friendly, and I think we need to be cautious of what we do with regards to green gardening. It’s been 10 years since they banned pesticides, and I see the positives and the negatives, but I like more of the positives. But then people still bring it in from the U.S.
Casa London: Do you think you have a particular style?
Denise: I can’t say I have a personal style, but I am very passionate about colour. I love colour! I don’t like an all green garden.
Because we have 12 months of the year and not all of them are perfect growing seasons, there is a real art to getting colour in the winter and colour in the fall, and that’s where I find what brings me back every time is colour.
People think they want something and quite often, once you get talking to them, you find it’s not what they want, but it’s what everybody else has done. I try to make the gardens and the property an extension of their home, so in the summer it is just like they have added one more room and they can move from the inside of their house to their garden. Usually sitting at someone’s kitchen table I can tell what their lifestyle is like.
I do a lot of garden rehab, seeing what we can save, what we can salvage, or what can we move and make new, as opposed to a lot of designers who will come in, rip everything out and then start from scratch.
I can’t justify pulling out, for example, a 20-year-old Japanese Maple that is absolutely gorgeous, and has nothing wrong with it, just because I want to start fresh. We can take what is underneath it, move it, rearrange it, and then all of a sudden you have a garden that has a totally different look! I like to see what we can reuse that already exists and get people to share. Often gardens are built on gifts that people give you! I always say to people don’t spend a lot of money, just try and experiment.
For those of you who want to hear more from Denise she writes a weekly column in the London Free Press called Growing Concerns, or you can find her in person at the Parkway Garden Centre most Saturdays in the spring (just ask the staff). You can keep up-to-date with what she is up to by checking out her Facebook page, and if you are interested in learning more about what she could do for your garden then you can visit her website!