Barry Lupton interviews Marion Keogh
| It’s been said that real change only comes about as a result of the thoughts and actions of people unwilling to compromise on their passion and belief. For sure we live in an age of networking, collaboration and participation, but when such things are teased apart, you will find committed, persistent and driven individuals at the centre. The fragmented domain of horticulture needs such individuals to bring about change. It needs leaders, innovators, creatives and people willing to do more than simply talk. Horticulture needs doers.
Trace back through the history of Irish horticulture, and the people you will read about were the doers. Plant hunters, gardeners, researchers and in more recent times, the men of the last century who started our first nurseries, the designers who put Irish gardens on the international stage and in every front room through gardening media. I don’t have to say their names, you know them already. They were the doers. As is often the case, the recognition and celebration of such people often happen long after their departure. Irish people find it difficult to celebrate the works of the living. Poor Bono, you’ll be canonised upon your death. Personally, I have no trouble celebrating contemporary doers and in the coming issues, I will share their hopes, beliefs and actions. In this first issue, I speak to a relative latecomer to the domain of horticulture, Marion Keogh. Having spent her formative years studying the history of art and working in a number of galleries in both London and Dublin, Marion took leave to devote time to her new family. With her family finding their feet in school, she assessed her own educational opportunities and completed a couple of short horticulture courses, before committing to a two-year course in Dundrum. During her studies, Marion embraced the industry, Marion Keogh is a garden designer, horticulturist, passionate plantswoman and with Landscape Architect, Esther Gerrard is the energy, and the energy behind the Bloom Fringe. She is a doer. I was delighted to be able to talk to her recently about her drive, motivation and hopes for Irish horticulture. |
B. You came to horticulture at a late stage. What prompted the shift from the arts?
M. I had been at home with my small kids for about seven years after working in the arts, so for me, it was time to go back to work. I loved gardening and decided to work in that realm rather than going back to the arts.
B. Passionate people often trace their roots back to the influences of other passionate people. Were you inspired by other individuals and if so, what influence did they have?
M. My grandmother was a keen gardener and my childhood weekends were spent in her house in the country running around fields with my cousins. We only went indoors for
meals. I loved bringing my own small kids to Airfield to run around an urban farm and that’s where I did my first gardening course with then head gardener Jimi Blake. And so the love affair began, with gardening. A new world was opened to me discovering gardeners and designers like Helen Dillon, Christopher Lloyd, Tom Stuart-Smith, Piet Oudulf, and Christopher Bradley Hole. Then I met Monica Alvarez and started studying garden design in Dundrum.
B. What is your defining memory of your horticulture education?
M. It was very exciting when Monica told us we were going to learn to be designers, but I’ll never forget the moment when she said we would become great gardeners too. I knew I
had found the perfect course. For me, being a garden designer is all about knowing your plants.
B. Students often leave college with knowledge, a qualification, and a heap of optimism, only to be deflated by the realities of the market. You have gone from strength to strength. What do you think you did differently to those who struggle?
M. I think I have a positive attitude and I love what I do. Those are very infectious qualities – if you hear someone talking passionately about something they love, you can’t help but listen and if you’re not careful you’ll get hooked. But passion is only part of it. To really get somewhere you have to work hard. Tough graft, putting in the hours, getting on with the job and getting on with people will always help you get ahead. Seeing an opportunity and making your own luck is also part of it. It’s also a skill to get the best from people you work with. Word of mouth is king in this town so make sure you don’t muck up a client’s kitchen after a job can sometimes be the best reference.
B. You split your time between various activities. Can you give me an insight into a typical day?
M. You’ll always get pulled from one task to another, so it’s easy to get distracted and work in a disjointed way. But this can also be a very organic way to make things happen. To be honest, every day is different – a typical day for me is where every day is different from yesterday. Being organised in the supermarket and having a fantastic husband and support at home is really the key to it working.
B. Professional horticulture and design in Ireland are notorious for their poor levels of remuneration. Have you managed to overcome this perennial challenge, and if so, can you share your secret?
M. I wish I had the secret to financial success but I don’t. One thing though I am learning fast is never to apologise for charging money for your services. I know what I know because I have spent a lot of time learning it. I’m always reading new stuff, observing other gardens, looking at other planting plans, critiquing other gardens, taking photographs. I’m living and breathing gardening and design. I have studied until 4 am, dug gardens in the snow, planted in Bloom with rain dripping into my knickers! Why should I charge a tenner an hour for that? If you have confidence in your own abilities and don’t apologise for it, clients will pick up on that and won’t have a problem paying for your work. Anyway, they employed you in the first place for that reason, that you know what you’re talking about.
B. Is there such a thing as an Irish garden design style? And if so, what do you think defines it?
M. Well, I’m not sure any country has its own defined style right now. Some Dutch designers have similar favourite plants but others have their own individual tastes, the Americans might cross over with hard materials but generally, they do their own thing. Perhaps the Japanese garden makers are still true to traditional influences. In Ireland, we are not afraid of looking outward and embracing all that is happening on the global garden design stage and then using it here at home. And equally, we are not afraid of looking inward and using our own native stone, plants, topography, culture, history, mythology when designing. It is eclectic but in a good way – Irish design is honest and soulful.
B. For the uninitiated, could you give a brief insight into Park(ing) Day, your involvement and how people from across the country can get involved?
M. Park(ing) Day started about five years ago in San Fransisco and encourages you to take the ‘ing’ out of Parking and turn a car parking space into a public park for the day. It’s a non-commercial way of showcasing the need for more green spaces in our cities and taking space away from the cars. It’s so easy to get involved – check out Park(ing) Day online and sign up. It’s great if you have a greening message you want to get across to people in a nice friendly way. It’s free and you’re encouraged not to spend too much money on your installation. I have done three parklets – one was a pop-up garden in Ranelagh in response to the market gardening that went on there at the turn of the 20th century, the second was to encourage people to grow flowers in their urban gardens/yards/balconies to get more honey bees in our cities so we can save the planet, and my third parklet was highlighting the Bloom Fringe.
