GARDENING MAY 2024.qxp_Layout 1 22/04/2024 12:33 Page 1
GARDENING
A Grand day out
Elly West speaks to Bristol-based garden designer Suzy Dean, who has embraced a child-like sense of magic and discovery in her first show garden for the upcoming RHS Malvern Spring Festival (9-12 May)
G
ardens can be magical places for children (at least in my day!) and it’s the secret, wilder corners that I remember best. There was the space behind the shed that overlooked the end neighbour’s garden; the gap in the giant laurel hedge into which I could creep to a hidden hollow with dry ground covered in brittle leaves; and the branch of the weeping cherry tree that you could hold on to and swing on, while jumping off the low wall of the compost heap. Trampolines – the bane of my life as a garden designer – weren’t really a thing in the 1980s, although we did have a swingball set that sometimes replaced the whirly washing line on sunny days, but it was the homemade dens and the opportunities for exploration that made our garden the most fun. What better than to include a bit of magic in our gardens and a sense of discovery – with child-friendly and hidden places that will entice today’s youngsters away from their screens and out of doors? Bristol-based garden designer Suzy Dean has embraced this concept in her first show garden for the upcoming RHS Malvern Spring Festival, which takes place from 9-12 May. Along with her business partner Isabel Devaney, with whom she set up Ammil Garden Design in 2022, she’s created a garden full of wild planting, pathways and small hidden clearings. There’s also a wigwam den and living willow tunnel, designed with children in mind. “The idea of our show garden is that it’s the bit at the end of the garden that morphs into the landscape beyond, not the super-pretty bit up near the house. It’s a bit wild, with natural planting, informal paths and a woodland vibe,” Dean explains. 72 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE | MAY 2024 | No 234
Their garden - The Grand Appeal Garden (design pictured above) – is named for the charity that the garden is supporting. The Grand Appeal raises money for the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, which is close to Dean’s heart as a former full-time consultant paediatrician in its intensive care unit. However, after 20 years in the NHS, Dean decided it was time for a life change: “I’ve always been quite creative and was looking for a new challenge, as well as a better work-life balance.” In what some might consider an unusual career move, Dean now splits her time between her new garden design business and working at the children’s hospital. She spent 18 months completing an MA in interior design at the Inchbald School of Design, but it was when she subsequently started a garden design course at the University of Bristol Botanic Garden that she found her passion and her ‘people’. “I enjoyed the interior design, but it wasn’t quite right for me,” she says. “I realised I wanted to work outside and get back to nature. My focus is on sustainability and wildlife-friendly gardening wherever possible. Artificial grass and lots of concrete are a no.” This is reflected in The Grand Appeal Garden, which has a path made of green oak setts from sustainably-managed forests, leading to a timber lodge, along with areas of free-draining self-binding gravel and extensive planting, including 11 trees in an area 15m x 10m. All the plants will be relocated to new homes, the majority to a shady bank at the children’s hospital, and were chosen with this plot in mind. The palette is muted with shades of blues, whites and greens, using plants such as forget-me-nots, ferns, sweet woodruff, lamium, shade-tolerant geraniums, plus hazel and silver birches to give height and structure.