I’m not talking about the sample piece of artificial turf courtesy of namgrass, which my ten year old creatively utilised in his Lego ‘Hagrid’s Hut’ installation, nor the Toro light pen, which is annihilating our house in its laser gun guise assumed by my youngest, but as a industry novice and inspiring garden designer I wanted to share a relatively serious comment on this event and its relevancy to my new career path.

FutureScape is in its infancy, the second annual single day event occurred on Nov 19th 2013 at Kempton Park Racecourse, and given the exponential growth of visitors from its inauguration last year, it is sure to need re-housing in the near future. It is aimed at both designers and landscapers, delivering product stands, seminars and expert Q&A sessions across a variety of related subjects.

Following a quick tour of the product stands and brief site orientation, the first stop on my schedule was a seminar presented by James Hewetson Brown of Wildflower Turf Ltd discussing (you guessed it) wildflower meadow installation, which I am finding to be an increasingly desirable and requested ‘look’ even in domestic gardens.

Personally, I have not experienced planting a meadow from seed, but had heard the process to final establishment to be a long and arduous one. James certainly argues the case for turf vs. seed very well, providing strong arguments and clear visuals in favour of his products on establishment, cost and performance. I guess like lawn grass, if you want the look quickly with a higher success rate you will probably lay turf, and if you’re of a more horticultural bent, who enjoys the consuming challenge and arguably the higher reward of nurturing your meadow in its entirety, then seeds’ for you.

Often, it is best to leave it to the experts and with over 30 years experience in turf development and 10 of those specialising in wildflower varieties, James certainly has exemplary credentials which are possibly reflected in his enviable client list, which most notably includes providing installations around the 2012 Olympic site, and the iconic British countryside display in the opening ceremony, not to mention some sets for the Harry Potter films. His business has developed a number of standard variants, also providing bespoke products dependent on scale, and a new retail garden border style due for release next year.

With the requirement for increasingly bio diverse environments and the onset of carbon offsetting benefits, you are certain to see the demand for this product rising further, both commercially and domestically, and in an increasingly competitive market. My advice to those looking to buy, always choose a specialist supplier, they’re called that for a reason.

Next stop was lighting. Until now I’ve not focussed too much attention on how to best to light a garden. Obviously with aspirations of producing desirable garden designs, I have never been an advocate of flood lighting the entire garden, and have always understood the importance of showcasing specific plants, retaining an element of mystery and accentuating distance and space.

One of the key skills of good design is extending your entire living space by successfully marrying the internal and external environments and this certainly shouldn't stop as soon as the sun sets. So whether you’re directly enjoying your garden during one of our infrequent balmy summer evenings or indirectly admiring the view from various internal vantage points in the depths of winter, lighting plays a significantly important part.

David Atkinson of DALD Ltd brings a wealth of lighting experience from working in the fields of theatre, film, music and architecture, which easily transfers to the world of landscaping and garden design. His passion and enthusiasm is undeniably clear and the 45 minute presentation showcased a distinguished career built upon thorough research and significant knowledge. The visuals clearly demonstrated the importance of investing time and energy to the correct installation of lights and providing me with increased knowledge of how and what to my already well recognized why.

A small sample of good tips included:

Use high quality products. Water ingression can destroy all your efforts in a number of months.
Understand the correct use of temperature. Bright to display natural plant colour, warm for back lighting.
Optical angles. Narrow for highlighting single larger specimens and sculptures, wide for border displays, boundary walls and outbuildings.
Water features. Trial and learn how to best bounce and refract light, and working with submerged lighting.
Play with different creative effects when lighting pathways and driveways. A simple down light often doesn’t do the space justice.

I left the seminar room slightly overwhelmed, but the overriding piece of advice David left me with was to keep it simple, don’t overdo it, use all the tools carefully and sparingly, retaining intrigue while introducing space and new perspectives. His recommendation of using a long cable and single fixing to test scenarios will certainly be introduced to my future surveys.

A quick spot of lunch, more product browsing, literature collection and the opportunity to quiz experts further preceded the next seminar and possibly the main motivation in my FutureScape attendance – Adam Frost Live.

Adam Frost hadn’t really appeared fully on my radar prior to a TV interview staged amongst his greatly admired gold winning RHS Chelsea garden for Homebase this year. I was immediately struck by his openness and his insistence that he is not creating art, but simply that he understands the importance of creating outdoor spaces to enjoy. This once again raises the question of what constitutes art…...

From years of appreciating the UK show gardens and following their creators, Adam does strike me as different, not in a Diarmuid Gavin 'controversial' design way, but in his persona. He’s not the typical designer you would find at RHS Chelsea, playing down his obvious abilities and displaying a warming candidness.

As the room filled, Adam was showing a certain amount of nervousness at the ensuing proposition of imparting his wealth of knowledge with the awaiting audience, eagerly exchanging a spot of banter with some of his friends and colleagues present. He needn’t have worried, with gentle and assured Parkinsonesque questioning and listening skills from Jim Wilkinson the event organiser, he fluently recalled his life and career history.

