susan dunstall

The Yellow Book

2010-09-19T14:20:00.000-07:00

Today was the last of my visits to gardens of the yellow book scheme, to Radcot House, near Faringdon. I so nearly didn't go as the black clouds strated rolling over - but I had watched it develop over the past few years as I drove past, particularly the re-buiding of the Cotswold stone wall which took months and is such wonderful craftsmanship.

The garden today was everything it promised to be, with the structure defined by amazingly tall yew hedges, a formal pond so long but in perfect proportions for the garden with seating at either end, and many flower beds - all this punctuated with several pieces of contemporary sculpture. The planting however, shows what can be acheived in autumn with fantastic colour and structure still in the borders, you would never think it was late September. There were some wonderful examples of grasses with unusual perennials but my favourite plant of the day was Lobelia speciosa 'Tania' - still flowering with spikes of magenta against the purple hues of Panicum 'Heavy Metal'. I'll be adding this to my next article on plant combinations using grasses.

Mark it in your diaries for next year if you live in Oxfordshire.

The Malaysian Garden at Chelsea

2010-09-17T10:51:00.000-07:00

Just watched an excellent programme on BBC 2 featuring James Wong in Malaysia getting inspiration for his Chelsea garden. It was interesting to see how some of his ideas translated into the eventual garden like the green wall dripping with water and then to follow him sourcing some of the amazing tropical plants. I've never really worked with tropicals until I helped him with the planting earlier this year at Chelsea. I can now understand why the Tree ferns were so fundamental in his design providing the jungle canopy for the garden - which gave it the sense of place of Malaysia.

The varieties of carniverous Nepenthes, tropical pitcher plants or monkey cups were fascinating, but my favourite was the picture of the 'Tree Shrew loo', the rare plant that recycles droppings- just brilliant - a shame they couldn't replicate that one in England.

Its definitely worth a watch while its availble on I-player - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tv48z/James_Wong_and_the_Malaysian_Garden/

Designing with Trees

2010-08-26T02:39:00.000-07:00

Beautiful naturally sculpted trees - the Parasol Pine (Pinus pinea)

Having just spent a few days down in the south of France I was drawn to this iconic tree which seems to grow in wild profusion near St Tropez and is also planted in the town square where old men play Petanque beneath their branches.

Trees are fundamental in garden design giving shade, privacy and overhead structure as well as beauty and year round colour but they are so often forgotten at the design stage.

Suprise suprise

2010-05-30T23:49:00.000-07:00

Found in my garden this morning a beautiful poppy exact variety unknown - I'm not sure where it came from but it adds an exciting splash of colour. Cleverly it's positioned itself in the purple bed amongst all the Allium 'Purple Sensation' now out and reminds me what a great planting combination purple and orange can be.

Papaver orientale is an excellent species with some wonderful varieties the most well known of which are probably 'Beauty of Livermere' a wonderful blood red colour and 'Patty's Plum' of a rich damson sorbet colour but there are many other colours. It's not a plant I often include in planting plans but its now on my list of favourites.

Chelsea Gold !!!

2010-05-27T05:38:00.000-07:00

A Gold medal at Chelsea - amazing for the first garden I worked on. My planting may have contributed somewhere - it must have been all my intricate pinning of the plants in the Green wall using handmade hair grips.

The Planting of Chelsea

2010-05-24T04:44:00.000-07:00

I've just had the most exciting few days as part of the team planting the garden designed by James Wong and David Cubero for the Malaysian Tourist Board - all great learning in preparation for my own show garden planned for next year.

The hard landscaping was in its final stages when I arrived on site - large slabs of beautiful white limestone were covered to protect them from soil and the elements. Large island beds waiting for the water to be pumped around them. At the rear of the garden a raised wooden structure with metal infrastructure and a stone roof was reached by 3 huge slabs of stone - simply lovely. Day by day craftsmen finished the stonework by hand - finally washing and polishing the stone until perfect. No steel capped boots here - they were all in their clean socks only.

The site had been chosen to give some protection from sun for the plants - even then large swathes of shade nets were needed. I was daunted by the sight of all the large trolleys stacked to one side full to bursting with plants mostly from Holland. But there were more to follow each day - huge lorries edged up the narrow roads when finally allowed on site after being held well away from the site and then radioed in when space allowed.

The planting was fantastic - lush green planting with splashes of colourful orchids, so many tropical plants new to me and none of them hardy which caused a few anxious moments with the frosts of the previous week. After planting each plant was scrutinised for perfection snipping and reshaping with scissors - there was even talk of felt pens for some discolouration...

I had imagined a mass of highly stressed-out people but most seemed to be having fun, working flat out, but so much calmer and exhausted

I bear my scars proudly from the large vicious spiky jungle plants and have my fingers crossed for the RHS judging this morning....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/chelsea/show-gardens/tourism-malaysia-garden.shtml

Anish Kapoor

2009-12-11T00:29:00.000-08:00

An amazing exhibition at the Royal Academy in London - so pleased to have found some tickets for its penultimate day as it finishes on the 11th December. The sheer scale of the pieces was awesome, the creative mind behind this inpiring. Each work could have so many interpretations and meanings: the 'Svayambh' was an installation of a 30 ton vast block of red wax, slowly moving through five galleries along tracks at such a slow pace - the most obvious parallel was an underground train moving through tunnels- the red wax symbolising blood and suicides - but who knows? My favourite was 'Yellow' - so simple, yet so strong.

Inspiration from Art

2009-11-30T13:29:00.000-08:00

I was hoping to come away from the Pop Life exhibition at the Tate Modern inspired by art that translated into ideas on the drawing board for my current garden design, but they were not forthcoming – there was so much bling and pornographic imagery that detracted from the art itself.

The topic was the commercialisation of Art over the last 30 years with the concept that - the artist has to both make and sell their art, and to sell their art they have to sell themselves. One artist took this to the extreme, literally selling herself for sex and then filming the event. A video tape of the act was playing in a very small room with a guard sitting right next to monitor – why I’m not too sure?

All in all – an exhibition worth seeing for the lasting impression it made – among the many artists exhibiting, it was good to see the work by Damien Hurst which included the calf with painted gold hoofs, which was part of the selection of works sold by Sotheby’s for £120 million last year. Andy Warhol was the king of self promotion – selling his face to advertising and branding himself with his trademark dark glasses and silver wig. The philosophy behind this applies as much if not more today than then in this competitive world.

I did not get the inspiration I was expecting from the exhibition, namely to be inspired by shape, colour and form when designing– but what I did take away was the understanding that in my business as a landscape designer, regardless how talented I am, I have to market myself and my design business, building my own unique style and identity.

And sell myself…

Motorway culture...

2009-10-26T02:36:00.000-07:00

...travelling the M5 down to Devon, at junction 24 - the huge Willow man sculpture by Serena de la Hey fascinates me every time. It appeared in 2001 and standing at over 12 metres is the tallest willow figure sculpture. Whenever I pass it reminds me I still need to visit the Angel of the North by Antony Gormley, one of the best known in England.

The impact of sculpture in both public places and private gardens is immense and underestimated...

My blog...

2009-10-26T02:32:00.000-07:00

...inspired to start this blog as I just qualified as Landscape designer - having passed my Post Grad Diploma in Landscape Design from Oxford College of Garden Design - and with a distinction. All that midnight and weekend working finally paid off and the course gave me everything I needed to start my own practice - it feels great.