What is a Garden?
Work demands made it impossible for us to go to the RHS Hampton Court flower show last week but following the award winners on BBC sparked a lively debate in the office that we felt compelled to share.
The conceptual gardens at Hampton court this year comprised a vibrant selection of weird and wonderful ideas including; a garden elevated above a clear water tank making an effort to explain the science behind soil (which, as a science geek at heart, I loved) and a plot of accessorised Himalayan Birch trees representing the molecular structure of a solid object. These conceptual ideas transformed into garden designs harked back to Chelsea’s best in show only a few weeks ago where James Basson’s gold winning garden was inspired by a disused quarry. There wasn’t a rosebud or foxglove in sight and if the daily mail headline was anything to go by, it’s fair to say he divided opinion. So, in our small Essex office, we pondered (or rather argued), if these are award winning “gardens” then what actually is a garden?
We know this isn’t a new debate. It was in fact one of the first questions asked many moons ago on one of our Director’s degree course but the debate got so heated, that at one stage we actually looked up the Oxford Dictionary definition “a piece of ground adjoining a house, in which grass flowers or shrubs may be grown” And at that point, we all agreed that we disagreed with this one, which in itself was interesting. Does a garden have to adjoin a house? Does it have to be a piece of ground? Does it have to grow grass, flowers or shrubs?
We all have our opinions of what a garden is and the definitions are as broad and encompassing as the gardens themselves are diverse. Is a window box a garden? Does a garden have to have plants? Could it be entirely hard landscaping? Do you need to be able to sit in it? Walk through it? Or perhaps just admire it? What about terrariums? Greenhouses? A jungle of indoor plants?
Critics are saying that designers are taking the “conceptual” element of design too far and supporters are hitting back that good design should spark debate and push conventional boundaries. I suppose this is especially pertinent in competition settings like the RHS flower shows.
From a portfolio perspective, we have to admit that if you look even solely at our current projects, there is such variety there. They range from the traditional country estate, to health centres, tree houses, roof terraces and the contemporary modern home.
Our conclusion…the rather wonderful thing about a garden is it defies definition. It can’t be restricted by the confines of a dictionary or a placed neatly into a labelled box (no pun intended). A garden is a feeling, a dynamic, vibrant and ephemeral concept all of its own.
So, is a rather beautiful pomegranate tree and some meadow plants suspended above a glass box, a garden? Perhaps the question should be; why isn’t it a garden?
Photo by feey