These two concept gardens were inspired by my ongoing fascination with the genres of fantasy and science fiction.
Garathorm Garden
This garden is inspired by the artwork Illian of Garathorm by one of my favourite artists, Rodney Matthews. His portal into a fantasy world of giant foliage, has been on my wall since I can remember and has inspired my own creative endeavours to make magical planted places.
(The flower and horse in this concept sketch are not my own, they are traced directly from Rodney Matthews' artwork.)
The giant tree/cave structure is made from Corten steel. The trunk is formed from a wide pipe and arches form the branches. This structure is brought to life by evergreen winter-flowering climbers Clematis cirrhosa Wisley Cream. One's journey into the garden is framed by smaller planted Corten arches.
Using some poetic licence, I imagined the place surrounding the giant tree to be something like a natural rock formation or the ruins of an old castle. Stone walls (gabions) and stone paving enclose the space and create levels.
On the lower level I have used Fatsia japonica Spider's Web to create a sense of depth. These are wildlife-friendly architectural evergreen shrubs. To provide consistent evergreen coverage alongside the paving at both levels, I have used Lamium maculatum Pink Pewter, a wildlife-friendly evergreen ground cover. This design also features seasonal bulbs including Tulipa Tender Whisper, and herbaceous perennials including Digitalis x valinii Foxlight Plum Gold.
The metal horse sculpture will be a bespoke life-size artwork. I've added a giant metal flower sculpture to distort the scale of the space.
Alien Artefact Garden
I had this idea while watching a friend play video games. This garden was mostly inspired by the landscape of the planet Zeffo, in the game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Is the alien artefact part of a space craft? Perhaps the rest of the structure is underground. Or are the concrete and metal discs the cogs from a giant machine, covered by earth and overgrown with native plants?
My vision for the planting was to create an alien meadow... almost familiar, but too green, with flowers that bloomed under an alien sun.