The time of our first show gardens was a bit like the punk era of gardening <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
Cleve studied art and PE in London with a view to becoming a teacher, which he tried but didn\u2019t have the patience for. A coach at his athletics club \u2013 who has since become a lifelong friend \u2013 was a professional landscaper and taught him about hard landscaping. He\u2019d also been helping an aunt to keep on top of her large garden, so eventually the young Cleve drifted into garden maintenance<\/a>, and found that he really enjoyed working outdoors \u2013 he still does, and chafes at being in his office when he can glimpse a blue sky through the window.<\/p>\n
The first show gardens he made, with sculptor Johnny Woodford, used architectural, often exotic plants and whacky pieces of art.<\/a> \u201cIt was an exciting time: we were exploring, expressing ourselves. It was a bit like the punk era of gardening.\u201d It was Chelsea that brought Cleve\u2019s designs to a wider public, and where he honed his mastery of exquisite, relaxed planting, beautifully detailed hard landscaping and bold sculptural<\/a> elements. The appeal for Cleve was the freedom it gave him to experiment. \u201cAs a designer, Chelsea is the only chance I get to do something without having to compromise. On a site you\u2019re either governed by the nature of the site, the client\u2019s taste or the budget.\u201d For several years his Chelsea<\/a> gardens featured the massive concrete sculptures of Serge Bottagisio and Agn\u00e8s Decoux. In 2012 he designed his own stone sculpture as a focal point of the topiary-rich<\/a> garden \u2013 gratifyingly this was the Chelsea garden that afterwards generated most enquiries. One of his favourite Chelseas was infused with his teenage memories of the Exmoor landscape where he lived for a year. \u201cThat was a fun, heartfelt garden to do.<\/p>\n

Being a designer is OK for earning a living but what legacy will you leave behind? <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
Increasingly he is bothered by the waste of both materials and plants in making a show garden. In his 60s, Cleve is immersed in ethical considerations<\/a>. There are the environmental repercussions of designing a garden<\/a> to think about \u2013 \u201cYou go in with diggers and dumpers and excavators and you\u2019re ripping out ecosystems and biodiversity<\/a> that\u2019s taken a long time to establish\u201d \u2013 and then there\u2019s the matter of what contribution garden designers should be making to the world. \u201cBeing a designer is OK for earning a living but what are you going to do for the environment<\/a>, what legacy will you leave behind?\u201d he asks. It\u2019s a rhetorical question, but one to which he urgently wants to find a satisfactory answer.<\/p>\n

He passionately feels it\u2019s his job to persuade the rest of us to remove animal products from our diet <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
The commission to design the first Horatio\u2019s Garden<\/a> \u2013 accessible gardens in NHS spinal injury centres \u2013 for Salisbury District Hospital powerfully showed him the therapeutic role of good garden design. \u201cWhen I started I didn\u2019t fully appreciate what Horatio\u2019s Garden was going to bring to people in terms of hope and sustenance and realigning their lives to cope with life-changing injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of Cleve\u2019s practical gardening is done on his allotment, which he shares with his partner Christine, and chronicled in his 2011 book Our Plot<\/em>. Here, since he became vegan, he has been experimenting with growing fruit and veg without using any animal products. Like many converts, he passionately feels it\u2019s his job to persuade the rest of us to remove animal products from our diet,<\/a> partly for environmental reasons, partly for moral ones. The intensity of his arguments suggests that this is a cause he will never desert. Meanwhile he continues to make gardens that, he hopes, capture an essence of sanctuary. \u201cI\u2019m trying to create a place where you can relax and where you can contemplate,\u201d he says. \u201cFor me, that\u2019s what gardens are all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Useful information Cleve West Landscape Design, Navigator House, 60 High Street, Hampton Wick, Surrey KT1 4DB. Tel 020 8977 3522, clevewest.com\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
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