Diarmuid Gavin in interview
Monday, 17 January 2011 5:46 PM
The gardening world's biggest rascal chats to Ele Cooper about the trends he loves and hates, his successful television career and how to pursue a career in gardening.
What was it about gardening that initially appealed to you?
I was a loner as a child and it was my job to look after the garden. I lived in suburban Dublin and we had a very boring lawn with bedding plants and a rockery. I hated the normality of it, every garden in the locality was exactly the same. I liked being outside but wanted to blow it all up and do something much more exciting.
With so much monotony around you, what did you get inspiration from?
I watched Percy Thrower developing the Blue Peter garden over the years but otherwise it wasn’t until I went to college after leaving school. While studying in the Botanic Gardens in Dublin, I came across a book by John Brookes called Room Outside. I saw him using different materials and styles of planting; that was a real time of excitement for me.
What would your advice be to someone who wants to get into garden design as a career?
The big thing is to get experience, to really understand what it is that you want to do. We went through a period of garden design being very sexy and trendy because there were so many television programmes on the subject. Everybody who went to gardening or horticultural college seemed to want to be a TV presenter and that was very dangerous. People should know that it's a difficult career path to take because very few people are making money from it, you work long hours, it's dirty, cold, and often lonely work.
However, if you have a real passion for working with nature and all that it throws at you, then identify practices that you'd like to work in. Offer yourself up for Saturday work at garden centres and try and get in with companies doing work that you find admirable, even if you have to work for free. Show enthusiasm and absorb everything.
Despite your thoughts on the perils of TV gardening, you've done pretty well out of it. How did your television career come about?
I did a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show in 1996 that was very contemporary but fairly awful, inspired by a Michael Jackson video and a nightclub in Dublin! And even though the judges didn’t like it, it looked ok on television so I was interviewed by Alan Titchmarsh, and later that week everything seemed to change for me. People had seen me on Gardeners' World and there were crowds around the garden; within a week people were asking whether I'd like to be in TV programmes. It was a very confusing time for me, although it was nice to be wanted for the first time in my life. Within a year I found myself doing Homefront In The Garden for the BBC which I adored and worked on for about eight years. It was difficult but fascinating and certainly gave me a different life to what I could ever have imagined.
You've come a long way since 1996 and seem to have branched out quite a bit through doing shows like 71 Degrees North and Come Dine With Me.
Yes, it's a real joy. My main job is designing gardens, but occasionally I get to have the best fun ever as part of my profession and I love it. I only go on shows that I feel that I'll learn from or be able to do something else with when I've finished, I don’t do anything just to be on television.
And you've become a bit of a heart throb in the process...
Maybe once, but those days are gone!
What are the biggest gardening trends this year?
The big gardening trend of the last five years is all about taking care of the environment, gardening organically, growing your own fruit and veg, saving natural resources like water and making your own compost. All of those are hugely important considering the disasters that are emerging because of climate change. It's less about gadgets and new colours now and more about the craft of gardening.
Have there been any gardening trends that you've really hated?
Yes - that very light blue paint that seemed to be slapped onto every garden shed and every garden fence on the Ground Force programmes. I didn’t like that much.
Do you think you've been responsible for any gardening crazes?
I may have been responsible for popularising a certain type of new architectural planting - and shiny stainless steel water features! Ground Force was brilliant as it really brought democracy to gardens and let people know that they could have a go and make a difference while enjoying it, it wasn’t a fuddy-duddy thing anymore. If I did anything, it was breaking down boundaries and showing people new possibilities, questioning the traditional and conservative style of gardens and letting people know that there were other experiences they could have outside. Maybe that was my role.
What's the most spectacular garden you've ever seen?
That's a good question! I've only seen pictures, I've never visited it, but it's called the Garden of Cosmic Speculation (below), designed by a guy called Charles Jencks, and it's in Scotland. The garden is inspired by the creation of the universe and the formation of black holes and stuff like that... I don’t understand any of the philosophy behind it but it's majestic in terms of its scale and shape, using very limited materials to create something that's truly contemporary on a vast scale.
Image: Charles Jencks' Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Portrack House, Scotland, by Yellow Book's Photostream.
Do you think it's important that gardens have some sort of philosophy behind them?
I think it is very good for us to consider contemporary philosophies in gardens. It's not just about chocolate box images - if you just want a garden that looks pretty and is a nice place to sit and have a gin and tonic during the summer that's fine, but there are so many other art forms that really inspire me. When I look at movies like Avatar, it makes me think surely there must be other emotions we can explore through gardening other than just making things pretty.
And you're still very much keeping your hand in - how is Diarmuid Gavin Designs doing?
We're not so busy now in Ireland but we work in different places around the world so we're very busy in France, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, places like that. There's always a new adventure around the corner.
It must be exciting learning about gardening in so many different climates.
Yes, it is. We always work in conjunction with whatever botanic gardens are near to us, we get a lot of books and research material that way, and it's very interesting seeing different attitudes. In South Africa, people only want you to use indigenous plants; it's frowned upon to use anything that's been imported into the country - whereas we wouldn’t have gardens in Ireland if we relied purely on indigenous species because there are so few plants that would entertain us all year round or give us colour or structure.
What can gardeners in the UK and Ireland do during January and February?
Now is a time for dreaming, for getting the seed catalogues and planning what you're going to grow. It's a great time for sitting back, relaxing, letting the garden relax a little bit too, but dreaming of the future.
You're one of the faces of this year's Ideal Home Show. What can visitors expect this year?
There's a to-do theatre which will have an Irish theme on St Patrick's Day. I'll be talking about the different gardens that we're creating around the world and explaining what people should be doing at different times of the year. It's all about easy ways to break down the mystique surrounding garden design. There's more but I'm not allowed to discuss it yet...
Are you looking forward to it?
I'm overjoyed to be part of the team this year, it's a good bunch running the show, they've brought a really contemporary feel to it over the past couple of years so I can't wait!
Diarmuid Gavin is the ambassador for Ideal Gardens sponsored by Hydropool at the Ideal Home Show 2011. Diarmuid will be at the show in person, offering expert advice on home garden innovation. The Ideal Home Show, London runs from March 11–27 2011 at London’s Earls Court. Book tickets on 0844 415 4144 or at IdealHomeShow.co.uk. 50p per ticket sold goes to the Ideal Homes for Heroes appeal supporting ABF, The Soldiers’ Charity.
