By Sarah Cosgrove
Sunday, 18 May 2014
Chelsea-gold winner Paul Hervey-Brookes is returning to the style of garden which turned him from a grower into a garden designer for this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
The garden under construction last week
His garden on Main Avenue for sponsor BrandAlley, which sells designer labels at discount prices, is inspired by city living and the idea of the garden being a “stylish outdoor room”. It has both a public and a private face with a formal, angular, classic front with clipped hedges and sculpture leading to a more relaxed sunken seating area with more informal planting.
The colour palette focuses on shades of peach, cream and green, chosen partly to reflect current clothes fashion.
As with all Chelsea designers, he was inspired by his sponsor’s brand ethics but deeper inspiration came from the garden he worked in after university – Villa Barbargio near Padua – during its restoration.
“Up until that point people had said to me that design was one of my strong points but I had always said I’m not really interested, I’m only interested in growing plants. But it was so great being there, seeing people’s reactions to the garden, seeing the different sections, the vast majority of which were just made out of plants .
“It was the first time I made the connection between growing plants and making spaces out of plants. I realised gardens are so much more than just their component parts.”
Other Italian Renaissance gardens Palazzo Doria Truss, Villa Cambiaso and Villa Durazzo Centurione were also influences. Hervey-Brookes said he used plants native to northern Italy which can thrive in the UK, with structural planting using alder, hornbeam, pines, oaks and lots of clipped box mixed with herbaceous perennials found in semi-woodland grassland settings across northern Italy – artemisia, ballota, globe artichoke, fennel, foxglove and sorrel.
British sculptor Andrew Flint and instillation artist Fiona Haines created pieces for the garden while the plants were contract grown at Coblands and Hillier Nurseries. The contractor is Big Fish Landscapes.
Hervey-Brookes added: “It’s quite important to me to use UK nurseries – we have a fabulous industry with fabulous growers.
“That’s really important to me because I want people to see this garden and take bits away that they can actually do at home. I think sometimes what’s the point in showing something people fall in love with and want to do but it’s not going to work. To me that doesn’t feel right.”
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