James Basson ・
The award winning sustainable and ecological focused garden designer and Chelsea Gold medallist tells us about his current work, his connections to nature and his dream garden….it’s not what you’d think.
Q.What does your typical day look like?
There is no typical day but it tends to be …Read -work -drive -stop -draw- walk -look -sleep
Q.Your amazing work specialises in sustainable, ecological and low maintenance gardens. What are you working on right now?
The Artist Gardener and their role in the evolution of the garden. Gardens as process. Evolutive garden Design with maintenance in mind. Process as creation. The role of time on the garden.
Chinese shows and permanent projects. Sculptural conceptual work which explores these themes more dramatically.
Interactive Database development to take planting design into the dynamic process of complex plant selection and ecological interaction that is launching soon.
The language of Perfume and its translation into landscape and planting design. Then, music especially the time score.
Landscape archaeology. The memory of landscape.
Q.What role does the wild play in your work?
It is the source.
Q.How do you personally connect to nature on an everyday basis
Walking, drawing, sleeping outside when I can. As well as exploring new landscapes, I like to study the same landscape throughout the seasons and the years to see the evolution on a micro and macro scale.
Q.Do you think a connection to nature and the wild is important for us in the times we live in now and if so why?
We are aware of all we are losing. It is a new romantic period we want to capture. Lose ourselves, celebrate and revel in this thing that we are loosing our grip on. At a time when we have never understood more.
The wild if there is such a thing is no longer other. We have understood that we are wild. We just lost our way through fear and greed.
Q. What does your own dream garden look like? Anything goes!
Beautiful desolation
Q. Do you have any advice for others to connect to nature and the wild more every day?
Walk draw sleep when you can. Wilderness is everywhere it is the scale of it which differs.
Take the time to slow down and observe.
Q. Your top 3 favourite flowers/plants
- Juniperus oxcederus for its genetic plasticity
- Pistacea lentiscus for its summer green in the harshes of environments
- Polypodium cambricum for its temporal permanence.
About: James Basson is an award winning British born garden designer and gardener based in the South of France. His firm Scapedesign specialises in dry, sustainable gardens that are inspired by his passion for the natural landscape.
www.scapedesign.com Instagram @jamesscapedesign
