still rely largely on the mains supply for watering our parks and gardens. The recent trend for replacing planted areas with impermeable paving, concrete paths, patios and car parking, has only exacerbated the problem, particularly after heavy rains, when storm surges cause drains and sewers to flood. And when prolonged drought necessitates hose-pipe and sprinkler bans, our landscapes pay the price.
How much wiser, the authors argue, to design around a cycle that both slows and reduces water run-off and also stores any excess or delivers it wherever and whenever it is needed in the garden.
Their "stormwater chain" begins with the principle of reducing hard surfaces: using permeable surfaces (such as gravel and permeable paving) rather than "sealed" ones where planting is not desired, promoting mixed planting, and creating green roofs wherever possible. The increased vegetation intercepts heavy rainfall, slowing and reducing run-off, and looks beautiful into the bargain.
The next step in the chain is to capture run-off by disconnecting downpipes - practice on a shed to begin with. This can be done with conventional water butts, but also via more convoluted routes - emptying downpipes into deep-sided "stormwater planters", with run-off rills and gullies dispersing excess water to other spots in the garden where it can be used for irrigating vegetables, or emptied into a pond.
Another important tenet of "rain gardening" is to make water and its flow visible, wherever possible. Downpipes are thus replaced by decorative "rain chains" (in cup or link designs), while the rills and gullies that transport the water become attractive components in the garden rather than buried underground. Designed to look good whether full or dry, the gullies can take a wide range of forms - from a delta of six-inch-wide streams in which children can sail toy boats (substitute model cars or marbles when dry) to wider channels set within paving or steps inspired by the Alhambra or the Villa Lante.
These channels might lead into lower-lying "swales" - dips in the landscape, lined with pebbles or planted with vegetation that can cope with periods underwater - or run into permanent ponds, which can overflow, when needed, into further swales beyond.
Functioning best when long, shallow and meandering in form, swales slow the progress of excess water, allowing for natural evaporation into the air and absorption into the soil.
Only when they themselves become full, at the very end of the stormwater chain, is excess water diverted into the conventional drainage network.
Rain Gardens' authors stress that it is by no means necessary to include all elements of the chain into your garden. Just one or two will break the conventional drainage chain of roof or paved surface to sewer, but combining two or more ideas will multiply the benefits.
The idea of designing an entire garden around the intermittent presence of water is, however, extremely inspiring, and one I feel certain we will see more of in the future. If it helps to sound the death knell of the now-ubiquitous "water feature", run on mains water, powered by electricity, and often stylistically parachuted into the garden, with no use or relevance to the rest of the scheme, I, for one, feel it will not have come a day too soon.
Rain Gardens by Nigel Dunnett and Andy Clayden (Timber Press) is available for the reduced price of £23 + £1.25 p&p. To order please call Telegraph Books on 0870 428 4115.
Yesterday I posted about the garden community failing to 'talk' to the Blackberry generation, raised on ad concepts, alien to a spade and techno lovers.
Well, I guess I was unfair to Richard Dhennin who creates very unique almost art pieces using structures to grow plants on. I love this very consumerist Barcode!
The Chelsea Flower show is a great event. However it could be fantastic if it opened up to a more forward looking approach. I think one just has to see the crowd: a delightful group of over 40 's ( hmmm ...50's?). Not that many youngsters.
Even the so called modern gardens are variations on a theme and not really groundbreaking. The show is a perfect reflection of what the Garden community says/does/ promotes. So perhaps it is not so surprising
that more and more younger people are calling on architects rather than garden designers to get their gardens/outdoor space designed. They are the Ipod, Plasma TV , Blackberry generation.Spades and dirt are alien to them. Even the Society of Garden Designers has acknowledged that time is running out to get them interested in plants and gardens per say. I feel that EPCOT is a great example of what can....... be done to involve this new generation .
Epcot is the second theme park of Disney world in America. It is dedicated to new technologies.
It encompassed various sections including one dedicated to 'Innoventions' .Fellow blogger Paradise express reports on 'THE LAND'.This section is a fun area but also an educational one. It showcases new ideas and ongoing research on things like Hydroponics ( made famous by Patrick Blanc's ' green 'wall).
They also are brilliant at giving veg growing a space age and design twist that has the oumpf to excite the younger group.
I received a comment yesterday encouraging me to check out http://www.yourbackyardfarmer.com/ Hiring
your own private farmer is for the most urban types - ie those with no
time no experience but the will... a great solution. Again you can use designer raised bed, ultra chic over sized planters to keep your design style intact. It is only conventional thinking that wants us to think in either or PS:Thx for the lead!
David Giovannitti is said to be aiming to develop his practice in London and Paris.
This is great news as he brings radical new ideas to the outdoor space. As one can see left he masters the use of Corian in this New York space. Versatility is extreme: it can be an elegant adult reception space totally in sync with the indoor decoration and in minutes be transfigured into a happy colorful playground.
I was fortunate enough to attend the conference organised by UK's Society of Garden Designers.
Andrew Wilson chaired the session. In his very witty introduction,Wilson highlighted a point that I found very UGDG ish : the next
generation loves outdoor spaces in a very different way to every
previous one.
Change in garden design is still only at its early stages. Our
vocabulary will be in need for a new term: should the new outdoor creations be tagged 'gardens' ?
Whilst the UK was a leading force in the development of what has
become known as the transition from pure gardens to true outdoor rooms,
the more radical options and designs are coming from new countries such
as Australia, New Zealand and the US.
The conference high point for me was the presentation by V.Sitta of his work in Australia.
He is an icon of outdoor design and breaks so many conventions it would be arrogant to say more here except : Google him!
I was however left hungry after the observation was
made: yes the notion of garden is changing. Yes already disruptive
designers have appeared such as Sitta. Conceptual gardens and strong
deco designs are taking precedence over planting issues as a badge of
excellence.
Before I expand on this , for now I can say that obvious next steps may include
1-the rise of urban escapism ( designs that offer the sensations far
away breaks offer: obvious things could include moonlight campfire experiences, the thrill of
outdoor bathing not just in pools etc...)
2-the rapid rise of edible gardens both for self reliance and for personal gourmet cachet...
3- versatile multi target spaces: the outdoor space in a home is one single space but many potential users!.
Concealing technologies are on the rise and designs that include
true versatility will see the space taking on different functions at
different moments rather than having functional corners ' a la kids
corner/ gourmet corner etc..).
Soon more on deeper changes but for now: I recommend Wilson's books to get a
good feel for the first transition phase of gardens. A great idea for
your X mas gift list!
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