Five Minutes with Manoj Malde – Award Winning Garden Designer, TV Presenter, Public Speaker & RHS Judge

Image from Manoj Malde’s website

1. There is a school of thought that states childhood play influences our interests as adults. Can you connect this with your work as a garden designer?

I certainly can. When I lived in Mombasa I have memories of my dad taking a keen interest in all the plants that he grew on our huge balcony at the side of the house. We had roses, birds of paradise, jasmine and various other plants growing there. My own journey into gardening began in the UK. My parents bought a house and my brother Nish decided to create a vegetable plot at the bottom of the garden. He recruited me and my brother Raj to help him. Nish showed me how to sow seeds and how to nurture the seedlings as they germinated, how to carry out propagation and also how to water the plants. My interest in gardening grew from there. It is so important to connect children to nature from an early age. They will then develop a respect for their natural environment but I believe it also helps them to grow up being stronger adults too.

2. You mention a snobbery around colour, what do you think
fuels that?

Image from Manoj Malde’s website

I think snobbery in colour is fuelled by various things. How media portrays interiors and gardens that are often in muted, greyed off tones or very soft pastel palettes. What is not considered is how people from different cultures perceive colours in different ways. For example white in my culture would represent death. Brides in both the Indian and Chinese cultures wear red which is seen as a colour of prosperity. There is also this notion that because we live in a country where the light levels are dull and grey we cannot use bolder colours. I don’t believe that to be true. I think the best way to deal with colour is to try testers and leave them in the area where you would like to use that colour. Then observe how the colours change through the day and sometimes through the months. I did this with the colours for my Beneath a Mexican Sky Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2017. The orange that I thought I would use, started looking more dirty as the days got brighter and the one I thought I wouldn’t use started looking better. So it is better to be more experimental with colours. So many of the visitors said that the colours I used made them smile. Is that not what your garden environment should do? Why would you want to add more grey tones. when you already live in a country where the light levels are so grey.

A Vlaze Adapt table or Kitchen Unit in indigo is a fantastic way to bring a space to life

3. Do you find keeping a garden diary encourages any other observations beyond the practical day to day maintenance of your garden?

If you are new to gardening, keeping a garden diary is the perfect way to understand the plants that you are growing. Make little notes of each plant every month. Note the changes that have occurred in them whether good or bad. Also take notes of the weather conditions and temperatures at every stage of observation. Have the plants been affected by any insects or diseases? If so, make notes on this as well. Describe the physical looks of the plants too. Touch and feel the plants and describe them. Is there a scent and what does it smell like? This way you begin to really understand what the plant does through the seasons. It’s one of the best ways to learn more about plants. Doing this will also help develop your eye to notice the changes occurring.

4. Has working closely with nature changed any of your perspectives?

I worked as a creative director in the fashion industry and it was all about bringing together those winning designs that made the biggest sales and generated huge amounts of revenue. I loved buying beautiful clothes. Now that has changed. Don’t get me wrong I still love clothes but I don’t feel that urge to be seen in designer brands. In fact, I have bought some vintage pieces from designer collections from eBay and it’s all about how to bring the pieces together to represent my individual style. I certainly don’t earn the sums that I did when I was in fashion but I have found that I have the ability to live within my means and other things in my life have become far more important like my husband, our dog, my family and my beautiful home near the sea.

5. A recent essay by Markham Heid in the FT, explores how through the perfecting of routine in life, we lose our access to the experience of novelty with its importance to creating connection and the unexpected. Do you have any thoughts, even without our own garden, how we may interact with nature to find this ‘novelty’?

I must admit I am not an FT reader, however, I’d say that Markham has got that spot on. There are certain things in life that need routine but your whole life cannot be based on routine. What makes life exciting is when you are able to decide on the spur of the moment to go and do something that is totally outside the realm of things you would normally do. I remember I signed up to jump out of a plane for charity and the buzz I got out of that was incredible. I learnt how to scuba dive, a great way of interacting with nature underwater. But how about just simply going for walks in the woods and noticing the plants, wildlife, sounds of a gurgling brook or the chirping of birds. Running through tall fields of grass and meadow and letting your hands graze the plants. Kicking piles of autumn leaves and being a child again just for a few minutes. Watching the frog spawn develop into tadpoles at the local pond. These are all novelties that we can take part in, and what’s more is that they are good for us as they take us away from routine and busy lives.