Editor’s letter
Designer Nigel Dunnett is famed for his critically acclaimed public planting, notably his rhythmic Olympic Park scheme in Stratford, east London, and the colourful meadowesque planting he has installed amid the Brutalist architecture of London’s Barbican Centre. Roundabouts and traffic islands in Sheffield’s city centre, joyful with wildflowers, are further testament to the scope of his work. Nigel’s planting is designed to evoke the same human response as immersion in nature, be it awe and wonder in a vast steppe landscape or the hush of a bluebell wood. Pleasure is his driver.
Is it possible to achieve the same human response within a small garden? Nigel’s own garden near Sheffield suggests yes. Immersive and painterly with repeating rhythms, textures and colour, it is a place where beauty and wildlife co-exist.
The garden at Ladies Lake on the east coast of Fife takes its name from the old tidal bathing pools that lie below its cliffs. Designed by plantsman Colin McBeath, it transitions between an architecturally designed house and the exceptional land and seascape beyond. The planting is deft and compelling. Spacious to echo the coastline, yet rich in detail, it includes plants such as Fatsia japonica and Knautia macedonica cultivars as well as more traditional coastal plants. Created over the past five years, it is a masterwork in slow, considered design.
The floral, crepe paper sculptures made by American artist Tiffanie Turner are no common-or-garden paper flowers but rather incredible, wall-hung constructions of exaggerated size. Tiffanie, a former architect, recreates chrysanthemums, dahlias and roses at every stage in their life cycle, exploring issues around the ageing process and our understanding of beauty.
I hope you enjoy the issue,