And over the next 12–18 months I will be overseeing the design and construction of the two Greatest British Gardens with our two winning gardeners and our world-class team.
This team of landscape architects, garden designers, horticulturalists, soil scientists and engineers has spent the last three years or so working on the designs for the new open spaces in the Olympic Park.
I chaired the jury and what a task it was to get to a shortlist of six adults and six under 17-year-olds – but what fun also!
The entries from green-fingered Brits had to express the unique qualities of a British domestic garden. And the standard of the entries proved just how passionate – and knowledgeable – the British are about their gardens.
Ideas ranged from the practical to the philosophical, the traditional to the contemporary, and the serious to the ever so slightly quirky and eccentric: patios, lawns, vegetable plots, the proverbial ‘garden shed’, ponds and plenty of planting for wildlife. And of course the good old garden gnome figured in many entries!
Sustainability also featured in most proposals, which was heartening – we are committed to delivering the greenest Games possible and a platform for sustainable development long after 2012.
Artist's impression of the parklands after the Games:
An additional challenge to the public was to commemorate the crucial role the Much Wenlock Olympian Society played in the founding of the modern Olympic movement. Designs also had to incorporate a ‘De Coubertin oak’ grown from a cutting taken from the original tree planted by Baron de Coubertin as a token of his appreciation for the inspiration of Much Wenlock.
We are already well on the way to constructing what will be a new area of parklands as big as St James’s Park: contractors have been appointed, trees and plants are being grown, mounds sculpted, water bodies dug and river edges realigned.
Be a part of it! Vote for your favourite garden today (but only one vote each please!) – don’t wait until voting closes on 30 October 2009.
