Piet Oudolf described texture as the architecture and character of a plant, with colour coming second. How do you use colour, form and texture, shadow and light, in your designs?

I would agree with him. In most of our designs we are thinking about shape, movement and how the light catches the planting throughout the day before we are thinking about the colour palette. To me, there is nothing more powerful and beautiful than long grasses and perennial flowers backlit by the fading rays of the day or creating cool and quiet shady areas filled with verdant greens, in a variety of textures and shapes. We use colour in our designs to punctuate; adding pops of blues, oranges or purple amongst the green draws your eye and creates depth.  

With your background in the music industry, to what extent do you consider the ecoacoustics of an environment in curating and integrating soundscapes? 

Sound is an essential element in our designs. I would actually say my brotherPeter (who is my partner in Viriditas Studio) usually takes the lead when it comes to creating soundscapes. Peter comes from an events management background and as part of his past life he regularly created immersive experiences and so is great at this! He often suggests adding in the trickling of water, a sound that can help calm the nervous system, as well as creating a distraction from external noises like traffic. When planting I think about the susurration of grasses in the wind, we consider how we can entice in birds and insects to the garden, sadly birdsong isn’t as common as it used to be, but adding fruits and berries to a garden can draw them back in and bring back the beautiful birdsong that so wonderfully punctuates the beginning and end of each day. The sound of midsummer for me is the hum of insects in a wildflower meadow, it is amazing how quickly they return once you plant what they need. In city gardens we always consider buffering noise with the right kind of fencing, with the addition of hedges and higher planting too. 

When considering scent, are you working with different palettes to paint olfactory scenes through the seasons or is it memories and childhood that you strive to evoke? 

It depends on the needs of the individual, but we often incorporate Jasmine (trachelospermum jasminoides) into our designs, and for one client this evoked the memory of her mother’s perfume.. We love to plant Sweet Box (Sarcococca humilis)by entrances or along pathways. It's in flower throughout winter and adds a deliciously sweet scent to the air, at a time of year when there is little else happening in the garden. It's also a very valuable source of nectar for any insects that are still awake.  One of my favourite smells is damp mossy earth, there is something about it that evokes a powerful emotional feeling, a sort of happy-sadness I can't put my finger on. My love of this scent is the inspiration behind a miniature Japanese inspired garden we are creating on our land which will be cool, quiet and damp. Whenever I smell this deep earth scent, it feels like it is healing me and cleansing my lungs!  I recommend Scent Magic by Isabelle Bannerman for anyone who would like to explore this more deeply.

What is your relationship to the lawn and how can we balance the art of sculpting the land with the necessary amount of untamed wilderness that our ecosystem, particularly insects, requires?

We generally encourage a move away from the traditional manicured lawn that has been popular for so many decades. There are many fantastic alternatives; in city gardens we love to have small functional areas of paving with extra-large planting beds surrounding it. These larger planting beds can be packed full of plants which are beneficial to wildlife, and also create a lush space that can give the garden the feeling of being surrounded by wild nature. We are also experimenting with using creeping flowering perennials like Lobeliapedunculata, Phyla nodiflora and Thymus serpyllum to name a few, you can mix the species to work with the varying light levels, and many of them once established are much more drought tolerant than traditional lawns. In our larger countryside projects we always suggest species rich mixes of grass and wildflower seeds or wildflower turf is also a great option, pathways can be mown through with the rest left long and buzzing with life. It’s been very heartening in the last year or so to see a big shift in demand towards pollinator-friendly alternatives to the traditional lawn.

In light of climate change and a move towards co-creative partnership with the more-than-human, what are the key efforts that can be made to support, rehabilitate and sustain our gardens? 

• Do not use pesticides or herbicides. If you have a ‘weed’ or ‘pests’ consider organic ways, or even reframe what they are in your mind. We let nettles grow in our garden as they are great food for caterpillars, and their nectar is wonderful for bees.  Think of slugs as food for birds, frogs, toads, hedgehogs, slow-worms and ground beetles many of which are in decline. See everything as a holistic whole and     part of a chain of things rather than a problem. 
• Ban plastic grasses. They smother the soil, stopping it breathing, they release micro-plastics and have zero benefit to wildlife. They are also extremely difficult to recycle at the end of their life. 
• Re-seed lawns with species-rich mix, and mow infrequently, allowing insects and invertebrates to benefit from the nectar and seeds. 
• Mulch, mulch, mulch! This is the best thing you can do for your soil. Help encourage fungi, and beneficial bacteria back into starved     soils. 
• In sunny beds consider drought tolerant planting, perhaps with a gravel mulch to help lock moisture into the soil.

Is there a place for technology in the garden of the future and what do you think it will look like? 

Smart watering technology could be very useful, something that senses when the soil needs watering rather than irrigation that is on a timer could help to reduce water usage. I love the idea of outdoor lighting that doesn’t affect bats and nocturnal animals, I don’t think this exists, but I wonder if there is a way of playing around with light frequencies or luminescence to create something that is less of a disturbance. 

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