Design – the puberty years …

After yesterday's retrospective, here's Claire's latest guest post on the Anniversary Show Garden...

Contrary to popular belief, design can work just fine at a distance. The wonders of modern technology have made communication so quick and easy that there is no need for regular face to face meetings – small comments can be copied to all at the push of a button and design revisions can be whizzed all over the world via the wonderful world wide web.

Our first thoughts had been sent from Sussex. And so we sat and waited.

Far, far away, designs and concepts were printed out and poured over by both clients and the third member of the design team, Jim Steed.

Comments were made, further scribbles and design progressions were sent flying back, and we really were on our way.

But design is a funny old mistress. An idea can progress in such a way that a mere toddler of a concept can suddenly burst into a stroppy teenager and give you such a hard time that you have to behave strictly to get it back in line. Design can (and should) be mischievous but you cannot allow it to be given an ASBO.

And with three major design inputs, we had to keep tight hold of the reins, lest the space go galloping away into the distance with the fuel of too many ideas.

Selection was key, and after a few hard examinations of design elements and plan outlines, some was scrapped and some was kept. Consultations followed with all parties and the final, streamlined plan crept into being.

Bones done, now for the fleshing out. A plant discussion was on the horizon...

Thanks Claire - and for those of you dying to have a sneak preview of progress with pictures, here's the latest over at her blog. There's more to come from Claire tomorrow as she gives us some insights into aspects of the Unseen Show Garden...

Malvern Memories: Magnificent Malvern

The first of our views of one of last year's Chris Beardshaw Mentorship show gardens, courtesy of Claire Potter...

I have come to believe that building a showgarden is very much like riding an extremely long rollercoaster. There are ups, there are downs, there are twists and turns, and somewhere along the line you will scream, cry and probably be sick.

And with this in mind, we set off a couple of weeks ago to build the latest in our offerings - 'dancing with the trees' at the Malvern Spring Show.

I have to admit, the staff at the Three Counties Showground are wonderful, so the rollercoaster runs much smoother than at other venues, but the threat of precipitation and a tight build schedule always tingles the nerves a little...

My first few days were spent working alone, excavating what seemed to be a roman path left over from previous gardens, and sleeping in a tent which I had somehow pitched on a scale replica of the Malvern hills themselves. Nice.

But then, on day four of the build, our proper accommodation arrived... our green bean trailer...

The prototype version of what we are now putting into production rolled up from Brighton on the back of Alberta, our Morris Minor, all shiny and new and itching to be used. The Green Bean is a little teardrop trailer that we have designed and built which we believe is possibly the most eco friendly mini caravan in the UK and was shown very briefly on Gardeners' World... but more of him in another post...

With an increased workforce, we rattled through the rest of the build, hampered only by the occasional rain, gale force winds and frequent biscuit breaks with our friends and neighbours (which made up most of our diet for two weeks...)

Judging day. Last minute touches to the garden. Leave. Cannot bear to watch judges on the garden so wander off. Hear reports from spies that the judges did indeed 'dance with the trees' as we had intended...

The first day dawns of the show, and we dutifully man our gardens from 8.00, awaiting the RHS medals or the dreaded 'no award letter'... So, what did we get? Another silver, which was great, but again, room for improvement.

So, up and down and up and down, the show rollercoaster continued...next, the Chris Beardshaw Scholarship... after hearing a report from Chris about how each of the potential scholars were received by the judges, 5 were invited to speak. I was lucky enough to take the stage, and spoke about my sustainable commitments as a designer. Others spoke about their own desires and aspirations as designers, then the board retired to deliberate...

An hour later, we were all reassembled, and even though I was disappointed not to be chosen, I was over the moon when my friend and show garden neighbour Paul Hervey-Brookes was awarded the scholarship. He is a wonderful and modest designer with a wealth of knowledge, and I have no doubts that he will do fabulously in his next year and beyond. Follow him via his very new blog here. Welcome to the blogging fray Paul...

The sun shone on us all for the vast majority of the show, which included a fantastical fashion show, cookery demonstrations and general frivolity, courtesy of the ever eloquent and engaging James Alexander-Sinclair, who I adore to bits.

So - hello to all of those who visited us, hello to those who didn't make it, and hello to all those wonderful people who made the garden happen in the first place. And congratulations to all of the scholars, who did themselves proud and were each awarded a medal. Another special well done goes to Deb, who dressed Lola to perfection, and was awarded a Silver medal and Best Border status. Well done and well deserved.

