Telegraph
Masterclass with Stephen Woodhams
(Filed: 27/10/2001)
The man who brought us galvanised-steel pots and smooth decking talks to Tim Robinson
GARDEN designer Stephen Woodhams helped define the contemporary-garden look of the 1990s with his trademark galvanised-steel pots, smooth decking, sleek architectural design features and silvery Mediterranean plant palette. The look may be almost a decade old, but it is still being copied.
Dinner plans: ask yourself if you want to use your garden for entertaining
Woodhams can hardly complain about being a victim of his own success - his Chelsea show gardens reached millions via television, and he has a thriving retail business selling those ever-popular galvanised pots. But what to do when your trademark look becomes a cliche?
Move on, of course - which is what Woodhams has been doing. So, if you want a truly 21st-century garden, these are the questions Woodhams suggests you ask yourself.
1 Define what you want from the garden
Make a list. Do you want an area for dining or for yoga, a horticultural arena or a contemplative sanctuary?
Regardless of its size, it's possible to create a variety of moods in a garden - although its principal use may need to be limited. For instance, if you want a space in which to entertain friends but the area is small, you may have to make your entire garden a dining area. You can alter the mood using planters on wheels - in winter, the planters can be crowded round the table to create a sense of enclosure, and in summer it can be more open and spare.
2 Match your outdoors to your indoors
Your interior space will be the first point of contact with the garden. Ask yourself if you are happy with your interior, or would you like to redo it at the same time as the garden? The exterior style should evolve from the interior look. Themed gardens - Japanese gardens or Italian gardens - are too contrived. Perhaps you have Nina Campbell's bamboo wallpaper in the house - you could echo that in the garden.
Making shapes
Or if one wall of the kitchen is bright yellow, that could be followed through into the garden. You could even continue the idea in the planting - by using plants with variegated green and yellow leaves, for example.
3 Make an entrance
Consider first impressions. Do you go down steps to the garden, or do you have to go up? What will be your first view of it? Think about whether you might want sliding doors or double doors - and, again, try to unite the interior with the exterior.
4 The privacy process
Most people want an enclosed, private garden, so one of the first design questions is how to deal with the boundaries. I'd suggest pleached and trained trees (limes, carpinus, sorbus) where possible, to create a high-level boundary. These can be used to create "rooms" within the garden, too. On a smaller scale, you could use steel posts with galvanised wire or steel cable between them - a framework for growing a screen of climbing plants, such as the evergreen trachelospermum, ivies, Garrya elliptica (which looks different each season), or actinidia for a sheltered area. Lower down, willow-weave panels set between the steel posts will create a contrast.
5 How much?
A new garden does not have to be expensive. But if you have the money only for a Mini there is no point working towards a Rolls-Royce. If you are looking for a focus to the garden, remember that a good specimen tree will be cheaper than a water feature. I use concrete council paving slabs. They look smart laid in a simple grid pattern.
If you are feeling ambitious, you could consider other cost-effective industrial materials: concrete sewage pipes act as vast planters in my own garden. As for plants, consider an initially costly combination - such as a single olive tree with an underplanting of smooth-topped boxwoods - which will be reliable, low maintenance and lasting.
6 Forget sculpture, use plants
It's all about plants now rather than hard materials to create structure and to replace the need for ornament. I'm using drifts of plants, punctuated by specimens of the same type of tree.
If you want the focus of a central vista, consider a group of three trees, rather than a sculpture or water feature. All of the structural plants, such as artichokes, onopordums (which will make a big comeback) and kniphofia, will continue to be strong choices.
7 With materials, reverse expectations
One of the big movements in garden design now is the use of "urban" materials, such as concrete or steel, in the country, and "country" materials, such as dry-stone walls and willow hurdles, in the town. As a hybrid, you could take the mesh cages that are usually seen filled with boulders on motorway verges, and fill them with silver-birch logs instead.
8 Colour: be forceful but simple
Settle on a single dominant colour - or possibly two colours - and be disciplined. I have bright-orange canna lilies, orange sorbus berries and a big orange canopy-umbrella. You can echo colours outside the garden - a row of copper beech trees, for instance - to create a sense of depth.
9 The future of containers
I've developed a new range of powder-coated steel containers in cream and chocolate-brown. A new variety of phormium, just 16in high in pure black, looks great in these. Used in rows, alternating the colours, these pots create a mellow look which is heightened if the colours are carried into the interior - vanilla walls, for example.
10 Light up at night
Think about using the garden at night. The first rule is: don't overdo it. There are so many overlit gardens. Coloured lighting in the form of fibre-optics or neon is "in" now, and is not as expensive as you might think. Consider the mood you want to achieve.
Pure white light or "moonlight" against a tree can be atmospheric. For drama, you can even light things outside your own garden. I've just completed where we lit a chestnut tree in a park over a stream at the bottom of the garden.
11 Consider a canopy
A canopy or blinds extending from the house can make an outdoor room with a ceiling. With some outdoor heating, you might be able to eat outdoors all year. There is a new range of electrical, wall-mounted outdoor heaters that are less intrusive than the big gas-fired ones you see on restaurant terraces.
12 Don't forget the detail
The type of mulch you use has an effect on the overall
look. In the country, I might use bark chippings,
mushroom compost or even crushed shells. In an urban
space, consider glass chippings, slate shale, small black
pebbles or other glass aggregates.
-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001