It has been a busy week for in-demand garden designer Alice Bowe so I didn't hold out much hope when I requested an interview in the middle of Chelsea week.
Not only did Alice agree but she was warm and friendly (and we laughed a lot which is difficult to pass on using type) and great to talk to. It was only after the half hour chat had passed that I realised I could have asked so much more.
I started off asking Alice about the Chelsea Flower Show.
Were you at Chelsea every day this week?
"I've actually been very lucky and only had to go for a few days this week."
Was it all work or did you mix some pleasure in with it as well?
"I always go to Chelsea anyway. It's always interesting to see what people have done and there's always ideas you can get even if you don't like the way they've put it together in totality."
Alice continued, "We had a bit of time anyway when we could swan about and have a look at what was going on"
Sometimes when a passion overlaps a career, one can find it difficult to draw a line, so I asked if work is always a pleasure.
"I think with every job there are days you wonder why your doing it, but they're very rare I think in gardening, and I am very lucky I feel, that I have found something I enjoy ninety nine percent of the time.
"I don't think any job comes when you love it every day, do you. Especially when the paperwork starts mounting up."
You have two jobs really haven't you. There is your TV work and writing media work as well as your garden design.
Alice interrupts enthusiastically, "Yes, but this is my first foray into anything involving a camera and I must admit I hate having my photo taken so I was slightly nervous about the idea of being on television. In fact, it was actually a lot of fun. It was much less scary than I thought it was going to be."
From a viewers point of view you came over very well so I you should feel relaxed about that.
"Oh!, Thank you but I refused to watch it until this morning because I thought I'd only get nervous and then cock up other stuff. It was really good fun but my passion, first and foremost is making gardens."
So, what was your favourite garden. And did you agree with the judges choice for 'best in show'?
"I think, in terms of they way they marked it to the brief, I thought that it [Ulf Nordfjell' Telegraph garden] was going to win from the moment I first saw all the gardens.
"James Alexander-Sinclair made some interesting points about how it was not something so new that we had never seem some of these ideas before, but it was so well executed. It stuck so well to the brief you can see why it won."
What do you think about Luciano's [gubillei] garden, was it a close run thing?
"I don't think is was as close for 'best in show' as other people did. I love his designs. I think he makes beautiful, beautiful gardens but from my point of view I was a little concerned because I really do love plants and I would have got bored of that garden quicker.
"I think that there were less layers to it and I think it would be perfect if I ever wanted to go to a hotel or something but for me, I like a bit more of the unexpected and bit more going on. New layers and spotting new things all the time.
"Again, beautifully executed. I love the clean lines and, I love the hedges and the clean green backdrop but I didn't think I would be able to 'chill out' in that garden. I'm a bit more 'sprawly-round' sort of a person. I don't feel I'm quite as classic and classy as that. It was elegant but I am not sure it was exactly my personality."
I could tell I had really pulled the garden designer out of Alice and she was in full flow here, talking confidently and clearly about what she liked in a garden.
Continuing on Luciano's design work, Alice said, "You rarely see him use flowers so what I thought was nice was how he had the block of the grasses with the mix of planting; They blended quite well together because of the way he used so much Fennel but it didn't feel like it was a shock going from the big block of grasses into something that had too many flowers.
"I think he had picked it so well that you really did look at the amazing Peonies and the Irises amongst this sea of a very soft froth.
"If it was a real garden, the Peonies would have lasted about a day and so would the Irises but it was nice to see someone who had gone for those very very crisp clean lines."
Alice, you have to excuse me on this next question because I am not an expert on fashion, but I have read on the Vogue site 'Street Chic' that you have had to "beg, borrow and steal from relatives - particularly my granny's wardrobe" - did you actually wear any of your own clothes (much laughter here)
"The red dress I wore on Monday was mine. I borrowed the white belt and the beret from my Granny, I borrowed the shoes from my sister but the coat was mine and everything else was mine (laughter continues...) I have always loved dressing up and I am very lucky that I have three sisters so when I get bored from my own clothes, I can borrow bits from other people's wardrobes and put them altogether and I feel that I have got a new outfit.
