The more I think about it the more your decision to raze the existing garden and start again seems right. I think what FCO have proposed is an excellent start. Now the issue is to show that architecture is a subset of gardening rather than the other way around. Bravo!…….
Thank you for inviting me to what was a very entertaining and thought provoking evening. It is certainly the first time I have been hissed by such an illustrious company.
The idea that a garden designer might not actively work as a gardener seems to evoke quite strong reactions at times. Perhaps its because we neither boast the status of architects/landscape architects, nor do we feel the need to boast the presence of dirt under our finger nails. Although many garden and landscape designers begin their careers ‘in the potting shed’, and indeed many still do actively participate in the building and maintenance of gardens, your presumption that you need a ‘gardener’ at this early stage may be I feel restricting.
Your mother seemed to strongly disagree with my notion that at the end of the day my clients ‘own’ the gardens I design. That is not to say that I don’t feel a continuing connection with the gardens I design. I merely assert that part of my function as a garden designer is to bridge the gap between my clients and their gardens, to create a connection which allows them to enjoy the space created. Where that leads is a personal journey.
The small number of submissions you have recieved so far may be connected with the way the competition is framed. There is an implication in the competition guidelines that you are looking for a live in gardener to ‘fill’ the spaces. I know from listening to you last night that you are seeking to caste your net far wider than that in the search for ideas. My own perseption of the situation is that you would not have gone to such great effort if you were not searching for your own ‘way into’ the garden as its owner. I hope that the choice of a successful plan will not be unduly biased by the need for a live-in gardener. If you have the right connection with the resulting design, a suitably qualified gardener to service the garden will in all likelihood find you.
As a potential competitor, I am more interested in your feelings about the space. You have already made what appears to be a lunge at the project borne out of frustration at the layers of history which were powerful, and visibly deteriorating. I would have enjoyed the challenge of searching for a useable thread that could provide some historical linkage. Nevertheless, nature and designers abhor a vacuum so even if you do nothing, your garden will at least be colonised and reclaimed by the living landscape in which it is located.
As a garden designer, I applaud the opportunity you are offering and as you said last night, if I dont like FOA’s layout ‘See if you can do better’ is the challenge!
THANK YOU FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO TALK ABOUT THE HADSPEN PROJECT FOR THE
EXHIBITION. STRANGELY ENOUGH YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON, BESIDES FRIENDS, WHO
HAS SHOWN AN INTEREST IN OUR THOUGHTS. THIS IS RATHER SURPRISING AS MANY OF
THE JUDGES ON NIALL’S LIST WERE CUSTOMERS, GARDEN COLLEAGUES AND
AQUAINTANCES.
HADSPEN PROVIDED US WITH AN AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL SETTING TO PLY OUR ART
FORM. WE HAD A WONDERFUL, SUPPORTIVE, INSPIRING AND YES,
SOMETIMESCHALLENGING AUDIENCE IN OUR VISITORS. THE SAME FAMILIES RETURNING
YEAR AFTER YEAR TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SEASON’S FAMILY PASS, EAGER TO SEE
ANY CHANGES AND TO TAKE TEA IN THE GARDENER’S BOTHY.I DON’T THINK ANYONE
BORNE TO THE ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN WILL UNDERSTAND JUST HOW INCREDIBLE THE
CHANCE TO GARDEN IN THIS SETTING WAS FOR TWO CANADIANS.
WE CAME WITH A PASSION FOR GARDENS, GARDENING AND PLANTS. FOR NEARLY TWENTY
YEARS WE LIVED FOR THE GARDEN AND NURSERY. DESIGNING AND PLANNING OUR COLOUR
THEMES, OBSERVING, SELECTING, BREEDING AND PROPAGATING PLANTS FOR SPECIFIC
DESIGN NEEDS.
THE TIME HAD COME FOR CHANGE, AND AS ANDREW LAWSON ONCE SAID WHAT MORE CAN
YOU DO HERE! ONE OF THE WORST CASE SCENARIOS FOR US IS THE MUMMIFYING OF A
GARDEN. IT IS SOMETIMES ACHIEVED TO GREAT SUCCESS BUT RARELY. HADSPEN HAD TO
MOVE FORWARD, GARDENS IN THE 21ST CENTURY NEED TO MEET MUCH MORE DIVERSE
NEEDS.
THE COMPETITION AND THE MACHINE OF THE COMPETITION IS AN INNOVATIVE WAY
FORWARD, TAKING THE GARDEN INTO WHAT IS NORMALLY THE ART/ARCHITECTURE FORUM.
THE ‘A ‘LIST OF JUDGES IS CERTAINLY IMPRESSIVE. THE TIMING IS RIGHT,
ENVIRONMENTALLY, SOCIALLY AND CULTURALLY GARDENING MUST CHANGE. NIALL’S
GENEROSITY TO INNITIATE THE PROJECT, TURN HADSPEN OVER TO THE SUCCESSFUL
CANDIDATE, AND TO FUND THE PROJECT IS TO BE APPLAUDED.
