IN RESIDENCE: (October 2024)

My final visit of this residency period.  Tasks completed:

• Removed collapsed dead stems.
• Pruned jasmine/hard pruned climbing rose.
• Weeded paths.
• Created more deadwood piles for habitats.
• Planted Crocosmia ‘Carmine Brilliant’, Perovskia atriplicifolia, Oxalis spp. and cardoon (Cynara cardunculus).
• Cut back lemon balm.
• Noted muntjacs have eaten Korean Aster, Welsh onions and salvia.
• Planted Allium nigrum, Allium sphaerocephalon, Nectaroscordum siculum and Iris ‘Picasso’ bulbs.
• Wove jasmine prunings into time gate (see below left).
• Trimmed marjoram, sowed fennel seed, planted jasmine cuttings by the arch.
• Researched muntjac repellent plants.

Below: Vietnamese coriander doing well (left) and planted cardoon (right).

The conflict between nature and art, chaos and order, wildness and civilisation sums up much of my thinking during this residency period.  The creative gardening approach leaves space for the infinite becoming, shifting, changing and unbecoming of energetic states that happen in a garden. Accepting this reality and allowing space for chance and for co-creation with mystery is what I’ll take away from my time here plus the acceptance of conflict as a necessary circumstance for creativity, coincidently, similar to ideas Ian Hamilton Finlay explored at Little Sparta.

Moving forward, and inspired by Barbara Hepworth’s friendship with the advant-garde composer Priaulx Rainier (a passionate gardener and ecologist who helped design and plant the exotic plants in Hepworth’s garden), plus conversations with Nicola & John, I want to research further gendered gardens. Delving into how women transform green spaces into portals through time, and in turn how these gardens forge their creative lives as a place of sanctuary, inspiration, friendships and expression.