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