THE STRENGTH OF ENGLISH GARDENS IS THAT THEY ARE BUILT ON THE PAST, THE BEST
POINTS CHERRY PICKED FROM CENTURIES OF SKILLED GARDENERS. ADAPTED AND
MANIPULATED TO CONFORM TO THE PRESENT DAY’S TRENDS AND NEEDS.NIALL’S
APPROACH OF ERASING ALL THE HISTORY OF THE GARDEN IS TANTAMOUNT TO BOOK
BURNING.
WE HAVE SEEN THE RECENT PHOTOS OF THE GARDEN’S DESTRUCTION AND WHAT CAN WE
SAY, TWENTY YEARS OF OUR WORK AND TWO CENTURIES OF MANY OTHER GARDENERS
DISSAPPEARED IS A POWERFUL STATEMENT.
THE QUESTION IS WHY? YES, WE KNOW NIALL WANTED TO MAKE IT HIS OWN GARDEN.
BUT WHERE IS HIS GARDEN? WHAT IS HIS PASSION FOR IT? WHERE IS HIS HEART OF
HEARTS? WHY SACRIFICE EVERYTHING? WHAT WILL REPLACE IT? WAS THE DESTRUCTION
SO NECCESSARY. WHAT IF THERE IS NO
SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATE?
IT IS IRONIC THAT ‘THE MUSEUM OF GARDEN HISTORY’ IS HOSTING THE EXHIBITION
WHEN THE HISTORY OF HADSPEN GARDEN HAS BEEN SWEPT AWAY.
WOULDN’T IT BE AMUSING IF OUR SUBMISSION IS CHOSEN?
CAN YOU PLEASE SEND US AN EDITED COPY BEFORE YOU USE IT?
YOUR COMMENT ON THE VISIT TO HADSPEN WITH YOUR DAUGHTER REALLY SUMS UP WHAT
HADSPEN WAS FOR US AND OUR LOYAL VISITORS.
The Museum of Garden History is working with Niall Hobhouse to present an
exhibition about the Hadspen Parabola competition, and I am curating the
exhibition.
As part of the narrative we intend to tell the history of the garden,
including of course your work - Heather Edwards is letting us use some of
her images from 2005, just before you left which show the wonderful
planting
and colour combinations that were so much your trademark there.
I wondered if you would be prepared to contribute to the exhibition by
emailing your thoughts about the dramatic end to ‘your’ garden, together
with any reminiscences of your time there, hopes for the future of the
site
etc. You can be as controversial as you like ( knowing Niall you will
appreciate this I’m sure) but also as honest as you can be. Many of our
visitors will feel puzzled by the ideas behind the competition, and some
I’m
sure will be troubled when they see image of the now cleared site.
Do let me know if you feel you can help with this
p.s I have a very happy memory of visiting the garden when my now 15 year
old daughter was a toddler. I was showing her the rain drops on the
leaves
of Alchemilla mollis and talking to her about how they looked like
jewels.
Nori was in the potting shed and came out to say how lovely it had been
to
overhear the conversation!
I think it is really as simple as the way you have expressed it here.
If your idea is a good one then it should not need detailed expression of
any kind.
Time enough later to work the detail out.
I am really pleased you are taking part.
I take part in the Hadspen Garden Competition and have questions regarding
the first submission (A3-sheet).
What kind of images am I allowed to place ( i.e. preferences, drawings which
explain my idea) and how detailed should they be?
How detailed do you want the written explanation of the concept?
had supper with yseulte and threated to use plaster parabola for ashtray - it makes a very good one.
great news that the ‘patron saint of england’ is to joion the happy few.
see you at the MGH
The list is much more distinguished now that you three have been added to it.
I’ve now accessed your list of judges “too many and too distinguished to mention in a private letter to a friend” as Max Bearbuam wrote to Reggie Turner, I think (it could have been the other way around). What a collection. I’m honoured to be among them, presumably along with the blessed Bannermans,
What a charming and generous letter; and thank you for the engaging picture it offers of your life in retreat.
For the moment as you see, I am stuck with deciding which idyll it would be nice eventually to retire into. I just read a sympathetic interview with a former socialist mayor of Milwaukee (don’t ask); confronted with two signposts - the first reading ‘Heaven’, the other ‘Lectures about Heaven’ - he says that he would always choose the second.
Very pleased I will see you on the 27th, and perhaps some new knowledge can be created. Apart from the prospect of a tournee between the world’s most subtly feline architect and the great warhorses of the gardening Establishment, I am now convinced that my mother, confronted with my wayward taste, is determined to say in company (and as a kind of public duty), what she has refused to say to me in private. Stay for supper afterwards if you are minded and free.