365 actual days, and, as those days have gone by, so has our lovely group grown steadily to become what it is today.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot above that our podcast here has changed its name to Rich Pickings, and yes, this podcast itself is about to change into something much more exciting: more to be announced on that very soon. As a hint, the nest podcast, coming next week, won’t just be me talking to myself; it has become an actual conversation… and, believe it or not, there’s an actual editor.)

Here within The Gardening Mind, there are all sorts of other sections you can subscribe to if you’re a paying subscriber: these include garden design courses, an archive stuffed full of goodies, and mentoring.

To read more of Jo’s blog click here

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To read more of Jo’s blog – The Gardening Mind, click here

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This week, an email plopped into my inbox, letting me know me that The Gardening Mind is, excitingly, on the way to doing what it initially set out to do, which was to bring a group of people together to share ideas about gardens, gardening, nature (and as it turns out, so much more), in a more satisfying, coherent and organised way, on a platform that wasn’t dependent on algorithms or a good photo in order to reach people.

To read more of Jo’s blog – The Gardening Mind, click here

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“Size doesn’t matter”.

The size of your outside space doesn’t matter. You have it, you can do something with it and it’ll make your life better. It really will.

To read more of Jo’s blog – The Gardening Mind, click here

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The British Textile Biennial took place last month, running a host of fascinating exhibitions and talks around textile design and history.

In our studio we have a principle of really tuning into the landscape surrounding a garden. Our aspiration is to preserve and build on a garden’s unique sense of place in all our designs. And in this regard, it can be useful to first look to the past – for understanding, as much as for inspiration.

In her biennial-inspired podcast ‘Cloth Cultures’ curator and broadcaster, Amber Butchart, talks about a beautifully embroidered herb pillow, thought to date from the 16^th century. It is adorned with an intricate tapestry of insects and flowers – from pea pods to butterflies and snails. To have studied and captured the beauty of these living wonders in needle and thread speaks of a real awe and appreciation of wildlife.

For time immemorial the natural world has inspired art, literature, fashion, design. Fast-forward to modern day and our finely balanced eco-system is in jeopardy.

We are all familiar with the rally cry to improve biodiversity and protect precious wildlife. The idea that we are ‘custodians’ of our outdoor spaces is uppermost in people’s minds.

Increasing the volume and variety of pollinating plants in our gardens, balconies and window boxes is a simple, achievable step in helping to combat this challenge.

Through our design process, we invite clients to create places which ‘shouldn’t look as if we’ve been there’. A gentle intervention inspired directly by what lies around us. We look to the natural forms of locally-occurring plants, with flowers that can be easily accessed by insects – avoiding double flower cultivars, for example, which are not an accessible to visiting pollinators.

Wildflower meadows large and small have meant an increase in pollinators and wildlife generally in the gardens we make. Choosing the right plant for the right place is important for the sustainability of the space, ensuring that it isn’t too hard to maintain and reducing the need for irrigation. Grass lawns have become clover lawns for the pollinators; shrub borders are filled with plants that butterflies love.

Using a combination of plants which offer a range of flower shape – umbellifer, spire, daisy – will help cater for a mixture of different insect types. 

A few of our studio plant staples for pollinators include: Agastache foeniculum, Buddleja davidii, Digitalis x mertonensis,  Eupatorium maculatum, Foeniculum vulgare, Geranium Rozanne.

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Course Date: 09/10/2021

The London College of Garden Design’s Autumn Conference

From the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in-person and online on Saturday 9^th October 2021

For centuries plants and gardens have clearly been influential on fashion sensibility. The fashion industry’s most lauded designers from Hardy Amies, Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior to Dries Van Noten, Vivienne Westwood and Raf Simons are known for recurrent themes around flora and gardens and the influence of their own gardens on their work. But does it work both ways? Are garden designers influenced by fashion professionals?

For our 2021 Autumn Conference the London College of Garden Design explores the influence of plants, gardens and landscapes on fashion and the favour that fashion returns to our work as gardeners, horticulturists and designers. Join us on Saturday 9^th October 2021 for a day focussed on the relationship between gardens and fashion.

Confirmed speakers

Amy de la Haye

iProfessor of Dress History and Fashion Curation and joint Director of the Centre for Fashion Curation at London College of Fashion.

Sam McKnight in conversation with Jo Thompson

Hairdressing legend and gardener Sam McKnight will be talking with Garden Design legend Jo Thompson.

Mairi Mackenzie

Research Fellow in Fashion and Textiles at Glasgow School of Art and a visiting lecturer at Glasgow University.

Geoffrey Munn OBE, MVO

Jewellery specialist, television presenter, writer and historian.

Justine Picardie

Contributing editor to Harper’s Bazaar and author of the soon to be published Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture.

Chairman – Andrew Fisher Tomlin

Founding Director of the London College of Garden Design.

TICKETS

The conference will be streamed online on Saturday 9^th October 2021 from 10am to 5.00pm. There are very limited in-person places available at Kew Gardens.

The conference will also be recorded and available in other time zones if you are unable to attend the live conference.

Online tickets

£49 before 1^st July £59 afterwards

Cambridge Cottage tickets

£249 with proceeds to Global Gardens of Peace

These tickets are limited to just 10 places on a first come, first served basis. They include refreshments on arrival, individual lunch and gift to include signed copies of “Ravishing: The Rose in Fashion” and “Miss Dior” at the end of the day. All proceeds from these tickets will be donated to Global Gardens of Peace. For more information please visit globalgardensofpeace.org

Catch-up tickets

£59

The conference will be available as an edited recording after the event and you will be sent an access code to view the event.