"I am not rich enough to go out an buy a new outfit every time I do something"
Do you think about fashion when you are designing your gardens?
"I draw a lot of my inspiration from a lot of different places... how do I phrase this. A lot of it is probably subliminal. I have always been interested in reading a lot of magazines like Vogue because they are very much like Chelsea; Full of catwalk ideas but you don't necessarily want to take that entire look and have that in your day to day lives.
"I like the adverts in Vogue. They are not like real life but more like art and I think Chelsea is quite similar and sometimes they get a lot of stick for not being realistic but it is more a place for getting ideas, more aspirational and contain things you can take and put your own spin on it, and work out how you can do cheaper or whatever.
"I suppose I have got an interest in those kind of things but purely from an aesthetics point of view."
...So for you, fashion designing wouldn't be your second career?
"No, I think I would be awful at it actually but I do like dressing up."
What do you wear when you are gardening - designer clothes perhaps?
"Oh, God no, I mean if I know am going for a days gardening then I would probably wear jeans and a T shirt and some wellies and nothing too exciting. I often wear a warm jumper.
"Sometimes though, if I am visiting or with a client or round at my Mum's, I just get engrossed and I do end up gardening in the most odd things because it'll be 'Oh, I'll just go and see how the gardens doing' or 'I'll just go and have a look' and I will spot something and half an hour or three hours later it'll be ' are you still in the garden'."
So, you you go out with your red dress tucked into the top of your wellies and dead head the roses?
(..fits of chuckles) "I have got to admit, you will catch me doing that and then ruining all my nice clothes because I'm not thinking about practicality. I forget to put gloves on half the time so my hands are not nice at all."
In your Times-Online piece you say 'why the Chelsea Flower Show matters'. I am probably as guilty as anyone who writes about Chelsea, and many ask if Chelsea has had its day, but you insist "The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is not meant to be practical or realistic, it is meant to be fabulous, aspirational and inspiring — and it really is."
"Yes, I think so and you can't take everything at face value, can you. I think it's very rare that you would want to take away every single aspect of a show garden but I think it's great because you see ideas and think about how you might want to use things.
"Even this year with Ulf's garden. I hate rockeries because I was born at a time when there had been a big trend for rockeries and it was coming to the end and not so fashionable. So I was impressed how he tried to subvert the rockery with rough bits of stone."
You have been in business for about four years now but took time out to attend the Hive at Nottingham Trent University taking a basic business course and to write a business plan. How would you advise others. Is it best to do a bit and double back when you are more confident and study for what you think is important or get everything in place before the business kicks off?
"I don't know. Sometimes, if you know too much then you can get scared. I think if I'd known too much about business then I think I would not have done half the things I have done. I did things that were logical to me that I thought would work.
"I kept being told 'that doesn't make sense' and then when I moved to London it was 'why are you moving to London it's the stupidest thing you could ever do' but I have to do what makes sense."
Now, I like this bit. I have read that you have a 'fantastically short attention span' (more laughter) - is it a an advantage or disadvantage?
"I think it's both because it probably means that you can multi-task and you can work on lots of different things at once, which is important when working with gardens because you are so reliant on weather and time and planning permission.
"If you waited for three weeks every time there was a break then you would go slightly mad and starve. It can also be my downfall because sometimes I put things off, like the paperwork, if there are five other more interesting things to do."
You studied fine art at Oxford University before turning your attentions to garden design - what was it that called you away?
"I didn't realise how important plants were to me and I think I was rather spoilt in the respect that my parents had a nice garden and grandparents who were very interested in plants.
"I was studying sculpture and grappling with colour and how it really works and I found it wasn't really working for me. I was getting a little anxious until I did an art show at the Oxford Botanical Gardens and it clicked into place and I wondered why I had never thought about gardens as a career. There was not real 'one moment' revelation but a slow drip drip drip."