I will be doing a series of posts in the next week or so, highlighting specific bits and bobs in the garden and the show, so in the words of the eco Arnie himself, 'I'll be back'...

The Chris Beardshaw Mentorship

One of the major highlights of the show garden side of things since 2007 has been the Chris Beardshaw Mentorshing Scholarship. At the moment 7 finalists are beavering away building their show garden entries ready for the judging for this years scholarship which will take place on Thursday 6th May. The prize at stake? A year's mentorship with Chris and other garden industry/design professionals with the funding to build other show gardens along the way. A fantastic opportunity. Last year's winner, Paul Hervey-Brookes is currently busy finalising the arrangements for his garden at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Chris always chooses a theme for entrants as part of the design brief. Last year it was Dance: this year it's The Circus. You can preview the designs here. The organisers of Malvern Spring Show always align some of the events with the theme. This year there'll be trapeze artists performing above the Mentorship gardens and Mr Alexander's Travelling Show will be nearby. Our VIP area will be very close to the action.

Last year our guest blogger Claire was one of the finalists, but was pipped to the post by Paul. I'll be featuring her blog entries about her experiences over the next couple of days so you'll get more of an idea of what's involved. She might not be at Chelsea this year, but being part of the Malvern team building the biggest show garden ever seen in the UK, shows she's still a winner :)

Photograph of Chris Beardshaw courtesy and copyright of James Alexander-Sinclair.

Meet the Gang...

It's about time we peeped behind the curtains to see who's involved in making Malvern Spring Show go with a swing. Some of the following are already familiar faces; others not yet, but all will be working hard to ensure we have a tippity top time over the weekend.

Laydeeeeez and Gentlemen I give you:

Sharon Gilbert (Press and PR Manager) and Nina Acton (Shows Development Officer) two of the small but perfectly formed team at the Three Counties Agricultural Society (TCAS) who plan and put together the show. Unfortunately I can't bring you Vicki Lanni (Marketing Manager), the other member of the team whom Helen and have been dealing with, but I'm sure that'll be rectified during the weekend. These are the people who've really got behind what Meet @ Malvern is about and are making us feel most welcome.

Local radio's Katie Johnson and Reg Moule will be attempting to keep order in the Design for Living Theatre - probably with varying degrees of success. They will be making the introductions and ensuring maximum audience participation.

Thwarting their plans and generating as much fun and mayhem as possible are these three 'characters'. Joe Swift and James Alexander-Sinclair are old hands at the show: Cleve West is making his debut and together they form Three Men Went to Mow.

And last but not least: Claire Potter and Deb Bird - our show garden bloggers extraordinaire :)

However, this is just a tiny portion of who'll be there ensuring we all have an enjoyable time. We've already heard from Pat Austin and Sarah Walker for instance. We'll all be able to contribute pictures of some of the hundreds of people who make Malvern Spring Show what it is today: such as the nurserymen, exhibitors, artisans, caterers, other visitors and even ourselves!

Other programme highlights to follow :)

Pictures courtesy and copyright of James Alexander-Sinclair

Malvern Memories: Here Come the Girls!

Normally when the Sock visits a Garden Show there will inevitably be some gardens that she dislikes - not so at Malvern. Whilst it is quite possible that the Sock didn't actually see all of them she was pretty impressed with those she did, in particular those competing for the Chris Beardshaw mentoring scholarship. This year it was themed around 'Dance' and the gardens also inspired students from the Worcester School of Art and Design to produce some beautiful garments and body art modelled both in the gardens and on a fashion parade hosted by James Alexander-Sinclair. This was heaven for the Sock combining aspects of her favourite TV programmes Project Runway (fashion design), America's Next Top Model (fashion and photography with a little too much girlie screeching) with garden design. More on that in a later blog but for now we have Chris Beardshaw with assorted models (clic on the pic for the bigger picture)

and two lovely gardens from 'Ladies who blog', first Claire Potter's 'Dancing with Trees' entered for the Chris Beardshaw scholarship.

It was quite impossible to capture in a photograph the movement and serenity of this garden or the fantastic way, the model wearing the garment inspired by this garden, both integrated into it and enhanced it.