“It was an itch I couldn’t stop scratching. Why is Bloom only in the Park?”
B. You’ve been involved with Bloom for many years. What advice would you give to designers gearing up for 2015?
M. Clear the decks now – make sure your clients are all happy before you start in Bloom. You’ll have three weeks maximum to build and it’ll seem like a lot of time but it’s never enough. Make a build schedule and stick to it. Check it every day. Keep a close eye on your budget. But most of all you need to know every centimetre of that garden. I always walk around the garden in my head every night before I go to sleep in the lead up to Bloom. That way, when you’re in there and everyone’s firing questions at you and decisions need to be made quickly, you’re 100% on top of it. Be ready to talk about it at a moment’s notice – describe it in three words or three sentences. You never know when the press will appear. Always have it ready for photographing and always be ready to be photographed. And be prepared to not have a family life during the build and during the show. Oh, and make sure you have a good laugh. It is such an incredible experience. I still get goosebumps every time I drive through the gates of the Phoenix Park. The designers are like royalty during Bloom, the excitement is very special.
B. You are perhaps most well recognised as being the driving force behind the Bloom Fringe. What is the Bloom Fringe and why did you decide it had to happen?
M. It was an itch I couldn’t stop scratching. Why is Bloom only in the Park? It should be all over the city. I knew about the Chelsea Fringe and I heard Tim Richardson talk about it at the 2014 GLDA Seminar. I chatted to him afterward and quickly realised this was the way to go about getting the Bloom vibe into the city – do a Bloom Fringe festival. So I talked to some friends, everyone said what a great idea and I just went for it.
B. How do you see the Fringe developing over the coming years?
M. So far we are getting phone calls from people saying they want to be involved in 2015. We are very actively pushing ahead with this year’s programme right now and it’s a really easy sell. We have photos to show everyone what it looked like in 2014, it’s a no-brainer, everyone wants to be part of it. We want it to be all over Dublin city, reaching out to the suburbs and eventually in other cities all over the country. At the moment, we are a team of four so we don’t have the resources yet to be nationwide but that will happen in time.
B. How can people get involved?
M. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and like us, share us, tweet us, Instagram us, whatever you’re having yourself. Our website is being updated but will be up and running in March. Our email address is bloomfringe@gmail.com and we have a registration form ready for anyone who wants to do an event.
B. Driving such initiatives requires huge commitment with no measureable financial reward. What keeps you going?
M. That’s a hard one to answer. I guess I love what I’m doing, I love gardening. Having the support at home from my husband enables it to happen and to seem effortless. I’ve seen how people react to a bit of green grass or pretty flowers and I know that nature is good for the soul. How can you not want more of that?
B. The Fringe, along with GIY, Parking Day and the wider allotments movement, are brilliant examples of grassroots horticultural activity, which provide trickle-up benefits for the whole sector. How do you think horticulture business owners could better support them?
M. I think there is good support out there actually. Seed companies offer deals for allotmenteers, local councils are supportive of community gardens, nurseries are always
supporting designer at Bloom, that sort of thing It might be better if other companies got on board where they could do projects like maybe take out parking spaces and replace them with garden spaces for their employees to hang out in during lunchtime. Maybe there could be a grant scheme for companies to avail of, to encourage them to green their industrial estate or commercial park and use the services of the horticultural industry.
B. A UK garden writer commented last year that professional garden design was being undermined by hobbyists. Specifically, older female practitioners who are depressing design fees as they can afford to work for the simple enjoyment of it. What are your thoughts on this?
M. It’s a valid argument and opinion but I think it’s more prevalent in the UK than here in Ireland. We’ve been so badly hit by the recession that anyone still working in the industry should be congratulated and encouraged to stay in business. There are lots of sides to this story – landscapers who offer the full design and build the package and don’t charge for a design can equally undermine the design process and fee structure. I think organisations like the GLDA, the ILI and ALCI who set standards and accreditations are where it’s at. They are the ones regulating the design industry. If I need my gas boiler fixed I’ll go to rgi.ie to find a qualified installer so I think that’s the way forward in Ireland.
B. How do you think the garden design sector should evolve over the next decade?
M. Garden design is a very exciting place to be in right now. Piet Oudulf and the Highline in New York, Nigel Dunnett and James Hitchmough and the pictorial meadow movement in the UK, urban green interventions and city acupuncture in major cities across the world – there is a seechange happening worldwide, and we here in Ireland and in Dublin are right in the middle of it. We need to have the conviction, and balls to go with it and not shy away from it. Money has very little to do with it. We need to be very aware of our planet’s sustainability and keep that as the central concept of why we’re doing this stuff in the first place. If we have that ecological focus as our starting and end point, we will design better gardens, better public spaces, make more community spaces, encourage kids to grow food in schools, treat our soil with more respect, love our trees and ultimately have a better place to live in.
B. How do you see your own career evolving?
M. Seriously? I haven’t a clue! If I can keep gardening and inspiring others to garden, then it doesn’t matter where my career goes. I want it to do just that, evolve. And evolving is something that always changes, never stops, goes through various phases organically, isn’t forced.
B. What advice would you give someone considering a career in horticulture and design?
M. Go for it. Keep your head up. Put a smile on people’s faces. Inspire someone every day to even just see a tree or a flower. Look around you, look up at the trees above you, below at the weeds, in other gardens and keep a critical eye. And have your morning coffee outside even if it’s cold out there. ✽
