Flo Headlam is perhaps best known for her work on TV show such asGarden RescueandGardeners ’ cosmos , but her passion for gardening and what it means to the wider community is endless .
With over 10 years of experience ferment as a Garden Designer , Flo is also a keen community nurseryman , work in various spaces in the South of England and with organisation such asCoco Collective .
I was prosperous enough to get her to speak to Flo and to hear about her calling & relationship with horticulture in her own language , which you’re able to discover in full below .
What Led You To A Career In Garden Design?
“ I pay off to a point where I ask a change in career , ” Flo explains . “ I ’d been working for a charity for almost 14 years and I came back after a 2d round of maternity leave and thought that it was time to go and do something else .
“ At that point , I did n’t know what I wanted to do , I just recognize I wanted to be doing something else .
“ I had all these skills and did n’t know where to put that stress , so I snuff it to see a life four-in-hand , which was really worthful because it give me the chance to think about things .
“ She commit me a blank bit of report and told me to write down everything I wanted to do in my lifespan .
“ I begin scribbling down reply and when I looked back over it , the first five thing I ’d written included ‘ acquire my own produce ’ and ‘ do some landscaping ’ .
“ I realised after that I was subconsciously going around and redesign multitude ’s gardens as I walk by . I was thinking about what I would take out , change and impart . ”
“ I had my own short garden at home and I was always growing thing , ” she continued . “ I like being outside , but I did n’t realise how much deep it went than that . ”
“ I was peach to a friend and he mentioned he was doing his tier 1 Gardening Qualification at a college and he encouraged me to do it . It turned out that the grade that was bunk was on one of my twenty-four hours off . I aim that as a signaling that things were starting to line up for me .
“ I did a part - fourth dimension horticultural path whilst I was still working at the charity and in that prison term I picked up two garden jobs on my other mean solar day off . I was work and analyze full sentence and had the opportunity to slowly jeopardize into horticulture .
“ In 2012 , I left my business and lead off full - prison term as a gardener , doing maintenance and some little planting outline . I study for 5 days at Capel Manor College and complete my Garden Design Foundation and Diploma .
“ I was plan and looking after gardens when I meet a manufacturer from Gardeners ’ World . They got in touch with me and I was on the show in 2016 .
“ I call back sometimes you ’re just in the right-hand lieu at the correct time . ”
What Does Gardening Mean To You & How Has It Shaped Your Outlook On Life?
“ One of the things that really sits with me , when you ’re gardening and working in outside spaces , is how connected you palpate to the lifecycle of the season and nature .
“ I reckon that ’s really important on lots of levels . Definitely on a genial health level . Being out of doors wee me live and vital , but evenly calm . It give me immense atonement .
“ Although gardening in itself is quite deadening , if you ’re creating a border , planting or rejigging a blank , you depart the task and see it through to the end . That ’s so satisfying – seeing the encroachment of your hard lotion is good on so many levels .
“ That ’s one of the outstanding takeaways from garden – a level of gratification from engaging with nature at whatever entry level you part .
“ Just working outside , working with nature , I ’ve become much more sensible in term of what ’s going on with the mood emergency and the environmental impact of everything I do . I ’m very cognizant of the grandness of pass on lessons to my clients . ”
Have You Got A Specific Process For Designing Gardens?
“ It all starts with getting a brief from a client and find out what they want , ” says Flo .
“ It might be very well thought out in their minds or it might not , so the beginning of the process is about understanding what it is they want .
“ Then I go and write up the brief and make climate boards , accept intake from different places , other graphic designer , nature , architecture and other art shape , attempt to distil all of that into an estimation for the design . ”
“ Every creative process is iterative . There ’s some back and forward with the client and with myself until we ’re all on the same page with the conception .
“ The unconscious process start again with the planting . The design program is about what it will look like with the structures in place , but with any garden , it ’s the planting that really creates the emotion in the space . ”
Do You Have Any Secret Tips For The Garden For Our Readers?
“ Often when multitude have a garden that they ’ve acquired or had for a while they ’re like – what do I do with it ? Sometimes , the good thing to do is to keep things simple – do n’t overwhelm the garden . My first piece of advice would be to do nothing .
“ Observe the garden for the first yr , see what the garden is by nature doing , what grows , how the light decrease . If you have the longanimity , that ’s the best first response .
“ Then , it depends on what you want , too . If you want a bungalow garden , you ’ll want to make it soft with great deal of different textures , pollinators , scent , a romantic feeling . Or you may want a more contemporary style , more ordered , calmer .
“ Then restrict the number of species you take and constitute in bounteous number so you get blocks of texture . spliff to in the main evergreensand lots of texture , with muted colours . Nothing to make the ticker race .
“ bring aroma into a garden is always a expert idea because it has such an excited burden on the great unwashed . Smell is redolent and associated with our memories .
“ So , if you have a seating area and you have the option to spring up plants around it , choose scented shrubs or social climber , as these are pure for infuse the air with fragrancy and adding another texture to the garden .
“ This can help to make a certain temper or energy count on when you use that space . Some plants even liberate their fragrance in the evening , so you’re able to plan consequently .
“ Think of the garden as an outdoor elbow room . It ’s about dressing the area where you sit outside like a room inside your house – you require to feel equally comfortable in your outdoor outer space . ”
You Do A Lot Of Work With Community Gardens. How Important Are These Spaces, Not Just To You, But To The Rest Of Society?
“ Community horticulture is really contain off around the land . While people have had allotments for decades , community gardens are popping up in spaces that people have reclaim .
“ It ’s part of this whole campaign where mass are realising that we have become so alienated from nature because of the way of life we go as a result of technology , advanced living and the digital hegemony in our lives .
“ The movement is about earn that we need to get back to nature . residential area gardens offer the great unwashed an opportunity to rise another community with apportion a intent . It ’s about people coming together to recover a slice of body politic , work it , grow on it and watch it uprise .
“ The process is dual : ontogeny is happening to the people who are involve as much as to the land they are working . It ’s a veridical fomite for emancipation . ”
Are There Any Things That Are Particularly Good To Grow In These Spaces?
“ unlike community gardens grow different thing , ” pronounce Flo . “ Coco Collective is an organisation skinny to my heart . It is a total darkness - led residential district garden in South London .
“ As well as growing harvest that are more commonly grown here in the UK , they are also render to grow heritage crops happen in the Caribbean . They ’re having some success with it .
“ horticulture is as much about trial and erroneousness as it is patience and reflection . I call it the ‘ green classroom ’ . Every day is a school day and biotic community horticulture groups screw this and cover the ethos of portion out learning and increment .
“ Everyone involved in it goes on some kind of journey . It ’s a wondrous festivity of the human spirit . ”
Do You Have Any Career Moments That Stand Out To You?
“ My standout life history bit is happening mighty now with Garden Rescue , which I ’m loving , ” sound out Flo .
“ It ’s good playfulness , my best daytime at body of work and allows me to showcase all of my skill as a designer , presenter and a quirky , peculiar , energetic character . ”
How You Got Any Projects Coming Up That You’d Like To Share?
“ I ’ve just taken on a military commission for a node to ‘ re - wild ’ her garden , which is quite an exciting project .
“ It ’s a big garden , around 140 foot long , and there ’s lots of lawn that she want to reduce and replace withwildflower hayfield , bug hotel and a water feature .
“ It ’s really nice because the garden at the moment is quite formal and this is about softening it and making it calculate so much more wild and constituent . I ’m really excited about that . ”
