“The pleasure of gardens is gardening. This is what the great [gardener
and author] Christopher Lloyd said. Let’s enjoy gardening.
See: Chelsea Flower Show 2014: show gardens
“If you don’t want to do it, either you pay somebody or otherwise you can
never have a garden looking good. It’s impossible.
“It’s a theme of life. You only get back what you give. The low maintenance
garden doesn’t exist. It’s impossible.”
See: Chelsea 2014: 360 degree view of The Telegraph
garden
Speaking at Chelsea, Titchmarsh said: “At the top end of garden design now,
that’s what people are asking for: they want a sitting room that’s outside,
where nothing grows, where it’s all squares, all clean lines, no curves,
nothing natural-looking, no wildlife.
“For me, that’s not a garden. That’s what a lot of top end designers are
having to do now and they’re getting frustrated.”
In decades gone by, homeowners who comissioned garden designers had a passion
for gardening. “They used to buy plants and seeds, they used to grow things.
We’re lacking that kind of patron now who’s a real grower,” Titchmarsh said.
Gavin suggested some people were put off by the “untidy” effect
created by plants and flowers that encourage wildlife. “A low-maintenance
garden tends to be soulless, and for passion to really come out you have to
get in there, you have to understand the soil, you have to work at it.
“And you have to have a range of plants these days that are not only suitable
for you but also to encourage wildlife. That can be a bit untidy.”
Cleve West, who won the top award at Chelsea in 2011 and 2012, said he turns
down commissions from potential customers who spend their money on flashy
house extensions and want the back garden to be little more than an add-on
to the kitchen.
“I tend to shy away from jobs where they just want to extend the house and
make the footprint so large that there’s no room for planting. Those kind of
jobs don’t really interest me. It’s a case of waiting for clients who are a
little bit more interested in plants,” West said.
“I have turned people down who, when they show me the plans for the extension,
have a fair-sized garden but want to extend so much that the footprint of
the whole thing just looks ridiculous.”
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