Centrepoint 2023

The above extreme and contrasting reactions to the Centrepoint Garden serve as a useful reminder that show gardens are not real gardens.

Show gardens, as Mr Don says, are theatre sets, a snapshot of what might be with everything polished and titivated to ‘perfection’ (whatever that is). Real gardens evolve and change over time. They ebb and flow according to the time and energy and interactions between the client/gardener/lifeforms interacting with it.

The point of this garden was to create a metaphor for homelessness and gain as much publicity for Centrepoint as possible highlighting the good work they do rebuilding the lives of young homeless people in this country of which there are a staggering 120,000. A mural of clipped topiary employed the pointilistic technique (used by the likes of Seurat and Signat) each of the approximated total of 100,000 dots, each one representing a homeless young person in the UK.

A parallel narrative, how the use of waste materials provided habitat for other beings (insects, invertebrates), played on the notion of ‘home’ as did a foxhole and a number of sculptural birdboxes carved by sculptor, Johnny Woodford.

Seedlings from a fallen birch now populate the garden heralding new growth and optimism.

I can’t see myself ever doing another show garden so this was a good one to bow out on.