Cleve West
Cleve West reveals how he became an award winning garden designer, RHS judge, writer and avid allotmenteer. His love of design comes from an unlikely sporting background and a slightly more obvious artistic one.
Since 1990.
Cleve's Bupa garden at Chelsea 2008 Sport was my life before gardening. I worked for a fine art publisher before gardening came up on my radar. A short but exciting time (handling the work of artists such as David Hockney, Howard Hodgkin, Frank Stella, Jim Dine etc) probably steered me more towards contemporary garden design. These days. I still get a kick out of writing a weekly column for the Independent Magazine. Achievements? Five RHS Gold Medals to date. BBC RHS People's Award for the Bupa Garden at Chelsea in 2008.
I spent my teenage years living in Porlock, within the Exmoor National Park. The land and seascape there had a huge influence on me though I probably wasn't fully aware of it at the time. During my time at the fine art publishing company I used to spend my lunch breaks helping an ageing aunt with her large garden in Chiswick. That was when I first got interested in gardening. John Brookes' books then inspired me enough to enrol in one of his courses at Kew.
Yes, my partner Christine (an artist) and I have a small town garden at home which I like although sometimes it becomes a holding bay for slightly more unusual plants before they go to clients. It generally looks after itself which is just as well as we also have an allotment which takes up most of our gardening time.
I don't really have favourites these days and anyway while I love ferns I would have to do without them if I was designing say a drought-tolerant Mediterranean herb garden in full sun. That said I'm a sucker for foliage and lemon scented flowers.
I like stone and timber, rusty steel always gets me going. Concrete, if used well, can be stunning.
Getting clients to understand that gardens are not preserved in aspic. They have an inclination to grow and change and that a certain amount of maintenance-cum-tweaking will be necessary. If they are not gardeners, then I tell them to hire one immediately.
Growing broccoli for the first time at my allotment. It was a purple sprouting variety that wasn't going to do its thing until spring. I thought it should have produced florets by January so at the beginning of March, when there was still no sign, I yanked the whole lot up. Allotment stalwarts dined out on that for a long time.
Without doubt (External) Anthony Paul's garden The Black and White Cottage in Ockley, Surrey. He and his wife, Hannah, have created a stunningly beautiful, sensitive and intimate sculpture garden with all the plants I'm fond of.
I'd love to collaborate with David Hockney on a garden. I had the privilege of assisting him for a week in his studio a long time ago. I then saw a picture of his garden in LA which was amazing. A real artist.
Always changing to suit whatever problems need solving but hopefully sensitive, contemporary and with an edge.
Instant gardens died long ago. Give it time.
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