Amanda Patton is a renowned figure in the Landscape and Garden Design industriousness , with a calling that spans several tenner , after found Amanda Patton Landscape & Garden Design at the beginning of the 2000s .
She is also a talented nature Photographer and was lately recognised when she was shortlisted for the Landscape Photographer of the Year in 2020 .
In this consultation , Amanda speaks about her change in career from an Illustrator to a Designer and explains her desire to get to the Chelsea Flower Show in 2025 with a garden in memory of her previous brother , Simon .
What Are Your Earliest Memories Of Gardening?
“ My grandmother was a keen nurseryman , but she pall when I was quite young , so I have vague computer memory of her garden , ” shares Amanda .
“ My mother viewed gardening as housekeeping outdoors , so I did n’t actually discover gardening until I was senior , because I had this mindset that garden were not interesting .
“ In my 20 , I went to see my friend ’s garden as she had just move sign of the zodiac and it was just this mass of colour , grain and brightness level . She was an artist and had done it herself . I had no mind that a garden could touch you emotionally like that and I just knew I had to taste it .
“ I was decidedly a latecomer to realising what garden can and ca n’t be . This might have been different if my grannie had lived longer , as I could have seen more of her garden . ”
Can You Tell Us About Your Journey From Being A Professional Illustrator To Founding Amanda Patton Landscape & Garden Design?
“ When I was a teenager , I thought I want to be a landscape painting photographer , which is still a major passion of mine , so I travel to art college intending to do just that , but I quickly realised whilst I was there that I did n’t desire to stop drawing or picture .
“ I then went into archeologic exemplification for a while and found gardening in the 1980s . I began illustrating for horticulture books and was then lucky enough to get the contract bridge forAlan Titchmarsh’sGround Force books .
“ This gave me a brilliant understanding of building things because you ca n’t suck something if you do n’t understand how to build up it . I ’d get these cartoon in from the team and I ’d have to really recall about the logic behind each one as I did them up .
“ At the end of the 1990s , I wanted something more creative than what I was just doing . My own garden was the first garden which I ever designed . ”
What Does Your Process For Designing Gardens Look Like? What Are You Inspired By?
“ It always comes back to nature , ” she says simply .
“ The planting in my garden always incubate all four season , so for achieve that , I apply a lot of grassesand countervail that with something quite morphological . I also lie with adding layers so your eyes do n’t go straight to the back of the planting scheme . ”
What Does A Typical Working Day In The Life Look Like For You?
“ It varies quite a sight , ” Amanda smiles .
“ The conception level , which is where I try and make it work , is full of drawings . By hand - drawing , you make all of the construct by link up them from hand to learning ability , so at the former stages , I always give adumbrate the plans out .
“ I adumbrate out cast until I ’m generate something that works . After , that all gets draw up in CAD . I plan everything let in the paving , structure and planting designs .
“ I then might be out on - site maintain a job whilst it is in individual or gather new customer .
“ I can honestly say that no two day are the same . Some week I have back - to - back meetings , others I have none ! I normally tend at least 10 project at once and each is ordinarily at a different stage . ”
You Have Created Show Gardens At RHS Chelsea And Hampton Court. Can You Share Some Highlights From These Experiences?
“ Having started on this journey with no specific gardening qualifications , I thought Chelsea would be a great way of getting some accreditation . And it was – it kickstarted my career in 2002 .
“ In 2008 , the Society of Garden Designers operate a competition to design a garden for Hampton Court called the Traveller ’s Garden , which you could translate in any way you wanted .
“ Everything I do is about how things make me feel , so I used this garden to explore these ideas . I create a garden that was quite riotous , with bridge cut off way of life .
“ A fate of my design process is come near by what multitude will experience . It ’s more than just creating a pretty position . ”
What’s Next For You? Do You Have Any Upcoming Projects That You’d Like To Share With Our Readers?
“ I ’m prove very hard to get financial support for a garden at Chelsea for a very personal task , ” shares Amanda .
“ It has been submitted and the RHS would hump to see it build . It concernsthe Infected Blood Inquirythat was happening [ in the UK ] during the 1970s-80s .
“ So many multitude pass away from this , but it is still not spill the beans about enough . One of [ those ] who died was my brother – he was only 38 at the clip .
“ I have designed Simon ’s garden and as a construct , it shows the awfulness of that journey and the uncertainty of how it was going to encounter out when it all begin .
“ What myself andThe Haemophilia Societyhope to do is separate this story through the garden . I ’ve used three different states of piss to press out the emotion , as well as various other concepts and ideas that utilise sparkle and drab .
“ For example , the front of the garden features tiny white and yellowish flowers that are the lights that will be put out to represent the hoi polloi that become flat , and then as you go through , there is a set of dark planting and very piddling gullible . finally , you come through to the transparency of the inquiry .
“ We are trying to get financial support to build it at Chelsea in 2025and then following that , we would then rebuild as a memorial garden , which we already have a locating for .
“ I ’ve been turn very heavily on that , but it ’s difficult because it ’s such a recess marketplace and so unaired to place . This task would really open people ’s oculus to the infrangible tragedy of it . ”
Do You Have Any Advice For Those Thinking Of Giving Garden Design A Go?
“ Do n’t be afraid to take for work with another company or greenhouse and get the experience first , ” Amanda advises .
“ It is a vivid professing that I have been doing for nearly 24 years now . I love it even more than when I set about because you ’re doing something that really does make a difference in people ’s lives while helping the environment and being originative . ”
