Tidy up time!
This sunny morning seems like a good time to have a tidy up. No wonder I couldn't fit any more plans into my cupboard. I have been fortunate to have a steady stream of work since I started my Garden Design Diploma with The Pickard School in 2007. The first garden project was on an Eco house in Bristol. This was quite a new concept back in 2007. In this first garden I learned how to take measurements and translate them to a scale for a survey. This is a crucial part of the design process. If this goes wrong then the plan wont fit. Learning to technically draw is hard at first making sure everything is to the right scale and size but it soon becomes second nature. Even though some of my work is now done on computer I still like to sit at my drawing board and see the size and shape of the garden in plan. This is like taking a birds eye view of the garden. It helps me visualise the space and there is no substitute for feeling your way around the space with options of various designs dictated by the client brief and the feasibility of the site. Sometimes a new design will emerge very quickly but sometimes it is a matter of working on it from different angles with different techniques of thinking such as ‘brainstorming’ or ‘colour blocking’ or ‘thinking outside the box’. Sometimes I need to look at images of things I might be stuck on such as pergola’s or particular plants giving a certain look before the whole thing comes together. This is part of the creative process of putting together a mood board for how the garden might begin to take shape.
My first paid commission was a Japanese inspired garden. The inspiration came from a dojo studio in the garage. The client wanted something different. In it we put the Japanese symbols of water and bamboo and stones to denote special places to enter like in a tea garden. The veg beds were inspired by rice paddy fields.
Since then there have been gardens of all shapes and sizes. I have had the pleasure of working with many lovely families at all stages of their lives. Some just starting out in their new home, some needing garden changes to accommodate growing families, some with more free time now that their family has left home and of course those in their twilight years wanting less maintenance work.
Garden sizes have varied some really tiny just a few metres wide and deep which can be hard to squeeze in practical requirements, to large landscapes of many acres with orchards, kitchen gardens and ponds.
Whatever the project I always enjoy creating and fulfilling the brief. Sometimes the journey can be rocky but we always land on safe ground. Taking the journey together is the best bit.
If you are interested in improving your garden with a design then do get in touch.
Garden Designs of many shapes and sizes