Caitlin McLaughlin is one of the 3 finalists for the 2016 RHS young dressmaker of the 12 months, which takes region at RHS Flower show Tatton Park in July. by means of day she is a georeferencer on theherbal history Museum but in her spare time she designs gardens which reflect her interest in biodiversity and conservation. final year she and her sister Tessa won a silver medal for their Genetic Conservationgarden at Malvern. We quizzed Caitlin on how she have become interested in garden design and her inspirations for her show lawn…

What are you currently operating on?

A combination of my day activity and designing my garden for Tatton Park. i’m georeferencer at the herbalrecords Museum. Georeferencing is the manner used to present the locality of a specimen geographical coordinates. We use these maps to look at things like species distribution. I studied technological know-how at college and while i used to be there I became obsessed on plant life. I feel plant technology issomething that isn’t always targeted on at faculty. when I were given to university there was a momentafter I simply thought ‘this is top notch!’ I come from a science and plant conservation historical pasthowever more and more I felt drawn to the aesthetics of gardens and wanted to create gardens thatintegrate those twin passions.

My lawn for Tatton Park takes the RHS topic which is health, Happiness and Horticulture and combines it with my interest in nature conservation. i’ve called the garden ‘Nature & Nuture’ – I wanted to make itexperience like a nature reserve which might paintings equally properly someplace green and leafy like Hyde Park or someplace with tough landscaping like the area in the metropolis by means of the Shard.i’ve used smooth structural traces and really wild vegetation to duplicate the ecosystems we’ve got at the edge of fields, wildflower strips and native hedgerows. i am fascinated by marginal flora – they coulddevelop nearly everywhere.

i’ve now arranged with St. Barnabas Lincolnshire Hospice to donate my display lawn as a memorial lawn for a family pal we recently misplaced. I truly desired to do some thing in her memory and to carryconsolation to others inside the hospice that can want a garden space to loosen up in. The lawn can berebuilt by way of me within the weeks without delay after RHS Tatton at their website in Louth, Lincolnshire.

Caitlin’s lawn at Malvern last 12 months
Do you have got an all-time favourite plant? in that case what is it and why?

It has to be the poppy – en masse, or in my view they are simply beautiful. I specifically love subjectpoppies. We used a pink variety (Papaver dubium ssp. lecoquii var. albiflorum) in our show garden in Malvern remaining year, which turned into at the beginning used by Cleve West in his Chelsea lawn. Wemanaged to get our palms on it through Hortus Loci and used it weaving thru grasses.

Papaver dubium ssp. lecoquii var. albiflorum
what’s your earliest garden memory?

I grew up in Wilby, a small village in Northamptonshire. My dad and mom still stay there and we’ve got were given beautiful fields at the back of our house. i used to be continuously pulling stuff up and makingmud pies!

My mum has constantly been a large gardener so I remember her running in the garden – she remainsteaching me. She came to Malvern to assist out for a few weeks and she‘s going to return to Tatton. Icontinuously ask for her opinion!

Planting at Caitlin’s lawn at Malvern final year
inform us about your very own garden – what do you grow there?

sadly my present day lawn attached to my rented flat consists of more than one slabs of concrete in South London. remaining 12 months I tried to grow some vegetation in pots but then we found we’ve gotgot japanese knotweed which dwarfed the pots and is normally a piece of a disaster.

Caitlin reveals the wild beauty of the bluebell woods at Coton Manor inspiring
Do you have a fave lawn?

I always revel in a wander around citadel Ashby and Coton Manor, be it iciness or summer time I alwaysdiscover them inspiring.

A gravel course at fort Ashby

A border at Coton Manor
pinnacle TIP

don’t experience intimidated with the aid of garden layout. deliver it a move! I don’t have any formalgarden layout education. I design the usage of the free version of SketchUp – 3-D modelling software. Itvirtually helps you to apprehend scale and how things will in shape in a certain area. once you’ve gotdrawn out the structure of the garden you could import pics of vegetation and layer these to create planting schemes.

Caitlin’s design for her ‘Nature & Nuture’ garden at Tatton Park created the usage of SketchUp
getting into its eighth yr, the Royal Horticultural Society young dressmaker of the year opposition keepsto provide a platform for younger horticultural skills at RHS Flower display Tatton Park (20 – 24 July).

The competition gives aspiring lawn designers aged 28 years and below the hazard to kick-begin their careers, benefit exposure at a prestigious RHS Flower show and compete for the coveted name.

rhs.org.united kingdom

all the RHS younger clothier finalists are working together on a display lawn for the RHS London Spring Extravaganza as a way to be inside the RHS Halls in London from 1-2 April 2016. The lawn will reveal howvegetation may be used to liven up an indoor workplace area and out of doors operating area.

study Caitlin’s piece on georeferencing for the herbal history Museum blog here