At least your art education will never wasted and you can call upon it at any time to use in your gardens.
"It is the same way of thinking really and I put it to good use in my drawings. The trouble is I could work on something for three years if nobody stopped me. When I was at art school and finished one piece of work I always felt I could do the next one better."
Have there been any disasters. Anything you would want to rewind and do again?
I sensed a little bit more of a seriousness at this point and I felt this bit did concern Alice a little. Alice answered, "I think there are always things that go wrong, aren't there. One of the things I have found difficult is when I have dealt with contractors who took a dislike to the fact I was a girl and was quite young and that they had been doing it a long time, but I had been asked to be their project manager. At times I have found that difficult to deal with but it is something I cannot do very much about."
Is there is a big barrier for women in garden design. There are a lot of men who are top designers but there are also an awful lot of women but do you feel it is a difficult business to be in for a women?
"There are an awful lot of women who go into garden design as a second career and it doesn't seem to be such an issue for them because they already look older.
"One of the problems I have had is that I am in my twenties but I can look much younger than I am and I have had a few 'oh, you must be the assistant' comments when I turn up at peoples houses. I have just got to learn to deal with it."
You have a developing career in television and writing. I know you write for the Times and The Garden Design Journal but where do you see gardening come - will it always be first?
"I wasn't that sure I really wanted to actively do TV, if that makes sense, but now that I have actually done it and really enjoyed it I would consider something if the right opportunity came along. It is not something I am actually aiming for.
"What I want to do is make gardens and that is what I enjoy first and foremost. I do enjoy writing because I have always been a little bit of a swot and I find writing a good way of getting ideas down anyway.
"I had no real aspirations but I have been told by other people that I might be rather good at it. Having worked behind the scenes before I have always thought that I would much rather do that than in front of the camera."
My last question posed a bit of a teaser but Alice was such a smooth operator and turned it around so I that I ended up helping out.
Alice, give me an answer to a question I have not asked you.
"Wow, that's a hard one but I think the one thing I am getting excited about is having a garden of my own. I have lived in a flat and moved about a bit and I have never had a garden that has been mine for more than a couple of years.
"What I am really looking forward to is a garden I have longer with. I am lucky enough to work on projects that belong to other people which I can develop over a long period of time, but having my own can really help me improve - I can play around with things so that is what I am looking forward to.
"I have been lucky in the past because my Mum has always let me play with her garden and rearrange things. That's the only way to learn by continually trying things."
Does your Mum have a background in gardening?
"My Mum knows a lot about plants and especially wild flowers. Going for walks when we were little she always knew the plant names and I picked a lot up from her.
"It was my Grandparents especially who really knew their stuff about their plants and always had a very nice garden where they walked me round and said 'what's that, and what's that' and a lot of my passion has come from my parents and my grandparents."
"It's gone from them dragging me around gardens when I was a teenager being really really grumpy going aghh! I hate this, and it's me who wants to go now."
Alice, it has been lovely to talk to you and good luck for the future. Can I just ask you one question (not really part of the interview) - do you read Landscape Juice?
"Oh God yes, I knew exactly who you were and thanks for being such a great interviewer"
At this point I didn't want to spoil it and ask for a signed photo:-0))
The photo: I asked for a unique photo so Alice went outside and took three poses. She muses at the bird that is apparently sticking out of her head, saying, "if you squint, I suppose it could be a fascinator!"
For more information:
Alice Bowe - English Landscape and Garden Design Studio
Birmingham Garden Design Office | 402/403 The Greenhouse | The Custard Factory | Birmingham | B9 4AA
Nottingham Garden Design Office | 1 Briar Gate | Nottingham | NG10 4BN
Telephone: 0845 8382649
Email: studio@alicebowe.co.uk
Website: http://www.alicebowe.co.uk/index.php
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