There is a shift in emphasis towards design as a transform at ive process for poe plea swell as the space
Conrad Batten
Garden designer There is a shift in emphasis towards design as a transformative process for people, as well as the space. Materials, plants and a maker’s spirit forge something far more than a garden – more a life moment or a feel that expresses, enriches and ripples beyond its creation.
Clients talk of feeling rooted in an uncertain time in their lives, others enthuse in the curiosity of exploring life’s connections and the launching of ideas a garden can engender. Another client has changed in their need to command the space, delighting in working with chance. One client whispered to me as we watched a teenager daydreaming in a beanbag, ‘he hasn’t been on his phone all day’.
It’s nothing new, but it seems to have grown as a response to the way we live. A search for balance, time out, the real.
Chris Moss
Landscape gardener Following a year of harsh extremes of weather in the garden, it is becoming even more important to respond to what nature throws at us, and rather than fight against it, to design instinctively. We are increasingly aware that gardens are not created for instant effect but require careful observation, planning and a lot of patience.
As the importance of bio-security becomes more widely publicised, clients are now easily persuaded to choose plants wisely. Rather than searching out specimen plants from abroad, they prefer to support suppliers closer to home and to plant smaller specimens that establish without a dependence on irrigation.
Tony Woods
Garden designer, Garden Club London Commercial clients are realising the value of well-designed green space and the desirability it can add to a site. We are looking at bringing green space into some very complex urban spaces, which will require a lot of environmental engineering.
Residential clients are living in the same houses for longer and showing more interest in specimen planting and are more willing to express their personal taste in the garden rather than worrying what an estate agent would think, which was what seemed to dominate garden design for a few years.
Oh, and the patterns of crazy paving are back but in a refined format often using sawn stone and geometric shapes.
With plants, alpines are serving a fantastic purpose in drought-tolerant planting and are gaining popularity, which I think comes from a cross-over with the succulents craze.
Ann-Marie Powell
Garden designer Environment is playing a huge part in our clients’ garden aspirations – I first noticed ‘the windscreen phenomenon’ a few years ago while driving with my children; my windscreen remained clear of bugs even on motorways, alerting me to the alarming decline in insects in Britain – a fact wildlife experts have been warning of for decades.
Trend is not the right word, more an awakening in the public’s psyche – we’ve seen an uplift in client requests for gardens that invite nature in – meadows, plants for pollinators and ponds are now requested in almost all our gardens, culminating in the huge wildlife garden my practice is designing beside the new National Centre for Horticultural Science and Learning, on the Hilltop at RHS Wisley, opening in spring 2020. I’m keen to demonstrate ways in which we can support common British wildlife.
Tim Richardson
Writer and garden critic Garden style tends to move in cycles of decades and half decades – so it is perhaps a little difficult to identify changes year on year. However, it can be observed
Whereoncethe flowering meadow was the inspiration, we are now looking for the equivalent inwoodyplanting LODEWIJK BALJON
that among those many designers whose work has been influenced by the naturalistic ‘new perennial’ style, there is a continuing move back towards more complexity in planting schemes by means of repeat groups of plants, a credo that can be traced back to William Robinson and his 1870 publication The Wild Garden, as well as more of an emphasis now on shrubs (including roses) and small trees such as Cornus and Malus.
Grasses are less popular than they were and are more often used as interplantings rather than as defining points, while the importance of a sense of rhythm in planting has now largely superseded ideas around colour theory.
Debbie Roberts and Ian Smith
Garden designers, Acres Wild It may be a reflection of these uncertain times but we’re increasingly meeting clients who want to put down roots, rather than moving on in few years’ time. They have found their ‘forever home’ and so want a garden that is timeless and enduring.
Clients are more visually literate now with access to apps such as Pinterest, Instagram and Houzz and are learning to understand simplicity of design and the subtle effects of light, colour and texture – and to appreciate these within the garden.
Creating a feeling of comfort and wellbeing is a high priority for many people and enjoying the natural world as expressed in the garden is increasingly understood as a way to access this.
Lodewijk Baljon
Landscape architect Denser urbanisation calls for a more intense use of green, on roofs and façades obviously, but also sophisticated planting in pockets between buildings. This requests a fittingly powerful landscape image.
The naturalistic aesthetic of perennials and ornamental grasses, that is now also entering public space, will stay with us for some time. Quite rightly, too – because it is colourful, has visual interest through the seasons, and has ecological merits.
Where once the flowering meadow was the inspiration, we are now looking for the equivalent in woody planting that will allow us to develop urban landscapes that give an authentic green experience. Multi-stem trees are particularly suitable, showing off their twisted stems, and being reliable on rooftops.
Luciano Giubbilei
Garden designer It’s difficult to stay with trends but I increasingly realise the importance of time in my work – the time to connect deeply with a site and then the protracted period required for planting, observing and adjusting the planting. A garden emerges from a whole series of extended dialogues and narratives and none of these can be rushed.
Although I could never replace the value of books, Instagram has grown increasingly significant for me in recent years. It is a resource I turn to daily, both for design inspiration – I am completely captivated by the beautiful photographs – and as a way of archiving my own encounters. Gardens are dynamic and transient; Instagram champions these traits, allowing you to document and communicate seasonality, process, and transformation.
More and more, it is less about the finished product, or a static goal, especially when thinking about the lifespan of a garden. The merit is in the pursuit, and the interactions that arise along the way.