Episode 5: Butter Wakefield
Butter Wakefield in her happy place
"Clipped shapes and chaos"
Butter Wakefield, Gold Medal winning designer, gives us aaallll the tips in this must-listen episode packed to the rafters with plant suggestions and sound advice for any gardeners or garden designers.
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Episode 5: Butter Wakefield
Butter’s Twitter - Website - Instagram
Things we talk about in this episode:
What's in a name
The process of creating a stand at Chelsea
Pitching, competing, submitting
Creating an outdoor living space
Choosing carefully so as not to overload the stand. Making a realistic outdoor space
How to choose a grower
How the process works
Trees and hedging
Choosing plants
Having a master plan (or not)
Who is the client? Sponsor? Stand?
It’s all about the medal
Gold medals and good pr
The first job
Sleepless nights
Faking it till you make it
Not knowing the answer!
Asking for help where you need it
Knowledge and confidence
How to be a good service provider
Communication
Selling ideas to a client
Suggesting, steering, guiding
Using FACTS to get your way
A tape measure is your best tool.
Balancing motherhood and a buisiness
Baked beans again
Being there when it counts - sports day etc
Setting a strong example for the children
Garden design creates beautiful spaces for families - it’s one of the nicest things you can do for people
Planting style
Planting a show garden vs planting a private garden
Seasonal planting
Shrubs and herbaceous
Clipped shapes and chaos
Scaling up: putting big in small
Getting vertical interest in - wires and trellis to take eyes up
Getting a mirror in! Should be antiqued - bounces light
Being a weekend gardener
Outsourcing the clearing up
Screening and blocking out
Trellis
Trees
Meadow
Tidying tendencies
Being brave
Computer woes
Turning the laptop on
Delegation
Plants, People, links
Deepdale - hornbeams
Rosa 'Gertrude Jekyll'
Geum 'Totally tangerine'
Rosa 'Munstead Wood'
London College of garden design
Cloudy Bay garden Chelsea 2014
p9’s (0.5 litre pots)
Alchemilla mollis
roses
nepeta
Salvia nemerosa 'Caradonna'
Salvia 'Nachtvlinder'
Salvia 'Amistad'
Hydrangea 'Annabelle'
Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight'
Amelanchier lamarckii
Tulipa 'Black parrot'
Fritillaria meleagris
Allium 'Purple sensation'
A. 'Purple rain'
Rosa Mme Alfred Carriere - flowers on a north wall
Stauntonia hexaphylla - will cover everything but beware
Clematis armandii
Akebia quinata
Trachelospermum jasminoides