Memories of Bank House, where I spent many a happy weekend as a small child.
On childhood memories, gardens and creating a sense of place.
One of my fondest childhood memories is the smell of sweet peas.
When I was very young, I regularly spent weekends with my grandparents on their farm in the Lincolnshire Fens. They lived in an old farmhouse with an outside loo and no running water. Pretty basic by today's standards, but I absolutely loved staying there.
My grandma grew sweet peas by the front door and their distinctive scent greeted you whenever you entered the house. Even now, more than fifty years on, that smell takes me straight back to Bank House and the happy times I spent with her.
What I find rather lovely is that Grandma had no idea, when she planted those sweet peas, that she was creating a memory I would carry with me for the rest of my life. She was simply growing her favourite flowers. It's something I've come to think about a lot since becoming a garden designer.
Grandma Maud and her dog Spot, sitting on the lawn at Bank House
The places we remember
Certain sights, sounds and smells can transport us straight back to another time, often bringing back memories we'd almost forgotten.
With Bonfire Night approaching, I've been thinking about those cold November evenings when I was a kid. Trying to write my name in the dark with a sparkler, eating jacket potatoes with chewy skins and pots of hot mushy peas with mint sauce. Family & friends would come round and we'd all be outside watching the fireworks, wrapped up from the cold.
I couldn't tell you much about the garden we were in, but I remember those evenings vividly.
It's made me realise that our attachment to a place often has less to do with how it looks than with what we've experienced there.
Writing my name with a sparkler in the dark, cold night
A sense of place
When I studied Garden Design at The Inchbald in London, my tutor Andrew Duff encouraged us to consider how people would experience the gardens we designed, rather than concentrating solely on their appearance. It was an approach championed by John Brookes, who originally founded the course and helped establish the idea of treating gardens as an extension of the home. He believed ‘Gardens were for people’ and that the way his clients lived should influence how their gardens were designed.
This introduced me to something that has become increasingly important in my own work: creating a sense of place.
It's not the easiest thing to define. We've probably all visited somewhere that looks wonderful but doesn't feel particularly inviting. Equally, we've all experienced places where we immediately feel comfortable, even if we can't quite explain why. As a designer, I can influence that response through the layout of a garden, its proportions, the views, the materials and the planting. A sheltered seating area might feel more inviting than an exposed terrace, a familiar planting scheme might remind someone of a garden they once knew as a child.
But there's another aspect to creating a sense of place that can't be drawn on a plan. It's the emotional connection people develop with somewhere over time.
And that's where I think the real magic happens.
When designing a garden, I spend a lot of time considering how my clients will use it, both now and in the future. But I also know that, once the work is finished, they'll go on to make the garden their own. Over the years the garden will change, as will the people who live there.
I love the thought that decades from now, someone might look back fondly on a garden I've designed. Perhaps they'll remember climbing a particular tree, or the scent of flowers growing outside the kitchen door. Just as I remember my grandmother's sweet peas.
She probably never imagined those flowers by the farmhouse door would mean so much to me all these years later. But whenever I smell sweet peas, I'm back there with her, if only for a fleeting moment. And I can't think of a better example of what it means to create a sense of memorable place.
Mark Hardy is a Garden & Landscape Designer creating characterful gardens in Kent, London and across the South East. If you're planning a garden renovation, book a design consultation with Mark and start creating a garden where your own family memories can be made.
