Charlie Harpur is a junior panorama dressmaker at Tom Stuart-Smith in which he spends his weeksthinking about everything from the broader landscape to the ideal species of plant life for use in gardens – he plots swathes of bushes, drifts of prairie and blocks of blooms. Having trained as an architect at the university of tub and KTH in Stockholm the pull of the land changed into too sturdy for him. the affection of gardens and soil is in his blood – his grandfather Jerry Harpur is a veteran garden photographer who has shot for house & lawn for decades, as is his uncle Marcus and his mom‘s own family are agricultural titans Ernest Doe & Sons. Charlie has a penchant for barefoot gardening and spends his weekends getting his palms dirty (with shoes firmly on) at Fulham Palace, in which he’s a volunteer gardener. We quizzed him about his favored vegetation and gardens…

What are you operating on currently?

plenty! however this week i have back from the wilds of the Highlands, have just finished constructing a thatched hermitage in Oxfordshire, became a tennis court docket into a prairie and am now operating ongrowing a rather big forest glade in Berkshire to be planted with loads of (mainly Himalayan) trees and shrubs of intrigue. Rhododendrons were my life currently!

Charlie Harpur
a day gardening
Describe your aesthetic – what or who would you assert conjures up your paintings?

Wild, herbal, fit for human consumption, and a ways from manicured.

Charlie Harpur
The prairie at Tom Stuart-Smith’s own Barn lawn

Do you have got an all-time favorite plant? if so what is it and why?

Quercus robur, the English Oak. possibly not the exciting answer you will be hoping for, but to me it is. As I examine, my pinnacle flora shift around, but the native very wellwill continually stay to me an ancientand dominant icon of our landscape. full and reassuring inside the summer, while acting gnarled with centuries of silent observation inside the iciness.

Charlie Harpur
The orchard at Hatfield house
what is your earliest lawn memory?

As an inquisitive 5 yr old, being both thoroughly captivated and pleasingly misplaced in the superb, past due gardener Jill Cowley’s stunning garden near Chelmsford in Essex. My grandmother did the cake and tea for the NGS open days, and i used to be continually left to explore..

Charlie Harpur
Who taught you to lawn?

My thought to get obtainable and get hands on in part came from growing up in a farming circle of relatives, but also from my grandfather’s photographic library and tales of travels to far away gardens in all corners of the world. My grandparents have continually had a extremely good garden, and my grandmother could always be inclined to share her know-how at the practices. when I first startedworking with Tom (and coming from years of architecture school and offices), he gave me the invaluableopportunity of gardening at the Barn once per week so I could learn through doing. I gardened in particular barefoot – it helped me to hold in contact with the earth, in addition to feel what i used to betreading on whilst wading thru the expanse of grasses, phlox and eremurus. Trial and mistakes hasadditionally been a wonderful trainer…

Charlie Harpur
Charlie’s grandparents’ garden
inform us approximately your personal lawn – what do you develop there?

i am very fortunate to work with lots of gardens, that is lucky as in the meanwhile i am rather confined in London. Our shady 2x4m space doesn’t supply us tons to paintings with, even though this yr‘s spring bulbs seem to be thriving in the few pots that take a seat underneath the sprawling grapevine. internal I fill up every south dealing with windowsill with cuttings and seedlings however they quickly erupt and take over (which I pretty like) and call for extra space than i’m able to offer. My garden does however overflow into the walled lawn of Fulham Palace – one in every of London’s actual hidden gemstones – wherein i amrather thankful to be a Saturday volunteer. The lawn there is enormously efficient, and now maintainsMichelin starred restaurants (and if i’m fortunate, me) in fruit and greens.

Charlie Harpur
The greenhouse at Fulham Palace
Do you’ve got a favourite garden?

i’ve many that i am in awe of. but for me exquisite Dixter is continually radically thrilling, welcoming and the plantsmanship is second to none.

pinnacle TIP

Like such a lot of humans i’ve battled with recurrent depression for a vast part of my lifestyles, and i have discovered that the garden manages to respire life again into me. It makes me experience a part ofthis world which in turn affords strength. So be curious and test, go to superb gardens, wonder at plant life however most importantly: work with the soil – it keeps the mind chemicals shifting.