Douglas Knight Rock Garden Landscaper | Tatton Water Garden Examples
WHERES DOUGIE?
Continued from page 1 of 3 Born and growing up in Formby near Liverpool in the 1940s, Dougie's father had him lined up for a career in engineering, but Dougie had other ideas. Walking to and fro from school, he had always taken a short cut across the land of a local market gardener, Fred Maudsley, and it was the way these plants, like lettuces and celery, grew, nurtured and pampered in their neat precise rows, that gave him the gardening bug. As soon as he was 15, he walked out of school straight in that market gardeners office to ask for a job. What turned out to be fortuitous was that they didnt have one for him, but sent him round to an ornamental and specimen plant nursery, Lytles, next door and they gave him his first job. Between interminable bouts of routine nursery work, weeding, planting and mixing soils, there were the flower shows.
Interesting pond maintenance articles
Perfect pond maintenance for garden waterfalls, st.0.reams, pond liners and fountains...
Preventing fish diseases and viruses by maintaining perfect water pond
The perfect pond maintenance for cleaning ponds and conservation of ponds
The most important locally was the Southport Show, but all the major towns had them, even Formby. These became the magical occasions he lived for and throwing himself into them wholeheartedly, almost instantly he was spotted as having a flair at putting together a pretty good Villa garden, an arrangement of traditional formal and informal features making a complete garden. This fulfilled his sense of competition, which he shared with all of his mates, all of whom had the same keen sense of wanting to be the best. But the shows also meant the opportunity to glean the skills and tricks of the trade of the more experienced competitors they begrudgingly admired.
Article by Peter May
To see larger images of the landscape pictures below please click the small thumbnail images
An un-mistakeable Douglas Knight Rock Landscape
Douglas did his stint at horticultural college and meanwhile moved onto another nursery, but still kept the working at the shows. Around 1962 we find him working for himself and the first Gold medals started appearing on the mantelpiece. By 1969, Gold medals for Mr Knight were getting a bit of a routine at the Southport show, and a dignified talent spotter from the Royal Horticultural Society invited him create a garden at Chelsea. The first year earned him a silver medal or a silver-gilt, he doesnt remember, apart from the fact that he was deeply disappointed at not getting Gold. Next time he would be back, but this time with a rock garden.
Tatton Park Show 2002 Double Step Waterfall
He had long since harboured a yearning for the big full blown rock gardens, feeling they were something he could excel at, with a bit of practice. Even now he still loves the natural landscape of exposed rock and wherever he is in the country or the world, on holiday or at work, he will take time off to look at the local rock formations. When he left that first Chelsea show he went back to showing at Southport, this time honing his skill at rock gardens. Then in 1974 he returned to Chelsea, this time prospecting for Gold! Since then he has been there most years. If he is not, everyone wonders where he could be, not the least probably the Queen, who has always taken a great interest in his work and for whom he is a deeply devoted subject. In those years since 1974, he has taken home 9 gold medals and a Best Garden in Show award. No mean achievement for someone with a speciality that as unfashionable as mothballs and flypaper. So despite the trends of perspex, stainless steel and decking in gardens, here is a creator of landscapes that everyone still admires, possibly because they are landscapes expressive of the power and magnitude of nature, part of which gardening tries to emulate.
Chelsea Flower Show 1997
Since the beginning of the millennium he has been exhibiting at the Tatton Park flower Show, where he feels he is more or less on home territory. Most of the projects that these displays engender are fairly local too, so that now after nearly 30years he can regularly commute to and from work rather than kissing the family goodbye for a week at a time. You may not have seen Douglas recently at Chelsea, but maybe one day he'll be back ... maintaining his ideals of the rock and water garden inspired by nature, carrying on the Chelsea tradition of the big rock gardens where he left off.
tml>