HOW DOES A GAVIN GARDEN GROW?

Garden Designer, Diarmuid Gavin

With youthful enthusiasm, a cheeky chappy attitude and an unconventional and outrageous approach to garden design, Diarmuid Gavin is unstoppable. He talks to Niamh MacSweeney about his journey and recalls it was no walk in the park.

A renowned gardener with a hugely successful London based design company, a hit TV show, which is compulsive viewing even for those who don't care much for gardening, a new book due to be launched, plans for a magazine for all avid gardening enthusiasts, and a heartfelt promise to open a design office in Ireland. Yes, Diarmuid Gavin has plenty to be pleased about. Things couldn’t be brighter for the designer whose daredevil uncompromising style and aesthetic botany risk taking has merited him the reputation of fantastic and fanciful designer. Gavin has earned himself robust eminence as an Irish designer who applies exquisite attention to detail and who is not afraid to court controversy for the sake of his designs. He has pushed the boat out on numerous occasions, dipped his toe in the waters of conventional wisdom, found there was room for more adventurous gardening and came out smiling.

DESIGNS ON BUSINESS

Its not always easy to be a master of all trades, but for a designer to be creative and remain true to their artistic principles, while at the same time earn a living and make their work commercially viable, is not something that everybody has the inclination or indeed the ability to achieve and Gavin was no different in that respect. Although, exceedingly confident designing gardens, Gavin has in the past struggled, most noticeably with the financial side of his enterprising endeavours. But rather than shy away from these potentially disastrous demons, Gavin chose to look at his business and the management of his finances as an additional creative aspect of his work. “Business has its own creative forces so you can transfer the objectives and make a business inventive. It hasn’t been something I’ve been good at and certainly in the first few years of the second business it didn’t go well,” Gavin admits.

Although in the initial years there was plenty of work available, Gavin acknowledges that he didn’t know how to manage the jobs and failed because he took his eye off the ball. He graciously accepts that he had to go through some tough times in order to learn some valuable lessons. “Unless I take full account for it and unless I put my eye on every aspect of it, which I now enjoy, it won’t work. I don’t have a good financial sense, but I have a very good business sense and I have good ideas for progressing a business,” Gavin reveals.

CONTROLLING DESTINY

Gavin reminisces on his post-college days in the late 80s, when garden designers were a rare breed and the privilege of the very rich. It is rather fitting that we should be conducting the interview in Merrion Square Park. It was in this park that Gavin, while studying horticulture in Dublin, spent time tending to the foliage and learning his trade. He comments on how well kept the gardens are still. While numerous successes have been bestowed on the designer, he still remembers how his first business in Ireland, which he describes as a mediocre operation, went badly wrong. It wasn’t until he began doing the Chelsea Garden Show in the mid-nineties that Gavin was slowly introduced onto our television screens and success was finally within his grasp.

POPULAR PERSONA

After a number of years devoting his time and inspirations to television shows, on programmes such as Gardeners World and Homefront, Gavin was eager to get back into establishing a business for himself. Determined to have greater control over his destiny and become financially independent, Gavin was also conscious that at any time the TV shows could come to an end. “To ease my way out of one and into another I started the second design company about five years ago. I got myself an office and then about three years ago I started to develop the business in ernst,” he explains.

Before long Gavin and his London based team were getting calls from around the world from garden devotees desperate for a one off design. Having established himself as a legendary designer and a well-liked TV personality clearly helped when it came to attracting clients, but Gavin says the phone never stopped ringing so that was not a problem. The difficult part was managing projects and getting the right people in to carry out the work. “When clients ring the office they have already made the decision that they want it and that it is probably going to cost them a little bit more than if they rang somebody in the golden pages. There is a 70% chance of a strike red from the initial phone call,” Gavin proudly announces.

Regardless of whether they are private or commercial gardens, he is adamant that the same ethos and high standards are applied to every design, which must surely be a tall order when you are trying to juggle business and client requests with the demands of a busy TV career. Gavin admits that it’s not possible or even desirable to do everything himself and that is why his dedicated team is crucial to the business and to the development and realisation of projects. “I’m very good at spotting people to come and work for us, so therefore we have a brilliant set-up now, every person is superb,” he adds.

A SENSE OF SATISFACTION

As we journey around the leafy city centre park, Gavin’s hand glides tenderly and lovingly over every leaf, tree or shrub he comes into contact with His love and passion for gardening is insatiable, clearly evident when he chats excitedly about how he finds thrills at every stage in a project. He adores his job and is self-assured, safe in the knowledge that for years to come his gardens will be enjoyed and will continue to grow and develop over time.

While the greatest sense of satisfaction and achievement must come when the garden is completed, for Gavin there are rewards on many different levels and throughout various stages from the design through to the planting. “Whether it is going to meet somebody for the first time and listening to their ideas, or developing the concept and working with the office to bring that concept to light; at every stage there is excitement to be had,” he says. Gavin also agrees that the best part of the creative process is the team sharing in the excitement and achievement.

BIG SPENDER

In recent years, gardening has become more alluring and in a climate of increasing prosperity, Irish people have been spending vast amounts of time and money on their gardens. Gavin attributes this shift in attitude to people taking more pride in their homes and the realisation that the garden is a large space full of possibility. In contrast to interior design he argues that there is more freedom outside than inside and because there are no standard gardens, each and every one has its own uniqueness.

So with more people prepared to take risks and try new things, does Gavin credit television programmes, such as his own, as having made gardening more glamorous? “I think they have mystified it. Everybody thinks it happens very fast and it can be cheap, but others are more realistic and generally people are sensible when it comes to the effort involved to create something,” he says.

BLESSED OR OBSESSED?

While it may be hard to imagine Gavin other than triumphant, fame and fortune only came after many years of labourious dedication. While he agrees that a certain amount of luck has helped him in his career, he believes that smart thinking played a bigger role in his achievements. “Ultimately it’s about being able to do the job because if I wasn’t able to do the job and if I wasn’t able to offer something different, people would say so what.” This approach he says is crucial and admits he can never get behind something if he doesn’t believe in it 100%. “If I don’t fully understand something and understand the secret behind it and the reason I’m doing it, I can’t do it, because I would end up doing it badly and letting people down,” he reveals.

SILVER AT CHELSEA

Once again Gavin was triumphant at this years Chelsea Garden show with his design Westland Garden winning the Silver Gilt. However, the designer is unwavering in his admission that he doesn’t play the game over there and says there are plenty of games to be played. “Even the first year back in 1996, the medals were never any source of concern to me. Chelsea is deeply political and it’s not the best designer that necessarily wins. So you have to accept what Chelsea is then its all fine,” he says. Gavin maintains that he mystifies the judges at Chelsea because he doesn’t get involved in the politics of the show. “My ethos is do your job, clean up, say thank you and leave! I’m very objective about things like that and not sentimental about medals or awards. I know where it worked and where it didn’t work and I don’t need a load of pompous prats to tell me whether its good or not and I tell them that so obviously they don’t like that,” he laughs.

AMBITIOUS GOALS

Gavin’s main aim now is to run a world-class garden design firm from the UK and Ireland, with plans for other offices to open eleswhere. Design deals with various companies are being explored and he is involved in the branding of products, which he hopes will be available in garden centres all around the country within the year. He recently collaborated with Terrance Conran on a new gardening book and is already indicating he would like to do a second one. With so many projects does the designer ever stop? “I have a mind that doesn’t like to be idle. I have spent twelve years building up and now its time to think cleverly and add good value to gardens. That is why we are going to go for it in this country, but in quite a big way,” he concludes.

Published in the July/August 2007 Issue of Irish Entrepreneur