MY GARDEN LIFE
Isabelle Palmer
“THIS YEAR GARDENING HAS BEEN PUSHED TO THE FOREFRONT. PEOPLE WANT THEIR GARDENS TO BE SAFE, TRANQUIL SPACES THAT ATTRACT
WILDLIFE AND ARE BEAUTIFUL TO LOOK AT”
QWhat first sparked your interest in gardening?
My family have been avid gardeners for generations, so the seed was sown at a young age and I vividly remember my first taste of planting was a strawberry plant. In keeping with the family tradition, I also got my two-year-old her first strawberry plant this summer and she was still talking about it weeks after it had stopped fruiting.
QHow did The Balcony Gardener come about?
When I first moved to London I had a flat with two very small balconies – it was a contrast to the large garden I was used to growing up and I wanted to recreate a piece of that in my new home. When it came to populating the space with plants and furniture, I felt that there wasn’t the range of outdoor products available in the UK that suited my taste. It was also difficult to find anything that wasn’t made of plastic, so I began sourcing beautiful pots crafted from natural materials from countries like Sweden and creating and selling ready-made containers online. From there I started designing bespoke spaces for clients. My mentality throughout my career has always been to say yes to opportunities and find a way to make them work.
QContainers or landscaping?
At home I have a balcony and a larger garden so I feel connected to both worlds. Both are enjoyable but if I had to pick it would be containers, the main benefit being the instant gratification. We can create amazing in a day, whereas in a large garden it could take years to achieve the look you want. More care is required with containers, whereas big gardens can be left to their own devices a bit more.
QWhat is your approach to designing balconies?
I approach them as I would do any other room in the house. Clients will tell me about the sort of gardens they like and we try and create a condensed version of that. I pick up on the style of the room that leads to the balcony. There might be a beautiful painting on the wall that will inform the colour choices of the plants. I think of the garden as the fifth room and make the design fit the aesthetic. The finished space should elongate the home, so interior design is as important as garden design when it comes to small gardens and balconies.
QWhich garden designers influence you most?
I take a lot of influence from interiors because to me they go hand in hand with garden design. But for garden designers, I like Isabel and Julian Bannerman who did the garden at Highgrove. They have a way of mixing nature with surrounding structures that is very original. Their style is undulating and looks like a beautiful picture. There’s structure, but there’s a wild harmony to it that fits with my design ethos. You need order to hold it together but I like a painterly element, too. I went to art college and there are a lot of similarities between gardening and art as both are about creating a picture. I’ve always loved painting and colour is so important to me. How I express it now is in the garden.
QHave you seen any big shifts in garden design this year?
Before this year nearly every brief had ‘pretty and low-maintenance’ at the top, whereas now it’s about more than that. Mindfulness and tranquillity play a huge part and people want to feel connected to nature – it’s about creating a welcoming space for wildlife as well as family and friends. The therapeutic element means that people are happy to spend a bit more time growing and maintaining. Next year it will be even more about multitasking. We expect our gardens to work a lot harder for us and become so much more than just a place to sit and have lunch. They are an entertaining space, a work place, a vegetable garden and a healing retreat.
QWhat’s next for you?
I want to look into developing my own range of outdoor products – pieces that speak to my personal design ethos and aesthetic.
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