In the past couple of months, due to my work, I have travelled from the North of England to the Eastern Mediterranean. Various projects and work in progress in gardens have been the cause.

 It has been interesting to see how the gardens whether in the North of England or in the East of the Mediterranean have reacted to the summer. In most cases the link has been the presence or lack of water. 

In Yorkshire water is obviously not a problem as the greenness testifies. The lawns are lush, the borders full, the meadows look a little brown…but that’s all.  

In Italy we have decided to save on water bills and irrigate less. The scorched ( and I mean scorched) lawn shows the result of this …the “ borders”  …mostly shrubby as one would expect Rosemary , Dwarf Pomegranates, Lavender and Perovskia have all bloomed and survived well…. Olives survive on practically no water....as can be seen by some of those visible from our garden

In Corfu the garden is that odd mixture found in Mediterranean gardens that are part irrigated. Green borders surrounded by lush borders lie in the heart of the garden. In the peripheral areas or in areas were we have just decided not to irrigate a thirstier more parched look dominates. 

The last photo shows a forest fire in Albania......for us it was the evenings TV show

With Architects Boyarsky Murphy (www.boyarskymurphy.com) we have been working on an E.U Competition entry for the design of a new Polish Museum of History in Warsaw.

The site of the proposed Museum is near the Castle of Ujazdow in the centre of Warsaw on an escarpment that overlooks the River Vistula. The Castle is now a Museum of Contemporary Art. At present the proposed Museum and the Castle are separated by a horrendous four-lane motorway constructed in the 1970’s. As part of the development envisaged in the competition a section of the motorway would be buried thus restoring the landscape and joining the new Museum with the Castle.

Our landscape proposals were based on the Baroque city plan completed in the 1780’s.This plan established clear views and a number of axes across the ancient city. We re-established some of the old historical relationships between the Castle, roads and vistas. Some of the circular points on the old baroque plan have been reinvented as transport hubs for Metro and Bus routes. Tree lined pedestrian walkways link the new Museum, Castle and the nearby Botanic Gardens. Canals with fountains set amongst a plantation of trees loosely based on a quincunx strengthen the axis between the Castle and the new Museum.

Presentation rules were strict with one model of the proposed Museum and three A0 black and white plans per entry only allowed.

About six weeks ago I went to see a potential job in the fertile plain below the old Roman town of Spello in Umbria.

The site consists of a former Tobacco Factory with house and outbuildings surrounded by approximately 15 hectares of fields that have been bio dynamically farmed for the past 25 years. It holds a certificate from the Italian Agricultural Ministry that validates this.

It has been purchased by the Barbanera Publishing Company (www.barbanera.it) founded in 1762 in nearby Foligno. Barbanera is Italy’s third largest publisher of Almanac’s selling over three million copies a year. Advice and information on all important events and activities in one’s life can be sought and answered using their Almanac based in part on detailed astrological calculations. In days gone by such advice was followed to the letter detailing when to have babies, when to sow vegetables in the garden, what colours to use in the house, whom to marry and what to do with your husband (or wife) once you had. Nowadays we have Vogue, House and Garden or Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen to help us on these tricky issues.

The project consists of designing demonstration gardens around the buildings for visitors and staff at Barbanera. Later developments would include a restaurant using produce from the fields that have been bio dynamically farmed. The long term aim is to provide a sort of lifestyle centre ……visitors would be able to spend a day or half a day and see how the land is worked bio dynamically and how these bio dynamic rhythms infiltrate our everyday life….with various specialised areas demonstrating particular crops or flowers. 

In March of this year I gave a lecture to the Society of Garden Designers Spring Seminar titled Nurture not Nature. The chair was Hugh Ryan (www.hughryan.ie) based in Dublin, Ireland. He introduced five guest speakers throughout the day from all over Europe and one from South America.

The first speaker was Eric Dhont ( www.erikdhont.com ) from Belgium who mainly spoke about his projects in France and Belgium. He showed some wonderful CAD drawings of giant taxus topiary pieces…they were amorphous cloud like creatures that stalked the garden scape in a project in France. He had a gentle and softly spoken manner that charmed the audience.

Jinny Blom (www.jinnyblom.com) followed with an artful lecture demonstrating the healing nature of gardens. She appears quite scatty but underneath is highly organised…and her lecture reflected this. It was informal, amusing and erudite.

Lunch followed and so did I. As I stared up at the 300 or so faces I wished fleetingly that the ground would open and I would disappear. I did not and the many rehearsals paid their dividend. I found my groove with only a few moments of confusion. I described my journey from my early roots in English gardening through to designing & gardening in the Mediterranean. En route I described various influential gardens and people. The research I completed for this lecture fascinated me. It made me realize how different and recent English gardening and land use is in comparison to the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean is ancient in origin in comparison whether in its gardens, its plants or in its use and attitude to the landscape.

Subsequently Roberto Silva (www.silvalandscapes.com) from Brazil spoke about his training and work in Brazil and work in London in particular the Foster Garden. If I was nervous Roberto was doubly so but he spoke well.

Finally Ulf Nordfell (www.ramboll.com) from Sweden talked on his work throughout Scandinavia including the Linnaeus Garden and Telegraph gardens for Chelsea Flower Show. I found his lecture the most interesting with his influences and work firmly in the North of Europe. My lecture had started in Middle Europe ( i.e England) and then migrated South to the Mediterranean. Ulf’s inspiration is in the forests and meadows of Sweden far removed from the heat and dust of the Mediterranean. It was this contrast that intrigued me.

More information can be found on the website of the Society of Garden Designers at www.sgs.org etc