“Being a life through a garden…”
For me, part of being a human being means gardening - being in nature and in landscape as aesthetic, physical and spiritual work.
The garden – whether a border, a strip of pots, a wilded site, or a social housing estate lawn - is a place of refuge, recharging and of being in relation to self and other. I work with people to create that garden space that holds the natural rhythms and patterns that are woven through nature to go beyond what you may first imagine your garden could be.
Across over 25 years as an artist gardener, I have honed my practice to speclise in naturalistic and woodland planting, wilding on small and large scales, meadows and ferns. I have formal training and continue to learn through the process of discovery that is gardening.
My gardening practice is a sustained relationship between art and the practice of gardening. It is grounded in my artist training and sensibility, working with the creative and fertile tension between how much you let go and how much you control, with the aesthetics of plants, and in consideration of the form and function of plants as well as their beauty.
My process as an artist gardener is one of deep listening and observation, drawing from the indigeneity of place and landscape as well as cottage, woodland, wild and formal gardening traditions, working with the garden as nature, and the symbiosis of the natural world with the human.
‘…and through a landscape.’
Gardening in a therapeutic life.
Gardening for me is about a belief in our capacity to transform – as you plant something and as you are witness to the cyclical rhythm of plants, there is an inherent hope in the future, one that continues in and beyond your lifetime.
In a tandem relation to my artist gardener practice, I also work as a psychodynamic therapist. The two practices are interwoven and inform each other.
Both are concerned with co-creation, nurturing, growth and transformation, and in cultivating the discovery of where and how you can live in yourself and in the world.
My influences.
A constant student, I am continually learning from and inspired by gardens, gardeners and artists.
Gardeners such as Piet Oudolf, Dan Pearson, Beth Chatto, Fergus Garrett at Great Dixter, Jinny Blom
Artists such as Agnes Martin and Cy Twombly.
From the artist and garden that is Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage, gardened by Jonny Bruce.
And drawing inspiration from time at Sissinghurst, Knepp, Charleston, Hauser and Wirth Somerset, the meadows at Great Dixter, wild English churchyards and in the Garden Museum.
My qualifications.
My lifetime’s work as an artist gardener is underpinned by a Diploma in Garden Design (2000) from Pickard School of Garden Design, a Creative Writing MA (1998) from University of Sussex, and BA (Hons) in Fine Art (1991) from University of Ulster.
I have worked as a therapist for over 10 years. Details of my therapeutic practice can be found at judegallowaytherapy.com.
Thank you to Kate Benjamin for her images (unless otherwise stated, all images are by Kate) and to my partner, Cara Courage, for this website.