Grind Terrace

Greenwich, London.

This installation in the garden terrace area of Grind in Greenwich went flawlessly and I’m really happy with the results! But hold up…..’FAKE PLANTS!……James! Why?!?!’…..Sometimes, the need for replica plants is real and I’d be doing a huge disservice to live ones by continuing to plant them where they simply can not thrive.

This space has a multitude of reasons why real plants are not viable: The retractable roof blocks rainwater and natural light for most of the year. Temperatures fluctuate greatly due to outdoor heaters and the built in planting beds are filled with thirsty roots from a neighbouring ginormous protected tree, which despite masses of work to the soil, renders it dry and dusty…..So filling the plant gaps with with replica was simply the final resort after a few years of the garden never really establishing, despite big efforts by the amazing plant care team Plant Sit.

I added ground cover by using live English Ivy and pine bark to blur the lines between real and faux and designed the planting scheme to mimic that of the interior space, whilst knitting in nicely with the plants that seem to just about tolerate the troublesome conditions.

Diners will now benefit from the big injection of green in the space and countless replacements plants will be now be saved from certain death!