Reckless Gardener - An Interview with Jinny Blom

Award winning designer Jinny Blom talks to Sandy Felton about the uplifting effect gardens have on us and what has inspired her 'Garden of Reflection' for Chelsea 2007.

Jinny Blom's design for the Laurent-Perrier garden, at this year's Chelsea Flower Show, is a 'Garden of Reflection' - a warm, peaceful setting with naturalistic planting which is lush and floral, yet delicate, dominated by burgundy, claret and soft pinks, shot through with lime green and flashes of orange.

Laurent-Perrier's partnership with Jinny Blom follows on from the success of last year's French themed Laurent-Perrier Garden, designed by Jinny (pictured below). She has also co-designed the award winning Laurent-Perrier Harpers & Queen Garden - 'The Healing Garden' - with HRH The Prince of Wales in 2002 and it is good to see her back again, with what promises to be another stunning garden.

I asked Jinny what thoughts influenced her design (pictured below) for the 2007 garden: "I’ve designed a 'garden of reflection'. The design is inspired by the 'journey of life we all take," she explains. "It is an element in a larger garden attached to the modernist house of an Italian art collector and was built to commemorate an important personal event in his life. The 'journey of life' theme refers to his personal biography. However, the garden's symbolism suggests the passage of every existence. A number of paths take different routes through the garden at highs and lows - to represent a journey through life's shifting and unpredictable moments. These pathways are created from Travertine marble on concrete plinths, cleverly combining elements of antiquity with contemporary methods, using a design style in homage to 1950's Italian architect Carlo Scarpa."

Before becoming a garden and landscape designer Jinny spent nine years as a Transpersonal Psychologist, which no doubt influenced her philosophy that gardens have an uplifting effect on people. I ask her to expand on this: "Before becoming a garden designer I worked with people who had very difficult lives," she explained.

"I saw first hand how altering a person's physical environment; painting a room a good colour, creating a small garden, eating good food, had a very significant effect on the mood of the person. I have found it too, as a child I was very aware of, and affected by, landscapes and towns. Beauty is a mood enhancer. If a garden is well laid out it becomes a subliminal pleasure to be in - think why Sissinghurst and Hidcote are so revered. It isn't just the planting- its the fantastically beautiful layout, walls, hedges, open spaces shrinking to cloistered rooms. I experienced this beauty and also the awful remains of Coventry, rebuilt in the 1960's after the firestorms of the war. It always scared me. I think it inspired me too to create, if I can, better environments for people."

We can now see where her inspiration for 'Garden of Reflection' is coming from and it is clear that her work as a therapist has had a significant influence on her: "We are all making a one way journey through life," Jinny says. "The majority of us are affected by events that touch us and change us. I was thinking a lot about birth as I designed the garden, as my niece had just had her first baby after a rather dramatic incident that left us thinking she might not live, let alone reproduce. I wanted to make a happy yet thoughtful garden exploring these human dramas."

So what gives her the most pleasure from garden designing? "All aspects, the people I work for, the people I work with, the places I am offered to redesign, my collaborators in the process, the planting, the buying trips abroad. I can say, with absolute confidence, that I have my dream job. Long may it be so!"

Normally, Jinny would be creating gardens for the long term whereas designing for a prestige event such as Chelsea is a totally different concept. When designing for the long term she knows that plants will change and grow but for Chelsea she has to consider the immediate effect so scale is very important: "I have made big statements this year with the hard landscaping being almost sculptural," she explains. "The herbaceous planting needs to meld together very cohesively to make a good and believable juxtaposition. The strong vertical trees and hedges balance the hard landscaping as well. It takes a lot of time at the design stage and then a lot of attention to detail thereafter."

We all know that Chelsea can be a pretty stressful experience so what from her point of view does she like best? "Apart from the fear and the stress? It’s the most amazing opportunity a garden designer can be offered. A willing sponsor offers carte blanche for ones ideas and then a team of extremely able landscapers and nurserymen cheerfully set to work building, generally in appalling weather and with a horrendous deadline. On top of that one is offered masses of flattering (one hopes!) attention from the public and the press. Chelsea is a peak experience and a humbling one. I love and respect it hugely."

Jinny admits to being an inveterate potterer in the garden and her idea of bliss is spending a day weeding, staring at the sky, poking around in the pond, tying in climbers, reading, staring at the sky again and then having a drink and repeat ……. Which all sounds pretty good to me. So, when not gardening or designing, what other activities does she enjoy? "I love going on walks with my mates, I sing, I read and I love having people over for Sunday lunch. These are great pleasures."

We wish Jinny every success with her garden and thank her for taking time out of her busy Chelsea schedule to share her thoughts with us. To view Jinny’s projects log onto her website www.jinnyblom.com