Out & About September 2017

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We live in a world now where kettles,
televisions and other electrical items
are not built to last as they were for
my parents’ generation.
In most cases a new television or fridge is
cheaper than mending an old one, so it is not
surprising then that we generate more waste than
ever before.
Although these items can be recycled, they have
no use within the garden concept. For items to
recycle into an exterior scheme we have to think
far more broadmindedly.
Old stone, metal and timber are the most popular
items to be reused within a garden scheme.
Care should be taken with old stone such as
Yorkstone, which would need a skilled landscaper
to lay it, since it is not of an even thickness.
The larger slabs can weigh 150 to 200kg, which
makes handling them a careful process.
Similarly, old timbers – gnarled and twisted – can
look beautiful in the garden and sculptural enough
to stand alone as a piece of art.
At the 2013 Chelsea flower show, we created a
show garden called The Wasteland, which
transformed a perceived old water pumping
station into a usable community space, using
the leftover infrastructure and items that we
“imagined” would be found on the site.
These ubiquitous items of rubbish were those that
we see on a regular basis lying by the side of the
road or in skips and they were transformed into
interesting and, very importantly, attractive pieces
that could have a viable second life in a garden.
There were some items that we wished we could
transform such as traffic cones, wheelie bins and
old vehicle tyres, but with time and budget press-
ing we settled on a few interesting pieces such as
our old glulam bridge.
Glulam is a process where sheets of wood are
glued and laminated together. This process
enables architects to design buildings with huge
spans of curved or shaped rooves that do not
require steel beams, but are just as strong. I even-
tually found a specialist company that recycles
its old glulam products. I wanted to create an ad-
ditional seating area in the garden, one for five or
six people to sit together on and ideally it should
be from recycled wood.
It would have been quite ordinary to build a
new subframe out of metal and then clad it with
reclaimed wood, but using glulam meant that we
would not have to use a new metal frame.
What was offered was a section of a 30-year-old
bridge, complete with rusty nails, screw-holes and
missing bits where bolts had been drilled through
and removed.
This was perfect and the result was a cantile-
vered bench so strong and sound that with only
four bolts it held, unmoving under the combined
weight of six hefty landscapers.
The patina of the wood and the addition of all the
accoutrements that came with its previous use
greatly added to its charm and it was an area
in the garden that people who used the space
gravitated towards because of its generous size
and inviting nature.
Another thing we salvaged were some old valves.
These came off a ship and were made of steel
weighing approximately 200kg each. These were
used to hold up two concrete planks that formed
seats.
We could have easily put a recycled wooden
block underneath, but these valves, again found in
the maritime salvage yard, were too good to miss
and injected character and fun into the garden.
Salvage yards are full of old bits of machinery that
you might not know the use for, but could easily
become a plinth for a sculpture, a prop for a seat
or simply a decorative piece in its own right.
Often these pieces are slightly rusted, but if this
is not to your taste, then they can be cleaned up
and painted, or if you do like the rust then they
can be left as they are and appreciated as they
gently age.
The garden for all of its so-called ‘rubbish’ was
exceptionally well received and the overall com-
ment was “pretty” or “beautiful”, which just goes
to show that reusing items with a bit of thought
can create an attractive space that people want to
spend time in.
It will never be possible to recycle everything into
a garden, but if we are more careful with how
we think about our waste and consider whether
something can have a second life, then we will
be much farther towards a world where we no
longer turn to landfill as the first and only option
for broken items.
51
OA gardening
Recycling within gardens
schemes
Kate Gould is an award-
winning garden designer
with more than a decade’s
hands-on experience
transforming gardens
of all sizes and is a regular
exhibitor at the RHS
Chelsea Flower Show,
where she has been
awarded three gold medals.
With a bit of creative thought,
unwanted items can add charm to
a garden. KATE GOULD explains
how she created a ‘recycled’
outdoor area to stunning effect