As Nature Intended

Jamie Dunstan Garden Design at RHS Chelsea 2013

It’s that time of year when the ground of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea are throbbing with visitors to the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show. As in previous years there are many of our clients who have entered gardens in the show and we are excited for all of them at #RHSChelsea this week.

In particular, we are delighted for Jamie and Leisha Dunstan with the award of the Silver Gilt medal for their show garden “As Nature Intended.”

'As Nature Intended,' sponspored by Stockton Drilling, encompasses hard landscaping features utilising natural materials including specially commissioned willow sculptures and stone. Complementing this is a selection of plants all of which have been cultivated by man for different uses including medicinal and industrial, clearly demonstrating how humans embrace all elements of nature in our everyday lives.

For many, nature has been a "cruel mistress" this year. With 2012 recorded as the wettest year in UK history and the cold start to 2013, the development of many plants has been late, providing a challenge for all of the show exhibitors. For Jamie, the design required growing barley in pots. He's battled with the weather. Initially he had hoped that the cold weather would help in holding back the barley to the height he needed, but in fact, it was extremely tricky to grow a batch that was just right as it's been such a late spring. The resulting plants though are beautiful and glow in the sunshine.

The design itself was put together with Vectorworks Landmark with Renderworks. Tamsin helped with the visuals, as Jamie and Leisha were new to the software, but they continue to make great progress and use it in all their design work following on from their Vectorworks Training. In a future post, we'll provide a more detailed breakdown of how the garden was created in Vectorworks.

For those of you who have the latest book by Tamsin “Residential Garden Design with Vectorworks Landmark - 5th Edition”, the cover photo shows an award winning design by Patricia Fox at Aralia Garden Design.