My first visit to Kirstenbosch, some seven years ago, was something of a disaster. Driving from the opposite side of Cape Town, in warm sunshine with clear blue skies; a thick sea fog swept in, turning everything into grey gloom. … Continue reading
If Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire’s other great Rothschild garden challenges my Arts and Crafts sensibilities with its glorification of the art of carpet-bedding, Ascott, I find to be a curious mismatch. Like Waddesdon, this is a house and garden where the … Continue reading
Whilst staying in Amsterdam at one of those late 17th century canal-side houses, I mentioned to my friends that I was going to see Mien Ruys’s garden at Overijssel the following day. Imagine my surprise when they said they thought … Continue reading
Put together an enlightened client, a great architect and a famous artist and something wonderful might happen……….. However, my first impressions of the Fondation Maeght were not favourable; unfriendly ticket office staff, high admission charge (justifiable in view of it … Continue reading
Sometimes, when designing gardens, there is a clear need for a piece of sculpture, and I always find this is a problem because it is a subjective choice, and the client seldom wants to be guided by the designer. … Continue reading
Fortunately my organisational skill are scarily good, or at least that’s what my friends tell me, but it doesn’t help that I am mildly dyslexic, so dates and times I can find confusing. The number of times I have arrived … Continue reading