About the Garden
Inspiration
The RBC Brewin Dolphin garden draws creative inspiration from the way knowledge is passed down from generation to generation and interpreted for the modern world. Gardens, gardening techniques, buildings and the pattern of use and history are all explored..
It looks at how we see ourselves, first in the shadow of the past and later how we use that wealth of knowledge to create something new and of our own moment.
The garden will be a space to relax, find restful moments and enjoy plants. It is created by a young couple who have drawn on the experience and expertise of their grandparents to make a rich, plant diverse garden which uses the best lessons from the past to create their ideals of longevity, biodiversity and habitat for the future.
Key Elements
We are working with a number of carefully selected craftsmen to create the RBC Brewin Dolphin Garden, each of them is a business that prides itself on using techniques and skills, which have been handed down through generations adapted and incorporated with new ideas, technologies and machinery to give the very best in terms of design, craftsmanship and quality.
Border Oak
In 1980, Border Oak revived the art of traditional green oak framing, which had been out of use for more than 200 years, and over the past four decades they have established an unrivalled reputation as craftsmen, innovators and purveyors of the finest oak-framed structures available.
Most importantly, they know (and love) their products and feel passionately about what they do. Border Oak have a long and widely acknowledged reputation as industry leaders and innovators.
They have pioneered major advances in both the construction and self-build market - transforming the process and enhancing what is achievable, accessible and available.
Border Oak invented the much imitated Oak Frame Infill Panel (theirs was the first and only to be TRADA and NHBC assessed and approved). It has been adopted as 'Best Practice' by the National House Building Council (NHBC), and remains the ultimate method to make an exposed oak-frame waterproof and thermal whilst also allowing for the natural movement of the oak- frame.
Border Oak were the first company to embrace the potential of SIPs in the UK (they designed and built the very first domestic SIPs building in the UK in 2000, as featured on Grand Designs). They first used SIPs for our own design barn in 1999, subsequently devising and inventing all the necessary details and methods to combine green oak with the structural panel system and launching this to market - a truly revolutionary advancement that has shaped the industry.
Border Oak delivered the first collective custom build schemes in the late 1980s - constantly refining (and personally investing in) the concept and opening the possibility of self build & custom build to a wider audience. They helped redefine how plots could be found and purchased, making self-build more affordable for more people. They continue to shape this area of the industry, resolving and removing many of the entry barriers all whilst staying true to the time honoured medieval techniques of oak-frame house construction as passed down through generations.
Livingreen Design
Livingreen Design is a family business which started its first fibreglass factory back in the early 1990s, making just one range of four different size planters.
Today, they are the UK’s market leader, in terms of their manufacturing capacity, size of product range and experience in the design and production of quality, long-lasting commercial grade, landscape products. They make everything in their workshops, by hand, in the UK.
Everything is made to order, giving the confidence that finishes and sizes are as requested.
Their experience is borne of a passion for landscaping. All of their Directors have held senior jobs at some of the country’s leading landscape contractors and landscape architects previously leaning they understand the business from the ground up and know exactly how to design and build a product that will perform on site for many years.
