Arriving at Royal Academy in London at 10pm

David Hockney was born in Bradford and he has finally come back to his roots after years of soaking up the Californian sunshine.   “A Bigger Picture” celebrates his depiction of landscape, particularly his re-engagement with the Yorkshire Wolds.

The collection of work is truly awe-inspiring: you cannot fail to be drawn by staggering scale of his canvases – one piece up to 10 metres wide!  Looking at his countryside scenes, you are transported 200 miles away to the heart of the Yorkshire countryside – you can almost smell the fresh air!

Hockney's vibrant "Arrival of Spring", comprised of thirty-two canvases 3ft x 4ft each!

I am inspired to reach for my sketch book and save up for an iPad so that I can experiment with this new media too.

Based in Yorkshire, Kingdom Gardens work with locally based clients and design a lot of gardens throughout the county. Our most recent project in Leathey, near Harrogate is inspired by a field pattern, a topic so beautifully depicted by Hockney’s is his paintings – The Road Across the Wolds (1997).

Hockney's "The Road Across the Wolds" at once familiar and fresh

Our current project is situated in the Wharfe valley with views of Almscliff Crag. The design for this garden was also inspired by field patterns in the surrounding countryside.

The event was held in a striking ‘art deco’ style building near Westminster Cathedral – not thay many folks were looking at the architecture, with some of the UK’s best specialist nurseries and exciting plant collections on display.

One of the most vibrant hellebores I've ever seen - Helleborus "Anna's Red"

The highlight of the day for me was attending lecture given by garden design royalty: Tom Stuart Smith.  He has designed the Queen’s Jubilee garden at Windsor Castle, and is the winner of eight gold medals at Chelsea Flower Show, including three prestigious Best in Show awards.

Garden Design Legend: Tom Staurt Smith in one of his Chelsea Flower Show gardens

Tom Stuart Smith gave an inspirational talk about his approach to garden design… so how does he go about making these beautiful gardens?  Its easy really – find out what your client likes about gardens and what is special about the site, then create a garden which is sympathetic to it’s environment.  All in a days work!

Another one of Tom's award winning Chelsea Flower Show gardens

To check out more of Tom’s work, visit his website: -

www.tomstuartsmith.co.uk

Tom revealed that he is currently working on a project in South India where he is ”looking for the language of the landscape which is unique to that site.” - How romantic!  I, on the other hand, am looking forward to getting back to my projects in Yorkshire – home is where the heart is!

Theres still beauty to be found in the city in Winter.....

Laura with surveying equipment

When you’re new to garden surveying, the first thing you do is start slowly? Right? Well not all the time… Catherine and I spent a few hours surveying a rather ‘challenging’ garden. The house is beautiful, with a large stone terrace, amazing views and a beck, so armed with our tape measures and clipboard we set off to survey the garden…

To plot the levels we used an exciting new piece of technology that enabled us to work out the measurements using a long pole and a tiny computer that beeps a lot! Although I think in future Catherine should guess the levels rather than measure them as she was scarily accurate on more than one occasion! The garden sloped steeply down towards the beck which mean’t that to collect all the measurements we needed, Catherine had to risk life and limb to scramble down to the beck which we fondly nicknamed ‘The ravine’.

Catherine taking photographs by the beck. I feel much taller than usual...

As an introduction to garden surveying, it was informative, fun and challenging made all the more exciting by the location, the level changes and the beck…I’m looking forward to seeing how the garden transforms and carrying out more surveys in the future, now I think I’m prepared for anything!

Laura is studying her masters in Landscape Architecture and met Catherine when she tutored her on a conversion drawing course three years ago.  Laura’s previous degree was in Art History.

The staff at this school in Wyke, Bradford understand the importance of outdoor play in a child’s learning and development

The staff at this school in Wyke, Bradford understand the importance of outdoor play in a child’s learning and development.  The Kingdom Gardens team worked closely with them to design and create a variety of spaces which will offer a wide range of experiences for the children.

The structure of the growing area is now ready for the children to get busy planting and growing.  The get the production going Kingdom Gardens donated strawberry plants, onion bulbs and other veggie seeds including carrots, walking-stick cabages, pumpkins, broccoli and beetroot.  Catherine spent the day with the children sowing seeds into trays.

This awkward area was unusable due to the steep slope, this decking creates a multipurpose feature: stage and fort, scrambling net and fireman’s pole.

This awkward area was unusable due to the steep slope, this decking creates a multipurpose feature: stage and fort, scrambling net and fireman’s pole.

The nursery garden is a variety of stimulating experiences; utilising natural and recycled materials including scrambling boulders, timber bridge, digging pit, growing beds, shade sails and tyre worms designed for exploring, jumping, tumbling and most important fun and laughter!

From Saltaire terrace parking . . .

This traditional stone terrace property is in Saltaire, a UNESCO world heritage site, now its owners have their own private site to be proud of.

There’s nothing more exciting than being part of such a dramatic transformation – this backyard was only ever used as a parking space, but now it is a funky, recreational space.

In tight spaces every square inch counts – everything here is designed not only to look beautiful, but to be functional – the seating is sculptural and much of the planting is edible.

Everything here is designed not only to look beautiful, but to be functional - the seating is sculptural

An illusion of space is created by arranging the garden layout on a 45 degree angle, directing your view across the longest distance in the area. The upright oak beams lift the garden off the ground plane and into the third dimension.

Recycled scaffolding boards are used as the garden “wall”, stained a rich aubergine to create an ‘inside-outside’ look. A panoramic snapshot through the box window gives a surprise view, and reinforces the idea of an outdoor room.

The upright oak beams lift the garden off the ground plane and into the third dimension

Recycled scaffolding boards are used as the garden “wall”, stained a rich aubergine to create an ‘inside-outside’ look

Catherine from Kingdom Gardens was on hand to ensure all the bulb planting went smoothly.

The children have been donning wellies and waterproofs to celebrate the opening of their new garden.

The new garden offers lots of unique features to stimulate a child’s imaginative play including recycled tyre worms, earth mounds, mini-beast blackboards and stepping stones.  The new garden has been a real community effort with parents volunteering time, plants and other recycled materials – like the tractor tyres!

It’s really important to get children interested in the great outdoors!

All this has been made possible by a grant from North Yorkshire City Council’s Early Years and Childcare Service, as part of a £2.2 million initiative to provide quality outdoor play.

]]> http://www.kingdomgardens.co.uk/blog/?feed=rss2&p=82 0 http://www.kingdomgardens.co.uk/blog/?p=53 http://www.kingdomgardens.co.uk/blog/?p=53#comments Sat, 30 Oct 2010 18:07:40 +0000 admin http://www.kingdomgardens.co.uk/blog/?p=53 The making of  the Peace Garden at Richard Taylor C of E Primary School in Harrogate was truely a community effort; and we felt very honoured to be a part of it.  Our team constructed the hard landscaping in April 2009, we then worked together with the children to put in the hundreds of plants.

Every child in the school helped to get the bulbs in the ground ready for Springtime. The children have a natural curiousity and interest in their outdoor environment

The children were involved with the design of the garden and they knew exactly what they wanted: colour, scent and somewhere peaceful they could sit, relax and think....

Catherine and the children planting bulbs in the sunshine.

Returning in September 2009, Kingdom Gardens donated over 3,000 bulbs including wild daffodils, native bluebells and crocus.