Dragged to the SW England countryside by his relocating parents aged 15, he struggled adapting to the change from his North London roots. His schooling suffered and after a period of ‘Parklife’ he cites the late widely admired Gardeners' World presenter Geoff Hamilton as providing stability and inspiration, working for him over a number of years prior to establishment of his own landscaping business. His desire to spend ‘more time in the pub’ and out of the cold prompted his move to design.

Whilst I feel after years of hard graft he is now extremely comfortable with his elevated position and the trappings that brings (as we all would be), he is genuinely at pains to point out his incomprehension of the comparative respect he is now afforded post show success and indeed how a former ‘little toe rag’ cut through the formalities associated with RHS Chelsea. All I can offer is that hard work and genuine talent will always shine and with his continued frankness and delivery of award winning designs his following will continue to rise.

Adam continued by describing 2013 as a turbulent year, encountering very close family bereavements and too much time away from his wife and children, which only heightens my admiration for his ability to deliver a gold winning RHS Chelsea garden and his establishment of the Homebase academy; a very real employment programme providing opportunities for young aspiring horticulturalists and landscapers. Inspired I presume by the importance a considerate mentor played in his own early development and his requirement to give something back.

Further questioning uncovered his own future aspirations, and with the undertaking of Homebase RHS Chelsea 2014, including managing the involvement of those participating from the academy, further private design commissions both in the UK and internationally and a book in the pipeline, I’m afraid time together with the family will continue to be limited.

During the audience Q&A session I offered the Adam the opportunity to share some insight into the inspirations for his design. A question I assume all established designers dread, but all novice ones want the answer to. He responded with his familiar stance, a desire to create a real space or landscape you would like to immerse yourself in, with plant selection and distribution playing an essential part in the entire design process. He added that surveying generally begins at the view from the kitchen kettle and inspiration often appears at the bottom of a nice glass of red - priceless. I stupidly omitted asking for a grape recommendation!

The audience included David Dodd the founder of landscaping business The Outdoor Room, who has provided construction to an enviable list of show and private gardens having established excellent relationships with a number of designers. Subsequently I have learnt from an article in ProLandscaper that David has recently announced his decision not to continue working with the popular Love You Garden TV series, stating that whilst he thoroughly enjoyed his time and colleagues during its production, he did feel that the speed and delivery of the show format did in some way undermine the true qualifications, skills and abilities of designers and landscapers alike. He mentioned that he would be keen to work in TV in the future adding a keenness to do this in partnership with Adam to produce a show of substance and humour. I agree, this pairing in a Grand Designs format would certainly make compelling viewing.

Another coffee and an opportunity to review my newly acquired knowledge before my final session of the day - The Detail Is In The Design Q&A. The designer panel (or should that be ‘panel of designers’) JoThompson, Ian Drummond, Tracy McQue, Andrew Fisher Tomlin and Kate Gould provided insights into their careers, including personal thoughts on inspiration and future desires.

Some key points of particular relevance to me were; on announcing to her friends and family her decision to pursue a career in garden design, Jo was greeted with shock and disbelief ‘you don’t know the first thing about gardens!’ I’ve experienced similar if slightly less direct remarks, retorting ‘but that’s the point, isn’t it? The journey is the fun bit.’ Now with four successful RHS Chelsea gardens under her belt and a thriving design business, Jo has certainly silenced her doubters. Equally inspiring, Tracy provided sound advice, insisting that establishing designers should stand firm on their pricing and truly believe in their value.

Whilst the majority of them agreed in not liking or being totally satisfied with elements of their work, (the curse of most creatives) Ian went so far as to say that he often had to revisit his work a few weeks later, just to reassure himself of his ability. Andrew provided strong opinion throughout, quickly rebuking the question of ‘who should earn more, designer or landscaper?’ as not worthy of an answer, and reassuringly adding that no one should accept the common misnomer that financially sustaining a career in garden and landscape design is impossible. Of equal worth and very warmly received by both panelists and audience alike was his declaration of intolerance to the evidence of elitism creeping back into the industry, (no names mentioned) ‘I thought we got rid of that!’ It’s heartening to hear a regular Chairman of Judges for the RHS, making statements to this effect; after all we should always critique the installation rather than the installer.

One thing echoed across the panel was the principal importance of establishing a strong relationship with a landscaper. There must be a mutual respect; both parties must combine with clear communication channels to produce the perfect creation.

Day over for me, I must just state that I attended less than 25% of the seminar sessions available and found the event very rewarding. It is a perfect opportunity for products to be marketed directly and established experts to impart their knowledge, build networks and meet up with industry friends. For novice designers like myself all you need do is soak up the all the information you can, its not often that such a breadth of knowledge is so compactly contained and with such ease of accessibility.

Right, I’m off stick my head into John Brookes Garden Design Book, much knowledge to acquire, thanks for the tip Andrew.

What I took away from FutureScape.....