London was once full of orchards – in gardens, parks and commercial spaces. Most have long since been built over or neglected, and the skills needed to tend fruit trees are largely lost. The Open Orchard Project is part of a movement to reverse this trend, working with communities to plant and care for fruit trees …
This article was published in the Autumn/Winter 2016 edition of London Landscapes. I was especially pleased that the editor, Susan Miles, chose some of my images to use alongside those by Joel Antunes.
Pocket gardens, pocket parks, urban greening and green space in general are all incredibly topical. As with so much else at present, it feels as though the pieces making up the future of our green spaces have been thrown up into the air, and that those pieces are still swirling. It’s not yet clear how …
Commissioning work from any creative professional is a fine balance between communicating your needs, and leaving room for the designer’s vision. I’ve just commissioned a logo, and couldn’t be happier with Sonja Cresswell‘s hand-drawn circlet of leaves, simultaneously delicate and strong. The font she chose to complement it is Kabel, an early sans serif German font from …
This article first appeared in the August 2014 edition of Common Knowledge, the newsletter of the Friends of Streatham Common. The illustration, taken from a contemporary postcard, shows visitors admiring the newly-opened White Garden. ‘Whoever had the inspiration to plan part of the ground solely for white flowers must have been blessed with the simplicity …
The Rookery is a magical garden at the top of Streatham Common, just up the road from my home in south London. When SCCoop, the community group managing the garden, appealed for volunteers to help with a redesign of the Rookery’s historic White Garden, I was in. I wrote this piece, published in London Landscapes …
Urban greening is known to play a role in helping us deal with climate change, pollution, and temperature regulation. But – as this people-powered United Kingdom project is proving – making the most of the green spaces in our cities can also yield social benefits. Improving the local environment by planting urban orchards in public …
Front gardens are subject to SUDs legislation: this means that planning permission is required to install more than 5 m2 of impermeable paving in front gardens (unless run-off is controlled, e.g. by diverting it into an underground reservoir). Here, I chose resin bound gravel to create a permeable – yet stable – surface. A gravel stabilisation …
Reading and roaming around outside were the activities that defined my early childhood in Papua New Guinea. I loved the gardens we made growing up, and words were another passion: I devoured everything on my parents’ well-stocked shelves, regardless of suitability. My father was headmaster of the local high school, while my mother taught at the …