You may have seen another design (for the World Flower Show in Barbados) where we had a timber barrel as the staging. Locally I like to encourage different types of staging when we are having a major event so in 2018 we also obtained some timber barrels to use as staging.
As they lend themselves to an all around design, we also decided to make it a challenge for competitiors by giving them a title that might not lend itself to being viewed all around. Hence “Over the Garden Fence”. The other benefit of freestanding staging is that you can encourage designers to use the height of the staging – having designs go down as well as up.
What came to mind when I saw this title was the lemons that used to fall on to our yard from a tree in a neighbour’s yard. In my mind they fell “over the fence”. The other idea I had was the fallen fences I see these days on rural properties and the introduced plants (such as strelitzia) that seem to grow over them happily.
To represent fences I have used a wire mesh square as well as a piece of shaped and weathered timber that resembles a rural timber fence. Lemons and lemon foliage, strelitzia and twigs are all placed in a random way to represent uncontrolled growth over these “fences”.
Looking back at this design some years later I am very disappointed in my approach. There is no way the judges could read a story into this design – I was so focussed on my memories and interpretation, I didn’t think about how someone without those memories would view this design.
I also haven’t used the space well, the design should extend down the side of the barrel at least as much as the height above it.
Not a good design but important for you to see that we can all get caught up in our memories and miss the point of the class title!
Judges Comments:
Whilst this design is a good composition it lacks scale for the staging. Some plant material should extend below the top of the barrel.
There is nothing that appears to be “OVER the Fence” rather we are given a view THROUGH a fence.
