These images are from Forgotten Spaces: the Barbican Conservatory, a collaborative project between photographer Luke Hayes and writer Sarah Simpkin. The conservatory, built in 1980 in a post war estate, is beautifully wild against the bulbous architecture of Chamberlin, Powell and Bon.
All photographs by Luke Hayes.
Phytology is a great botanical project opening our minds to plants which are commonly labelled as weeds. Their website explains that the project “brings artists and botanists together to explore the medicinal properties of plants that are common to derelict urban environments… (and) aims to challenge ideas of use, value, resilience and the function of wildness within our urban ecosystem”.
The team (including Dr. Peter Giovannini, the International Projects Officer for Kew Royal Botanic Gardens) are busily preparing for the opening of a medicinal field in late April at the Bethnal Green site. Visitors will be able to explore the field, learn about the plants and harvest them for medicine and food. Here are a few of the plants that will be found on site.
Wild Garlic, which can be used:
Marsh Mallow:
St Johns Wart:
Purslane
Illustrations by Talya Baldwin. Be sure to check out their website and Facebook page.
The Garden Edit is great website founded by English gardener John Tebbs which sells gardening tools, artwork, pots, books, bath products, magazines, and vases. And they ship internationally.
All images via The Garden Edit.
Thanks to Deborah Sfez of Papier Mache magazine for sharing this with me.
Last night we saw the strikingly beautiful La Grande Bellezza at the Open Air Cinema (check out the trailer here). Before the show we took a wander through the Royal Botanic Gardens. The garden is set on Sydney harbour and is always a nice spot for a picnic. This particular evening the flora was glowing pink, red and orange and I was reminded how charming this spot is.
All photographs by Sophia Kaplan & Marie Laubie.
I dream sometimes of having my own gardening show, wouldn’t that be cool? One of the shows I’m inspired by is the BBC’s The Edible Garden. In this program, horticulturalist, journalist and author Alys Fowler attempts to live a more sustainable life by transforming her Victorian terrace backyard into a beautiful edible garden. She delivers growing tips, recipes and interviews with other likeminded gardeners.
My ideal garden would be one like Alys’s where almost everything is edible, with flowers and foliage for cutting filling up the spaces in between. Her wild design is also a much admired aesthetic. Check out episode one of The Edible Garden below.
Two thousand thirteen was a hell of a year and I am so grateful for all the experiences I’ve had. There were some tough moments, some things I reluctantly had to give up, but I also managed to kick a lot of crap to the side and start doing what I really wanted to do, make a career out of my love of plants.
During the past year I travelled to New Zealand, Japan, France, Italy, the US and some places closer to home. To those I travelled with and others that I met along the way, thank you for making it all so incredibly fun. It’s also been a pleasure to return to Sydney after all of this to the birth of my brother’s first child and the sun and glow of family and friends and this amazing city.
I started this blog a little over a year ago and it’s been very gratifying to watch the number of readers grow and to get such nice feedback from you all. Thank you for reading!! Here is the first of a few posts looking back at the year that was.
In January we talked architectural, gardening and design greats Ricardo Bofill, Monty Don, Raf Simons and Stella McCartney, and explored decaying flowers, New York rooftops and some plant based gift ideas.
In February we followed The Little Flower School‘s visit to Australia, enjoyed the beauty of Zippy Seven and Kate Moss, and appreciated and then received a lovely fiddle leaf fig. We explored the Japanese art of kokedama floating gardens, I had my mind blown by nature documentary Microcosmos and happily discovered cabin porn.
In March I commissioned Lucy Allen to create some quirky images, visited the IS./WET exhibition, followed Lisa and Neil’s South African adventures, explored Madison Cox’s Tangiers retreat, took a look into some of Sydney’s kitchen gardens and a peek into the backyard of some friends in Redfern, found some dreamy images from Old Chum, got excited about new Sydney flower delivery business Little Flowers, and last but not least, discovered the incredible floral artist Makoto Azuma.
The rest of the year will follow shortly!
Image 1: Ricardo Bofill, image 2 Billy Kidd, image 3: Tim Walker, image 4: String Gardens, image 5: Beaver Brook, image 6: Lucy Allen, image 7: Neil Francis Dawson, image 8: Shunsuke Shiinoki.
So incredibly excited to be published in The Planthunter today. My sister and I put together a simple little guide to making foraged floral wreaths. Check it out here. I love what founder/ editor Georgina Reid is doing and very much look forward to contributing again in the future.
My courtyard at home is super sweet. Being greeted by a chicken as you enter is a rarity in Paris.
All photographs by Sophia Kaplan.
The Jardin des Plantes is one of my favourite gardens in Paris. We visited on the weekend and caught the end of the dahlias and some beautiful autumn scenes. In the grounds is the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle. The main hall with huge whale skeletons and taxidermy is reminiscent of the American Museum of Natural History, New York. Very Night at the Museum. We also checked out Alchimies by Sarah Moon – a photographic exploration of the museum and surrounding garden. Well worth a look. Afterwards we headed across the road to la Grande Mosquée de Paris for pastries and mint tea. All in all a pretty excellent day.
Final photograph by Sarah Moon, the rest by Sophia Kaplan.
Jardin des Plants: 57 Rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris
Alchimies runs until 24th November in the Grande Galerie de l’Évolution.
The Secret Garden 