Exhibitors
SHOW GARDENS | WATER GARDENS | SMALL GARDENS | CONCEPTUAL GARDENS
INSPIRING SPACES | WINDOWBOXES & HANGING BASKETS
PLANTS | GROWING & SHOWING MARQUEE | MARKET PLACE
Small gardens
Down to Earth Partners
The Silver Glade
Designer: Chris Allen and Dorinda Forbes
Contractor: Down to Earth Partners
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The designers wanted a garden that would enable visitors to feel relaxed, soothed and rejuvenated and be transported back to nature with the feeling of calm and peace. A cool, green woodland glade provides such a retreat from the business and noise of life. “The whole effect is one of restfulness and calm, a place to unwind and refresh the spirit; hopefully it produces an ‘aaahhh' moment,” say designers Chris Allen and Dorinda Forbes.
The garden is designed as an island bed, to be viewed from all sides. The meandering gravel path leads the visitor through a woodland glade to the pivotal central structure, a retreat made of Purbeck stone which supports a stainless steel pyramid roof. The green haze created by the foliage of the silver birch trees, symbolising renewal and purification, is offset by the semi-luminous quality of the under planting and enhanced by the soft colours of the flowering foxgloves. The woodland floor colours are many shades of green, blue, grey and purple plus brighter variegated varieties to enliven the patches of shadow. Foliage size, shape and texture will be as variable as the range of colours.
The directors of Down to Earth are committed to ethical practice in environmental issues. This small garden contains recycled green waste as the soil dressing/mulch, many of the plants are grown in re-used pots and the timber foundations for the structure were rescued from a building site prior to dumping. With life long interests in the natural world, the designers of the garden have created a space that provides different habitats to attract a wide variety of wildlife.
The base of the stainless steel pyramid is a dry stone wall of local Purbeck limestone. Dry stone walls provide shelter for a variety of creatures and do not require the maintenance of a hedge or fence, and take no nutrients from the soil. Silver birch, with its rapid growth and light cover, is a useful nurse species and soil improver; moreover, the seeds are consumed by redpolls, siskins and other small-beaked birds. Foxgloves provide nectar for the bees and other insects, and benefit in turn from these neighbouring pollinators, while many of the plants attract bees and will sustain light grazing by indigenous wildlife.
Chris Allen's horticultural career started with a three year apprenticeship and C & G at Bicton College followed with a horticultural and plant knowledge course at Merrist Wood College. He went on to become head propagator for Otter Nurseries, before starting his own garden design and soft landscape company in Devon. Other positions have included training manager for the Spastics Society (now Scope) and curator of the gardens at Compton Acres.
As horticultural director at Down to Earth, designing and constructing gardens for clients with individual requirements and expectations, Chris remains committed to providing accessible gardens for all to enjoy.
Dorinda's background has revolved around publishing and marketing with spells in retail and catering in both the UK and Australia. Her husband, Jamie, set up Down to Earth, originally as one man and a spade in August 2003. Demand grew very quickly and Dorinda joined in Christmas 2003, leaving her office bound fundraising work and has never looked back!