A garden originally designed by garden designer’s Adam Woolcott and Jonathan Smith for the Chelsea Flower Show in 2008 has been re-built in Mayow Park, Lewisham, South London. The ‘Good Gifts Garden’, which won a gold medal, showcased a1950’s picnic on the beach and featured a rockpool and seaside wild flowers.
With the support of the social enterprise organisation Envirowork Lewisham, the garden has now been lovingly recreated by long term unemployed local people and passionate amateur gardeners in the Lewisham and Sydenham area.
The Woolcott and Smith seaside garden is part of a larger community garden project in Mayow Park. It features raised beds growing fruit and vegetables together with shrubs and flowers and aims to encourage local people to get involved with gardening.The gardens were officially opened by the Mayor of Lewisham Sir Steve Bullock on Wednesday 2nd June 2010 and will be open to residents, community groups and schools for educational visits and training workshops.
Woolcott and Smith, who attended the opening were absolutely thrilled and delighted with what the Envirowork’s team had done with the garden. Adam said ‘What the team have done is remarkable, the garden still has the same seaside feel’ and Jon added ‘it’s great to see the garden in a permanent location where it can be enjoyed by everyone’.
The Mayow Park Community Garden is part of the Mayor’s campaign to create 60 community food growing gardens throughout Lewisham by 2012.
Dates for your diary; Adam and Jon are appearing on BBC Gardener’s World on Good Friday (2nd April 2010). It’s a special and it is on from 8.30-9.30pm on BBC2. Adam and Jon present a film from their own garden in Bishop’s Stortford in leafy Hertfordshire. Their gardens were filmed in August last year and show some spectacular summer colour, the perfect remedy for the current dreadful April weather.
Also on Good Friday, you can hear Adam and Jon answering your gardening questions on Gill Gauntlett’s ‘Greenhouse Show’ from 2pm-5pm on BBC Three Counties Radio
Tune in to Woolcott & Smith on Gauntlett’s Gourmet Show on the BBC’s Three Counties Radio (95.5FM, 103.8FM, 104.5FM) on Saturday, 29 August, 26 September, 24 October, 21 November and 19 December from 11 am to 2 pm and pick up the latest gardening tips and tricks.
A courtyard garden designed and installed by Woolcott and Smith at Chiltern Street Studios in fashionable Marylebone in central London continues to flourish. The Studio was launched by Whistles founder Lucille Lewin as an independent fashion house and fashion showroom and has been used for many fashion launches and events, for such names as Calvin Klein and Ghost.
In keeping with the ambience of the studio, the garden was designed to complement the studio and offer an attractive outdoor space that could be used for entertaining and as a backdrop for photography and events. Our brief from Lucille was quite specific in a number of ways as she wanted something quite unique and interesting that would make a statement. Taking inspiration from the work of artist Maria Grossman, the courtyard design evolved to become part art installation and part real garden. Entitled ‘Botanical Enigma’, the main feature was a large raised bed made of reclaimed brick with an old fireplace placed in the centre of it with old cast iron window frames, gothic arches and wooden mantelpiece. The backdrop of the garden was created by cladding the back wall with old reclaimed floor boards and other features including a planted up Victorian lavatory cistern, Victorian doors and vintage gardening tools and ornaments. A second raised bed, our ‘Wunderkammer’ feature, built against another wall, was a separate garden containing a ‘Cabinet of Wonders’; old shelves with antique apothecary bottles and botanical curiosities.
The planting had to be for shade and we used many large ivies and ferns and a large cycad to create the effect of an almost sinister space. Also included was Eucomis bicolor, Liriope muscari, Fatsia japonica, Leucothoe fontaneisiana ‘Scarletta’, Pseudopanax crassifolius, Hedera erecta, Polygonatum biflorum, Ruscus aculeatus and numerous sedges. Amongst the more rare and unusual plants used were the fabulous Trochodendron aralioides and the delicate climber Muelenbeckia complexa.
(The garden was featured in the Saturday Times magazine 3rd January 2009 when it was first installed )
Opposition rally against the building of an All-Weather Flood Lit Hockey Pitch on Green Belt land in Bishops Stortford, Herts. Sunday 29th March 2009, 11am
Nearly 300 people with their children and their dogs turned out today (Sunday 29th March 2009) to add their support backing the mounting opposition against the development of a beautiful green space in the historic market town of Bishops Stortford in leafy Hertfordshire. The plan proposed by a local hockey club, involves caging off the area with 3.5m high fencing, rising to 4.5m in some places, laying Astroturf and then lighting it with 8 x 14m high floodlights. Sport provision is tremendously important but we need to site the facilities in the right place.
Organised by local gardeners, Woolcott and Smith, who live in the area, the ‘Keep it Real’ rally was an amazing success in raising the profile of the issue. Further coverage together with photos will be available in the next edition of The Herts and Essex Newspaper due to come out on Thursday 2nd April 2009.
The planning decision will be made at a public meeting of the Development Control Committee on the 8th April 2009. Email info@woolcottandsmith.com for more information.
