Designing with flowers
with Hazel Gardiner
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Not unlike one of her floral creations, a talk with Hazel is a multi-layered thing that wraps itself around and returns to themes you thought you’d already met, presenting them in a different light on each successive encounter, a glittering spiral pathway along which you find yourself happy to lose yourself for a while. We found ourselves navigating our conversation by threads on self-belief and fear, overcoming illness and adversity in business and the sheer joy of working with others. I quizzed Hazel on working with different materials, from sustainable stems to artificial flowers, discovering along the way her nerdy (her description) interest in the mechanics of floristry and that she enjoys few things more than a quick trip to Screwfix for an essential bit of gubbins to keep the magic alive. She takes us on a tour of her garden, in which her studio sits, and explains the role of fridge-door mood boards and architectural slide shows in her upbringing. It’s a joyous chat – I hope you enjoy it as much as we clearly did.
There’s also a summery reading from my book, To Stand and Stare: How to Garden While Doing Next to Nothing, and I seek refuge from a July energy dip in the writings of Vita Sackville West.
Please do continue to share the podcast on social media, and if you’d really like to brighten my day, leave a review on iTunes or your podcast app of choice. Or drop me a note in the comments section below, having listened on the embedded player on this page.
Gardens, weeds and words podcast, S03E08 show notes
A blend of slow radio, gardening advice and conversation, and readings from the best garden and wildlife writing.
These notes may contain affiliate links.
Garden soundtrack
Over the hump of the year
1:56 Vita Sackville west struggling with summer
Readings from In Your Garden, Vita Sackville West. Oxenwood Press, 1996
Read by Andrew Timothy O'Brien
5:30 Interview with Hazel Gardiner
5:55 Creating in relationship with others – elevating and encouraging.
8:25 Hazel’s career path. Dealing with burnout and serious illness
13:11 Retraining in floristry. Transferable skills.
18:50 Choosing the floristry path, rather than gardening or garden design
21:50 The through-line in a varied career
24:00 Fearless. A parental gift of confidence
27:10 Building a team
29:23 A typical week
30:45 Incorporating artificial flowers
33:15 Hazel’s early gardening memories
40:46 Creating installations that flummox – Hazel’s ideal brief
43:12 A ‘chewy’ style – texture, layer and story
46:15 How people interract with the work
48:00 The place of sustainability, seasonality and a responsive approach
51:28 Natural mechanics
52:22 Hazel’s own garden
56:38 Bramble & Briar, the Substack for the more confessional side of my gardening content. Sign up at https://andrewtimothyobrien.substack.com/
57:28 An extract from my book, To Stand and Stare: How to Garden While Doing Next to Nothing, DK Life,
***
Thank you to Hazel Gardiner for joining me on this episode of the Gardens, Weeds & Words podcast.
You can find Hazel on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/hazelgardinerdesign/
and on the web here https://www.hazelgardinerdesign.com/studio
I’m ever appreciative of all my listeners for your continued support and reviews, I really do appreciate them. You can support the podcast by buying its producer a virtual cup of coffee for three quid, at https://ko-fi.com/andrewtimothyOB. Proceeds will go towards equipment, software and the monthly podcast hosting fees.
website: gardensweedsandwords.com
email: gardensweedsandwords@gmail.com
Instagram: instagram.com/AndrewTimothyOB
Twitter: twitter.com/AndrewTimothyOB
You can hear find the podcast trailer and the first four episodes here, either on iTunes or on Switcher.
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Hello! I’m Andrew, gardener, writer, photographer, and owner of a too-loud laugh, and I’m so pleased you’ve found your way to Gardens, weeds & words. You can read a more in-depth profile of me on the About page, or by clicking this image.
