Review of Future Gardens
by Anne Wareham
England now has its own garden festival, with show gardens designed to last for weeks rather than days. Will this take the thinking behind thinkingardens forward?
It's very strange: the gardens seem to encapsulate the craziness in the perception and presentation of British gardens.
We have a giant flower pot garden in the dreadful tradition of 'gardens are fun and jolly for the kiddies' (and, no, having huge artefacts does not make you feel miniaturized, just makes you feel surrounded by oversized paraphernalia)
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alongside serious gardens by a designer who identifies herself in these terms = “fiona heron is a three dimensional thinker. at the heart of her vision is the desire to create beautiful, simple elegance. a major influence is natural form. her work spans integrated art and landscape architecture, sculpture, and fine art photography.”
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In other words, Playschool and Tate Modern – gardens as cultural confusion.
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With environmentally worthy homilies on plastic notices everywhere.
Am I the only person in the world to think £25 thousand pounds is a lot to make a small garden? This is the money the project gives to the chosen designers to make their gardens, which does mean they are not dependent on sponsorship as Chelsea designers are. It is supposed to be a small budget - I clearly live on another planet: seems astrononical to me.
There are good things here (including Tony Heywood, wonderful and fantastic as ever) -
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worth a trip if you're in the vicinity and can afford £12.50 entrance. Send me your thoughts.
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Anne Wareham veddw (photographs by Anne Wareham)
Jane Owen, writer, designer, tv star...:
Thank heavens for Future Gardens. A few pix on my blog http://www.janeowen.co.uk/blog/
Comments? Email: anne@veddw.co.uk 