Then Deborah Bird's 'Hort Couture' one of the 'Borders without Gardens' a beautiful, delicate flowing gown of flowers (I've blurred the background to show the dress off to better effect).

Text and pictures courtesy and copyright of Arabella Sock.

Meanwhile over on Twitter...

...Malvern stalwart @DebBird [and creator of the lovely Lola who graces the top of this blog - Ed] contemplates the start of this year's show garden build, egged on by Meet @ Malvern organisers @patientgarden and @malvernmeet, with occasional forays into the progress being made by @clairepotter and discovering new skills such as how to load pictures successfully into Twitpic (see photo below).

Now read on...

12th April - day 1 of official build, but the day before Deb is due to start:

@DebBird: Day One of Malvern build tomorrow, & I have to be in Stoke for the day-job...marvellous timing! Exciting to be able to get going though :)

@Malvernmeet: @DebBird Yay - go Deb! Good luck and I'm hoping to sneak up to Malvern to have a look if I ever get to grips with my allotment.

13th April - day 1 of Deb's build:

@DebBird: Ground broken at Malvern. VERY exciting!! :)

@Malvernmeet: @DebBird ooh ooh ooh - we want pictures! we want to see!

@DebBird: @Malvernmeet ha! at moment it's an 8x5m square of bare earth. I'll try & work out how to TwitPic. Greenhouse base going in on Thursday :)

@Malvernmeet: @DebBird don't worry, I took a pic of Claire's back in Feb 2 days after they started. It's so exciting to know it's all happening at last.

@DebBird: @Malvernmeet Claire's is starting to look REALLY good... :)

@DebBird: Malvern Build: Day One - contain your excitement now...

@patientgarden: @DebBird I say a square of earth - so much potential

@Malvernmeet: @DebBird oooooooooh! Why Ms Bird you are spoiling us :) Must go and look up where you are on the map Nina [Show Development Officer - Ed] sent me today

@DebBird: @patientgarden @Malvernmeet I did warn you... ;) Will start to look like 'something' by Thursday night, I promise!

@Malvernmeet: @DebBird are we meant to contain our excitement in those railway sleepers you've so thoughtfully provided for us?

@DebBird: @Malvernmeet I'm hoping the sleepers will stop the dogwood stems from blowing toward Pershore...time will tell!

Well folks ... will Deb's dogwood stems blow away towards Pershore? Will the base be ready for when the greenhouse arrives? Will we ever find out what the railway sleepers really are for? Tune in on Twitter to find out!

Concepts and Scribbles…

The build phase for the show gardens officially started yesterday, so Claire Potter's latest installment about the Anniversary Show Garden is timely indeed...

The meeting went well. We had formulated a small brief, a large wish list, bantered about some ideas and eaten some very tasty sandwiches and mini cakes. Meetings are always better when taste buds are stimulated.

It was decided by the collective that Alex and I would begin the design process as we represented two thirds of the design team and both lived on the borders of East and West Sussex.

The drive back from that first meeting was fantastic – three hours of chatting and discussing the possibilities in more detail and by the time Alex and I reached the familiar sight of the South Downs, we were both confident that we knew where we were going.

But every designer is different. Even having similar thoughts might not translate into similar concepts, and our designs were always destined to be completely separate entities. How could we, and would we be able to combine both of our ideas into one design? And then what would happen when everyone else added their input?

Back at the studio I sat in front of my drawing board, fully equipped with a brain full of ideas, some pens, tracing paper and far too many biscuits. A few hours and a small pile of crumbs later, my blank sheets had been converted into a map like jumble, showing trains of thought, sketches, web links, key words and patterns. I was quite happy with the brain pouring, but how was Alex’s brain pouring going?

The next meeting was arranged and (quite nervously) I drove up country to Alex’s studio to discuss the ideas.

Tea was made and I seem to remember that biscuits and cupcakes made an appearance. We both sat down and spread our scribbles onto the table.

Similarities could be seen, sketches followed the same brain trail as the next and full of relief, we both realised that the joint design process might actually work quite well.

More scribbling, tea and discussions followed, and after a couple of hours I drove home to rejig the design, ready to combine my concept with Alex’s rejigged space in the wonder that is Computer Aided Design.

The bones were there, but what would the rest of the team think of our efforts?
The first concept design was sent to the whole design team, and Alex and I waited for the comments. Were we on the right track?

Marvellous stuff Claire, thank you. If you missed her first installment, then here it is...