BRIEF ENCOUNTERS 31


local schools and colleges, as well as food growing. Byatt has steered a capital development programme at Hospitalfield around this balance between engaging visitors and nourishing artists, working to a 2015 masterplan devised and now delivered with architects Caruso St John. In 2021, a wonderful, glazed café extension and a fernery appeared, ensuring weatherproof enjoyment of the garden vistas for café customers all year round. Since then, improvements and renovations to the artist studios have been made. Being at Chelsea has sparked lots of


conversations, says Byatt, around the vital importance of arts education (there were many art teachers there, she says, who all agreed on its essential presence in our schools and lives), as well as sustainable gardening. Dunnett’s choice of plants, and


the dune arrangement, demonstrates the importance of working with the soils you have and plants that thrive in that environment: a top layer of sand over a clay soil helps keep water in and improves drainage. Says Byatt: ‘Nigel is such an incredibly highly regarded horticulturist and


The Hospitalfield Arts Garden demonstrated the hardy plants that thrive on Scotland’s east coast. Purple, pink and yellow blooms peppered the mounds of sand


Chelsea visitors were very interested in what he’s doing.’ One visitor, compiling a book of ‘the great gardens of Scotland’, has told Byatt Hospitalfield will now be listed, and so more visitors will come, and more income will be generated from café or shop sales, boosting the coffers that support the artists – which amounts to 70 residencies a year, at present. But another important outcome of this


Chelsea Show Garden is that the garden itself will return north, to Ladyloan Primary School, very close to Hospitalfield. Says Byatt: ‘Te relocated garden will be adapted to create a stimulating space for children and teachers alike to enjoy their creativity and thrive.’ Now that won’t offsets the rocks


shipped from Australia to Chelsea by one exhibitor, but it will definitely enrich the lives of that community.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101