Garden designer, horticulturalist, and writer, Franchesca Watson is the perfect example of a landscape expert that navigates the industry with style and grace. Her designs include the Dylan Lewis Sculpture Garden, 7 Koppies Guesthouse in Franschhoek, and an array of enviable private gardens. Eager to explore the mind that is a gift to the public and residential grounds of South Africa, we sat down with Franchesca to talk about her first design, the countries that inspire her, and what it means to craft timelessness within the landscape.
What was the first garden you ever designed? Is there a key element from the design that you have continued to incorporate throughout your career?
I can’t remember the first garden I ever designed, but I remember vividly the first garden I ever designed for myself, and that I learnt much more designing for myself than when designing for others. When you design for yourself you are so much more prepared to take chances and try out ideas. I now make it a habit to think about every garden in two ways: what my client has verbalised to me, and what I would do if it was mine alone. Often, the final design is a fusion, and I think most clients really value the frank input of alternatives into the mix.
The garden I am thinking of was a tiny courtyard of a garden elements shop that I owned many years ago. The levels and the circulation were tricky, and there was so much to conceal along the boundary. I solved the problem with large trees in the foreground rather than at the back, and I still use this concept all the time; planting trees close to houses so you get a softening and coolness, while still seeing the views from under the branches.
What does a ‘timeless garden’ mean to you?
Timeless means that the garden may still be there in a century or two, with the trees fully mature, levels in place, and the pattern of the garden still making sense and still fostering happiness. It all starts with avoiding gimmicks and fads that will date the design, and using materials that last, making them sustainable, too. And choosing plants appropriate to the conditions of the site which will endure.
Which city or country has been most influential to your practice?
I collect and love things from almost anywhere I travel. As a young person, I spent quite a lot of time in Italy and France to understand the history of European gardens, and I do love the mediterranean climate gardens found there. Australia has also had a great influence on me, particularly in terms of gardens that are genuinely beautiful while being easy to maintain with clever solutions to rather stringent regulations. I passionately love the extremes of climates, particularly desert gardens and tropical gardens.
What is your favourite style of architecture to accompany your gardens?
I love any good architecture, although I sometimes struggle with High Victorian. My ideal architecture is quite strict and unfrilly. I respond to buildings that have some gravity and depth, good proportions, and especially those that sit well on the land, which often means low and long proportions, rather than being multi-storey. Flat, unconsidered façades worry me most, and I always try to soften or conceal them with the planting.
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