Surrey Sculpture Park
Come on a garden adventure with me...
Hi darling, I’m Kendall, a horticultural therapist. Here on my Substack, I share tips on how to use your garden to grow your personal power in a world that tries to keep women stuck, exhausted & burnt out. Come grab your trowel and join the rebellion, we’ve got a patriarchy to dismantle.
Welcome to the Seed, the place where we learn to resource ourselves in the garden so that we can unlock more joy in our lives.
This month’s adventure was the the Surrey Sculpture Park. Mother Nature is slowly waking up here in the South of England but the floral displays are still just getting going. A lovely metaphor for our lives in fact. I can feel myself slowly waking up and my energy levels rising but I know I need to not go full tilt just yet. Growing a garden is a marathon not a sprint and it’s important to mirror Mother Nature so as to not get overwhelmed.
Incorporating sculptures and other things of interest into our gardens other than flowers are important for year round interest.
So what better place to visit than a Sculpture park garden where all the sculptures are for sale and available to take home with you. It’s £15 for an adult to get in, but given the inspiration it gave me for garden furniture and ways of incorporating colour into gardens without using plants I felt it was well worth it.
In this article I’m sharing the things about the sculpture park I loved, the things I wasn’t keen on and the ways in which you can bring some of the good bits into your garden.
So let’s dive in shall we.
The things I love about this garden and how you can recreate them in your space
It doesn’t take itself too seriously
I know skeletons aren’t to everyone’s taste. Not everyone was taken to a woodland on the first day of their masters degree, given a spade and asked to dig a grave (true story- ask me more about it in the comments).
But how about skeletons doing gymnastics?! Fun huh!
Or how about some fruit carved out of stone?
Or horses made out of discarded items. Im sure there’s a deep message about how wasteful we are as a nation here, but I can’t see past those creepy babies- they’re giving me series 3 of the UK traitors vibes- terrifying!
When we watch current gardening media shows, a lot of the gardens are so serious. There’s not much that is fun about them. But your garden can be a huge source of joy and lightheartedness in what is a heavy world at times.
Here are some ways you can add some fun to your garden:
Incorporate some fun artwork
Choose plants with funny names, so that every time you see them you have a chuckle to yourself. My favourite is Hosta ‘Hanky Panky’.
Grow herbs that when you put them in your mouth you get an unexpected sensation, like this Cola plant.
Use of colour to brighten up green backdrop
The vast majority of the plants in the park at this time of year were green (or brown). I’m told its much more colourful in summer. So the bold and bright colours of some of the sculptures really lifted the energy of the space and gave me that much needed hit of dopamine as I drank them in.
What’s your view on the use of colour here? Are you all for bold and bright colours or do you prefer more muted tones like the coppery colour of this lady.
I’ve recently seen these gorgeous brightly coloured allium heads available to buy which i’m very tempted by! Or this gorgeous daisy. Or for something a little more muted this pastel coloured hydrangea would look stunning.
You can either leave them in the border all year round. Or you could store them away over summer while your plants are taking centre stage and then bring them back out in the autumn to carry you through darker days while your plants are resting.
This post is a long one and due to all the gorgeous piccies, might be cut short if you’re reading in your email inbox. Click the button below and join me in the app for the full article in all its gloriousness.
Different textures
It probably comes as no surprise to you that as a mindful gardening expert I’m all about tuning into your senses. And your sense of touch is one of THE most powerful senses for helping you to stay in the present moment instead of stressing about all the things going on in your life right now that you cannot control.
The use of different textures even sometimes within the same sculpture, really allowed me to stay in the present moment as my sense of sight drank them in. Some of them really made me want to reach out and touch them.
You could, of course, do this in your own garden with statues, or you could choose plants that you can’t resist running your hand through.
Some of my favourite super touchable plants are: