MY FAVOURITE VIEW

During lockdown, interior designer and TV personality Laurence Llewelyn-bowen has found a new love and appreciation for his family garden

For Laurence Llewelyn-bowen, it’s his very own Cotswolds garden

Lockdown has seen many of us value our gardens so much more

We live in a very beautiful corner of the planet and it’s often difficult not to find beauty wherever you look; but this summer it’s the view of my Cotswolds garden that means the most to me. It’s something that is denied to me for much of the year with my international filming and, under normal circumstances, I’d be getting off one plane, spending a couple of days at home before hopping on another flight, so I was so lucky to get locked down here.

This time of year, particularly, is something that I’ve got very little experience of at home. I’m seeing the garden in a fabulous new light and it’s inspiring me. The other day, I went out and started drawing and have begun working on a couple of patterns based on the flora of the garden. I’ll have to forewarn all my manufacturers that my new season’s collections are all going to be total country garden as I’ve been very much hit by the William Morris stick! I love the idea that this time next year products all over the world will have a piece of my slice of the Cotswolds on them.

The garden is a spectacular space but it’s very much my wife Jackie’s domain – she is Queen of the Garden! Also, traditionally I’ve found gardening very frustrating… One of the joys of interior design is you choose a wallpaper and stick it on a wall and it doesn’t need pruning in six months, or when you put a carpet down you don’t need to mow it. With gardens there’s a real exercise, not only in patience, but in just accepting the fact that it’s going to be the way it is. Last year, if a topiary went wonky

I’d have been obsessing over getting it straight, but now

I’ve learned to love those imperfections. A garden forces you to relax; you can’t change it all.

Wildlife has always been inspiring to me, but previously I’ve always looked to exotic landscapes. Now, I’m getting every bit as excited and engaged with the home-grown and local nature around me. I’ve never been inspired to this extent before by my own natural world, by the flora underneath my nose

– so it’s been a really heartening and levelling experience.

Watch Laurence Llewelyn-bowen’s

School of Flock on Youtube, new episodes every Sunday.