Artist Garden at The Grange Projects, Norfolk

The satisfaction of leaving the garden much tidier than when I arrived, despite a week of rain and very soggy ground!  My next visit will focus on planting.

Fellow artist-in-residence, Dorit Lavon Szternfeld, installed her sculpture waving, beewax on chickenwire, with the help of John Plowman.

Created stone circles using left over artists materials and sowed borage and chives seeds in the round.  Other seeds planted in the garden include nasturtiums, poppies, fennel, chamomille, nigella, and cornflower.  Found a hagstone (a stone with a naturally occurring hole through it),  such stones are believed to have magical properties.

Leftover artist materials have been used as substrate for seed sowing.  Another habitat to support wildlife created, again repurposing weeds and pruning materials.

All bay tree prunings were repurposed into bay circles hung on the entrance gate, which should in time turn the same colour as the rusty iron.

Started collating found objects from the garden and site, inspired by the cabinet of curiosities at the Victorian school.

Had to abort clipping as I found a blackbird’s nest in one of the bay trees (identified from the book found in the Victorian school adjacent to The Grange).

Spent some time reshaping the topiary.

Back at The Grange to find the garden completely overgrown from all the rain this year, clearing the paths took up most of my time this trip.

Sculpture for non-humans?

My next visit won’t be until Spring 2024, so plans for the rest of this year include:

• Take cuttings + collect/order seeds
• Research history of herb garden
• Research herbs to plant next year
• Make planting plan + timeline of work
• Apply for funding

I started to gather found objects from around the grounds of The Grange, to potentially use in the garden, mostly materials discarded by other artists after their residencies, harnessing cyclic opportunities that already exist on site (in keeping with permaculture principles).  Played around with placing the objects to see the visual effects this had.  Will be interesting to see where this leads…

After an attempt to prune the climbing rose over the arch, the mass of dead wood removed has been dispersed around the edges of the garden to create a habitat for wildlife.  As this is a permaculture site, we try as much as possible not to remove waste from the grounds.  Woody branches take too long to break down in the compost so this is a good way to make use of the material.  As the rose was still flowering, I will resume work on my next visit.

Trying to gain some control of the herb garden (which hasn’t been maintained for several years), cutting back, deadheading, weeding and adding some structure.  I don’t think taming and control will be a big part of my remit but wanted to strip it back so I could see the bones.  Clipped some topiary shapes (in an attempt to undo the symmetry) and started to cloud prune another box shrub (in homage to the 150+ year old box) but doing this with secateurs wasn’t the best move.  Need to buy some topiary shears and will refine at a later date.

This is European box (Buxus sempervirens) situated within the grounds at The Grange, a work of art in itself.  Possibly planted 150+ years ago when the home was built.  It brings to mind Ash Dome, a living sculpture made by the artist David Nash in North Wales (a circle of 22 ash trees that gradually change over time, like the environment around it).  I’m particularly keen to make a connection to this fine specimen in the herb garden and initial ideas include cloud pruning the box already in the garden, exposing stems of the plant to create some interesting negative spaces.