LCGD Students and Graduates

Free of charge

For more details and to enrol on this course you need to book via the link below

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/horticouture-plants-gardens-and-fashion-tickets-154364415121

For more Information please telephone

01483 762955  Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm

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We were delighted to be contacted by the garden historian Jill Sinclair about our work in restoring a garden by the great designer Percy Cane. He had become rather forgotten, but there are encouraging signs of a revival of interest, with Tom Stuart-Smith recently restoring much of his work at Hascombe Court and Dan Pearson working at Dartington. Meantime, the National Trust for Scotland is busy replanting much of Falkland Palace.

We have a passion for research into a garden’s history, and it was fascinating to compare our findings with Jill’s, and to contribute to her research.

GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS 

To the south of the main entrance to Sharnden house stone flags lead between low random-coursed stone piers with narrow double-leaf wrought iron gates in a 1m high wall to a terrace on the south front with views over surrounding countryside. Directly south of the gates, steps (now, 2004, in poor condition and with self-seeded plants) lead down to lower lawns (now bisected by the drive to Lower Sharnden). On the west side of the south terrace is a ruined conservatory, whilst at the east end, brick steps with stone retaining walls give access to an upper lawn with views across the lake and woods below. Centred on the south garden front door, a wide flight of shallow stone steps with stone retaining walls (with rock plants, Virginia creeper and wisteria) descends south towards lower lawns, the stone flags then continuing east to become a c300m paved terraced walk (now in divided ownership) described in the 1924 Studio article and contemporary illustrations. The first 40m of the paved walk is bordered by low walls with stone capping (now, 2004, under repair) and then descends by a series of steps to an entrance to the terrace gardens (now, 2004, blocked by a temporary wood and wire fence and the sundial from the 1920s sundial garden).   

Along the top of three terrace levels a 180m paved walk is bordered by grass and narrow flower borders below balustrade walls.  Beyond the walls on the north, the southern end of a lake, shown in the 1926 Sales Particulars as a lily pool is now, 2004, overgrown. On the east side of the lake, an entrance to Percy Cane’s upper glades remains framed by groups of native trees (including maple and beech) with an understorey of rhododendrons. On the south side of the paved walk views give onto the site of the 1920s rose garden on a terrace below and the countryside beyond. The walk descends by stone steps to a rectangular area c40m x 50m, the midpoint of the terrace gardens walk, a pool with eagle statue and stone flag surrounds forming the central feature. The paved walk then continues east as a lavender walk with standard roses, terminating in a late C20 wooden arch that leads to informal glades and the site of former tennis and croquet lawns (1935 Sales Particulars), sheltered by mature trees and shrubs.

On the south end of the north-south axis with the pool, steps (now, 2004, in poor repair and self-seeded with ferns and cotoneaster) lead to the site of the 1920s rose garden still enclosed by topiary and yew hedges. The garden’s crazy paving circular path and arc-shaped rose beds (shown in contemporary illustrations) have been replaced by lawn. Adjacent to the former rose garden on the east, Lower Sharnden is accessed along a tarmacadam drive from the west (with Victorian style lampposts), which has replaced the west-east path of Cane’s rose bed.  Along the drive, borders contain herbaceous planting and a recessed seating area in the north retaining wall (1935 Sales Particulars) is, 2004, hidden behind an overgrown rhododendron. From the former rose garden a path leads south to steps down to a paved garden on the lowest terrace. Similar steps descend from the south front of Lower Sharnden, a recessed circular pool built into the north retaining wall forming a central point. The quadripartite design of the paved garden with central rectangular pool survives (illustrated in the 1920s and 1930s as planted with rock plants and small shrubs), but is now, 2004, partly hidden beneath a profusion of mature acers, azaleas and flowering shrubs. Bastions with integral seating (now, 2004, in poor condition with self-seeded ferns and other plants) on the south-west and south-east corners of the paved garden give views over informal glades and woodlands below, accessed by two flights of steps. 

Steps (now, 2004, with grey-painted metal rail on the east side)from the south-west of the terraced garden leadto guest accommodation set on a level platform (with empty swimming pool below the building) with views over the surrounding fields and woodland. Glades with wide grassed walks between mature shrub and tree plantings (including Lebanon and blue cedars and redwoods) enclose the garden on the south-east, east and north-east.  To the north-east, the glades border the main section of the lily pool, steps and retaining rockery walls (now, 2004, in poor condition) rising on the west side to the upper lawn.

KITCHEN GARDEN

The C19 trapezium-shaped kitchen garden,brick walled on the west and south sides, is located 120m south-west of the main house of Sharnden to the west of the entrance drive.  The north side is bounded by a pond edge (on which are the remains of a C19 wind turbine for lifting water) and the east side by a hedge along a track to the C15 manor house. Shown on the 1^sted OS map as partly orchard, by 1935 the garden was described as ‘well-stocked with fruit trees, and containing a range of heated glasshouses comprising:- vinery, tomato house, flower, fig and melon houses’. The kitchen garden is now part of the gatehouse property, the glasshouses no longer exist (2004) and the ground is cultivated as an ornamental, vegetable and fruit garden.

Read more on Jill’s talks on Percy Cane here.

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Jo will be joining Nigel Dunnett, Fergus Garrett, Diarmuid Gavin and many other inspirational speakers at the Association of Professional Landscape Designers conference on the 23rd-26th September. For more information, visit the APLD website.

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