Garden Design

GardenUp is a design service for Gardens and Green Interiors.

Everybody knows what a garden is. But everyone has a different definition of what it should be.

Outdoor Green Space can be anything from a grand Country Garden to an Urban Apartment Balcony. Indoor Gardens range from magnificent Glasshouses and Conservatories to Planters in the lobby or Pot Plants in the office. All these could qualify as a Garden.

GardenUp is more than just design for Gardens. It is a specialist in Greening up built Environments. The thrust of the business is to re-connect us Humans to the Natural World and restore some of the biological balances of Nature to our Human lifestyles.

We’re instinctively drawn to Nature, and Nature has its own way of organising itself, seemingly chaotic, but actually well-co-ordinated. However, Gardens and Interiors are Human constructs.

The Built-Environment needs meaning and purpose to help us connect to the Environment around us, whether it’s the Natural world, Home surroundings, our Community or the Workplace.

Put in perspective, Nature doesn’t need us but we need Nature.

Gardens are all about Chaos, Care or Control. Whichever you choose will set the storyline for your Garden Design.

So, understanding what You want from Your garden is fundamental to my design ethos and I then translate that into a living space that delivers it.

Practical Solutions are one thing; solutions with a meaningful purpose are a whole world beyond, and that’s what Green spaces should stimulate in us – creating a sense of place that supports our identity and belonging.

Most modern gardens are utilitarian, an outdoor space to snatch some fresh air, entertain friends, or at best, to grow some fruit and vegetables, or add seasonal colours to the space.

The demands of modern living are distracting us enough to ignore this precious resource on our doorstep, in our own homes and workplaces.

The Garden outdoors, or even the Greenery indoors, is a resource that can become a much more important ingredient in our whole way of living, for our wellbeing, a bridge to the five senses and an adventure into our emotions, our feelings and imaginations. A place of our own to connect to the Natural world of birds, bees, flowers, trees, sounds and scents, seasons and geography. It also connects us to ourselves.

Gardens can link to our memories and moods; they are therapeutic, and complement our sense of order and balance.

Shaping our Green Spaces – ‘Biophilic Design’

Humans are intuitively drawn to the Natural World of Plants, Animals and Seasons. There is a modern word for this affinity called ‘Biophilia’, a term coined by the famous Harvard Naturalist E. O. Wilson in 1984.

So Biophilic Design is all about making meaningful connection between our busy Human lives and the rest of the Natural World.

Although Biophilic Design seems simple, to achieve this is complex, and requires ingenuity and skill.

Whilst it’s vital to our wellbeing that we connect to the Natural World, We are also Social and Cultural Beings.

In the urgency to correct our environmental errors and excesses in the post-Industrial age, it becomes convenient to side-line Aesthetics and dismiss Art.

The Garden is a source of ideas and inspirations, it is also an expression of ourselves. At its best the Garden is a translation of our connection to the jigsaw of Nature, Humanity and the Cosmos.

Moreover, Global agendas of Climate and Sustainability have revealed how much we’ve become dislocated from the Natural world. So it is vital to re-connect to the realities of Nature, of which we are just a small part.

I am a Horticulturalist with extensive knowledge of plants and ecology. I’ve had a lifelong interest in the Arts and careers in Broadcast Television and Garden Design. These disciplines influence my work as a Designer for Gardens and Green Spaces.