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We asked
Adam a range of questions that help to describe his design influences....
Why would a client choose you?
There are many garden designers
and landscapers out
there and I appreciate the choice for a new client is difficult to make,
given that there are so many to choose from. The phone directories are
full of them. However, as a small company we can can give individual care
and attention to each and every single garden.
Many of our clients have
become very good friends over the years and they know they aren't
hiring 'white van man' who doesn't know the first thing about gardening.
They're hiring someone who has almost twenty years experience in the
business. I've been practising the art of gardens for more than half my
life and have a real passion which I'm told shows in the gardens we
create.
With a First Class Honours in
Garden Design and years of experience to my name, I feel confident that
our company can understand each client on a personal basis, creating an
outdoor space that is a private work of art individual to them. I was very
moved by a comment from one of my clients when she said that the garden we
had created,
"Changed her life".
I'm a previous chairman of the
Guild of Landscape Designers (GoLD). The Guild comprises of garden and
landscape designers who are fully qualified and dedicated to raising
standards in the profession. I practice according to a code
of conduct.
So, Adam, what's new?
We've recently completed a
variety of different gardens, including several courtyards and two
larger gardens. Every garden is as unique as their owners so there's no
limit to what can be achieved with careful planning and intelligent
design. See our portfolio
for photographs of the finished gardens.
We're also proud sponsors of
last year's Ellenor Open Garden Scheme 2006. So far we've managed to raise
almost
£2000 for the Ellenor, our chosen charity.
What really counts is the passion one brings to each and every garden.
Some people approach this profession as just a job. To me it's a way of
life.
I'm currently writing a
monthly column for Kent Life Magazine and have also been a
regular contributor for Kent County Magazine and Meridian Magazine.
Last year I had the pleasure
of being interviewed for the BBC1 6 O'clock News in a feature on how
climate change affects gardeners here in the South East. It's something
we're very aware of as a company and we aim to design drought tolerant
planting schemes which not only benefit wildlife but also save precious
resources, too.
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Can you describe your CV?
I started early at the age of 16, doing general
gardening jobs for a whole multitude of different gardens, studying for
my Gardening City and Guilds
at the same time. Then I worked many years at Ruxley Manor Garden Centre
in Kent and Coolings Nurseries to improve my plant knowledge. I also
learnt a great deal about serving the public during these early years
which has proved invaluable.
In 1993 I enrolled at Hadlow College for the
Garden Design BA Honours Degree, with a final year at University of
Greenwich where I qualified with
First
Class Honours in Garden Design.
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Shortly after that I spent a learning period at
a landscape architect's practice in Kensington, London, designing
Mediterranean gardens abroad, before setting up on
my own. Since then our company's work has been seen
throughout the home counties all the way to the coast. I was very
pleased to be interviewed on BBC Radio Kent in 2003 for our
Mediterranean Garden in Eynsford which I still look after. We are also proud to be designing schemes for
important developers like Rydon Homes who consistently win awards for
their excellence. What
are your five favourite plants?
It's got to be the following, although I know I
get teased about the Rudbeckias since I use so many of them in my
designs - but, hey, they are fantastic!
Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm', Stipa arundinacea,
Hemerocallis 'Cartwheels' , Quercus robur and
Brunnera 'Jack Frost' in no particular order.
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What's
your favourite gardening tool / piece of kit?
Probably my Felco 7 secateurs. They've got the swivel handle and I
can use it all day for 'tweaking' things in the garden.
Who
is your most admired designer (dead or alive?)
That's a hard one! Probably Jellicoe
since I studied him at University and he really made me sit up and think
about the psychology of sensitive landscape design. Otherwise, I'd
choose Christopher Lloyd, an absolute plantsman genius. He wasn't
afraid to try bold combinations and what he didn't know about planting
design probably isn't worth knowing!
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What's
your favourite external space (garden or architecture?)
We visited La Grande Arche, La Defence in
France a few years back. It's a working office block - but with a
difference. From a long way off it looks like a giant white square
on the horizon. When you're standing underneath it, it's like nothing
else on Earth. The geometry is so clear, so pure and so...huge!!
Imagine a white cube, big enough to contain Notre Dame Cathedral, with a
hollow middle you can walk through. Designed by Otto von Spreckelsen,
it's simply mind-blowing.
Can
you describe your personal design bias?
Keep it simple! Be it materials, planting
or spatial schematics, take the ideas and then carve them down to a
simpler form. Then do it again. The simplest designs, like the paper
clip, are usually the strongest and most beautiful.
What's
your most memorable gardening story?
I did a garden for Harriet Roberts, one of Tina
Turners' song writers a few years back (yes, I know it's name
dropping!) One afternoon it was raining so hard I had to admit
defeat and retreat back indoors. Harriet was playing her piano and asked
me if I played anything. I said I played (a very bad!) guitar. Before I
knew it, there I was, jamming with Harriet, improvising the only piece I
knew, Hugh Christie Piece No 5 for guitar. Not gardening, but
certainly a special garden that left an impression on me.
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What
do you grow at home?
No prizes for guessing!... Rudbeckias. Also, Cissus striata, a very underused evergreen
climber.
Quite a lot of Miscanthus, too with Alliums, Heuchera
'Bressingham Bronze' all partying away happily together.
Stipa giganteas
soften the line between the garden and the meadow beyond whilst
self-seeded poppies are given VIP status amongst the Nepeta 'Six Hills
Giant'.
In my garden things are
never really 'neat' as I often let things happen of their own accord and
it's amazing sometimes what results you get.
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Finally,
what do you see as the future of garden design?
We need to get away from
the quick-fix, soul-less media junk. Gardening is a very personal
thing, it takes time to learn and patience to become good at. Good
design refines the process of understanding the land around us. Garden
design could be
seen as the greatest of all the arts in the future - after all, wasn't
it Jellicoe who said that garden design is the only art to reach all
five senses?...
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