CoirProducts Featured Grower this week is Mark Lane (@marklanetv), garden designer, TV and radio broadcaster, voiceover, actor, and writer. In this blog post, Mark shared with us how he became a garden designer, the difficulties he faced and how he overcame them, and what he loves to grow. He also tells us what it means to design a garden that is accessible and inclusive for all. Mark also shared with us how much gardening and spending time in nature has benefitted him, calling it his ‘green pill’. He reminds us, constantly, how important it is to ‘think outside the box’, when it comes to being more sustainable and overcoming difficulties and challenges. Read on to find out all about Mark’s inspiring gardening journey.
Tell us a little bit about you and what inspired you to become a garden designer? We understand that you were working in publishing earlier, and following a car accident and a period of rehabilitation, you turned more towards nature and gardening, and pursued a career in garden design. We would love to know more.
As a child I would follow my grandad around his large garden, pulling a blue truck with a pair of blunt scissors, some string and seeds. He taught me about the soil, how to sow seeds, how to care for plants, etc. My nan was a flower arranger and she taught me about colour combinations, textures, foliage and so much more. Then fast forward 20 or so years and I was in publishing as the Publishing Director for the Royal Institute of British Architects, where I worked with many landscape architects, and as the Managing Editor for the international Arts publisher Thames & Hudson, where I published many gardening books. It was around this time that my husband and I bought our first house with a garden in SE London and then out to Kent. I started to learn more about plants, how to grow different plants and how to get interest for 12 months of the year. I have been told that I have an encyclopaedic brain for plants – I suppose because I love plants the information just sinks in and stays.
Then, in 2000 I was in a car accident and during my rehabilitation at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, I had the great fortune of having a horticultural therapist who helped me along a difficult and painful journey. Then, when I finally got home, it was my husband who said ‘let’s get outside’. I did, and for those 10 minutes, I forgot about the accident, the pain, the journey ahead, and just focused on the colours, scents, and textures that surrounded me, as well as the sun on my face. It was also my husband who said, ‘why don’t you do something with plants’, as I was considering handing in my notice at the publishing house, as I didn’t want to travel to London everyday and didn’t think I could travel everyday to London in a wheelchair. So, I started hunting for online garden design courses, using my love for plants, my art background (studied art history at UCL) and my understanding of the relationship between architecture and the environment, from my days at RIBA. I finally found a course at KLC School of Design and did an open learning course.
In pursuing a career as a garden designer, what were some of the biggest challenges you faced, and how did you overcome them?
When I first visited colleges, it was evident that their location, nurseries, greenhouses etc were not wheelchair friendly, and quite frankly inaccessible. When I spoke with the tutors I was asked ‘how will you do site surveys?’, to which I replied, ‘I can use electronic devices to measure sites, and if it’s a large site I can commission a surveyor to do the work’. Another asked, ‘how will you dig holes?’, to which I replied, ‘I have been able to and can still dig holes either from my chair or from sitting on the ground.’ In general terms, there was a lack of education about disability in the early 2000s and everyone saw a disabled garden designer as a problem, whereas I think I have a unique perspective when it comes to designing gardens as I’m closer to the ground and I constantly look through plants.
When it comes to designing a garden, you often emphasise how a garden needs to be inclusive. Why is this important, how do you design an inclusive garden?
Designing for inclusivity is essential. Everyone should enjoy a garden and more importantly reap the rewards both physically and mentally from being outside. The difficulty is that ‘disability’ is very varied and encompasses many different types of disability and ability. However, when I design a garden, I want to know how the client will use the garden now and hopefully in 30-40 years. Of course, none of us has a crystal ball to look into the future, but by simply pairing back designs to essentials, focusing on material choices, good lighting, resilient plants and taking note of building regulations and the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) for design ‘standards’, gardens can be accessible and inclusive for all.
How can people be more sustainable in how they garden?
Sustainability really does start at home. Really focus on the correct recycling bins, use cardboard and paper and mix in with lawn and plant clippings for the compost heap, use and re-use plastic pots and where possible replace with sustainably-sourced pots. Collect rainwater. By 2050, even 2030, water will be even more scarce and we need to save as much rainwater as we possibly can. Perhaps even invest in grey water tanks below ground. Upcycle and recycle products within the garden. Think outside the box and come up with clever ways to make the most of unloved items. When sorting through clothes, keep woolly jumpers and use these to line hanging baskets. Invest in solar-powered lighting and equipment, if possible. Select drought-tolerant plants and mulch your soil to prevent water evaporation and to keep down weeds. Grow a rich mix of plants for great biodiversity.
What do you enjoy the most about what you do?
Every day is different. One day I can be writing a few articles, the next designing an area of a garden, presenting on TV or just pottering around in my garden. I also love the fact that I’m constantly learning. Gardening and plants really expand the grey cells in the brain – there is always room for another plant in the garden, and there’s also room in your brain for another nugget of information about plants and gardening in general.
What are some of the most valuable lessons you have learnt in your career as a garden designer, and through gardening?
To be patient. To keep an open mind. Think outside the box and look at new difficulties and challenges to overcome.
Speaking about your own garden, what do you love to grow, do you have any favourites and why?
I love bright colours. We’ve just moved from Kent to Lincolnshire, leaving a garden that I grew over 18 years. Now, we just have a lawn – no trees, shrubs or perennials. This will change! I love growing dahlias and soft fruits, such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, as well as plums, apricots and peaches as I love jam making. I also love ornamental grasses and include a lot of them in all of my designs, my own gardens included. Mixing in herbaceous perennials, such as echinacea, agastache, anemone, verbena and more to create a rich tapestry of colour and texture, as well as scent and interest for 12 months, and to attract the beneficial pollinators.
How has gardening / spending time in nature helped you personally, what have been some of the key physical and mental benefits of gardening?
Without gardening I probably wouldn’t be here today. As soon as I go outside, my breathing slows down, my heart rate slows, my shoulders drop and I relax both physically and mentally. I also love weeding, as for me it’s an act of mindfulness – I am aware of the here and now, of where I am, but my mind can also wander and drift off, which also relaxes me. I had severe co-morbid depression after my accident and still live with the spectre of depression on shoulder now, but nature, gardening, getting my hands dirty grounds me and lifts my spirits. I call it my ‘green pill’.
What tips/suggestions would you have for other disabled persons who might want to start gardening?
Do it! It doesn’t matter what level of ability you have, anyone can do gardening. If you have limited mobility then look at how far you can reach, can you twist your body, do you need help getting up if you kneel down and then think what tools can I use to make gardening easier.
We’re almost at the end of summer. How can gardeners/growers prepare for the colder months – what are your three top tips?
Anything else you would like to share?
It was by accident that I came across coir products. I had used coir instead of compost, but really wanted to try the coir pots to see how plants grew in them. Although some might say that coir is not environmentally friendly, as it’s a waste product that requires significant processing, we need to be thinking about different materials, instead of using single-use plastic and peat. I know that my plants grew very well in coir and loved the coir pots. I also like planting the plant in the coir pot in the ground in the knowledge that the pot will eventually rot down and will not harm the soil or the soil’s inhabitants.
All images are (c) Mark Lane Designs Ltd.
Website: https://www.marklanedesigns.com/
Instagram: Mark Lane | Garden Designer (@marklanetv)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/landscapedesignmark/
Twitter: Mark Lane (@MarkLaneTV) / Twitter
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