Spring has finally arrived...
I'm gardening my way around the country this spring - from Manchester to Birmingham to Cardiff to Brighton.
The Pothole Gardener project is all about creating unexpected moments of happiness. My little gardens are a respite from the greyness of London. People read all sorts of things into my gardens when they try and rationalise them - something I'm fascinated with, and I've made various films about that.
I don't generally garden on the road, only on the footpaths (I'm not completely mad) and apart from keeping safe, the only rule of pothole gardening is I don't ever use figures in my gardens. I use a lot of miniatures as part of the project, and as a big part of my work is inspiring peoples imaginations and I find leaving scenes helps provoke the audience.
The project all started as part of my Masters in Design at Central Saint Martins and my first book, The Little Book of Little Gardens, was published by Dokument Press late in 2012. I've had a lot written about my work and I've put together a little press page here.
People from all around the world have created pothole gardens, and I post them on the blog. I've now had so many submissions, I've started a dedicated page with some of my favourite submitted gardens.
You can find more of my work at www.stevewheen.com - I'm also the Master Distiller at The Distillery - www.thedistillery.tv where I produce social video content.
If you want to get in touch, drop me a mail: thepotholegardener@yahoo.com
All tagged pothole garden
Spring has finally arrived...
I'm gardening my way around the country this spring - from Manchester to Birmingham to Cardiff to Brighton.
As Spring gets under way, I've just been sent these wonderful two gardens from Alex and his grandma Mary. Alex has been recovering after having his appendix out, so he's had plenty of time to plan his little garden.
I've been sent some super sweet gardens over the past week or so. Raven Forest sent me this wonderful series complete with some adorable tiny people (and hedgehog!)!
Stéphane Leybold recently sent me these great pics of his gardening in Bogotá, Colombia, check out some great reactions the gardens got!
This week, two more pothole gardens have sprung up in Europe. Andrea from Italy sent me his little garden, complete with a tractor (to help fix the road, of course...).
I had the pleasure of being invited to speak at TEDxPrague recently. The theme of the conference was Crossing Borders and I was able to show all of the wonderful pothole gardens I've been sent, with the new the world pothole garden map. I talked about creativity and how good it feels to get out there and create something - even if it's as tiny and ephemeral as a pothole garden.
With The Chelsea Fringe in full swing, I recently got down and dirty in Chelsea to create this little garden in the shadow of Battersea Power Station. If you're in London, check out what they're up to.
I had a wonderful email from Udo Reichle-Röber last week, entitled "Our roads are crumbling. So we let them flourish …" It seems another keen pothole gardener has popped up, this time in Northern Germany. Have a look at his great little gardens and some of the attention he has been receiving.
These lovely little gardens were sent to me recently from Hong Kong. They were part of TEDXHappyValley, and were part of a micro series which included a MicroVillage, some MicroDesign, a selection of MicroGraphics, a MicroTalk and a MicroInstallation. The series momentarily transformed a colourful lane way in Tai Hang into micro-galleries. A small part of the community who were initially grumpy at the installation, are now loving it and want it to remain there!
A new little installation has just been sent to me by some keen gardeners in New Zealand, this time to remind passerby's of the significance of ANZAC day. What a wonderful idea.
While National Gardening Week kicks off this week in the UK, here is a lovely little garden I've just been sent all the way from New Zealand!
I was recently in (very chilly) Stockholm and decided to flex my green fingers to create a simple little garden near the harbour.
This has been an epic year on the blog, and I thought I'd take some time to reflect on 2012. It all kicked off with my short documentary, Holes of Happiness, getting an incredible response on my YouTube channel, piling up over 200,000 views...
I'm really pleased that The Little Book of Little Gardens is now available in stores and online.
The Gardens Illustrated team invited me up to Bristol the other week to re-create their October cover, in miniature. Here are the results! Thanks to Jason Ingram for the great pictures.
I've blogged before about how much I love Columbia Road Flower Market. Nothing beats a Sunday stroll down the buzzing street with a coffee in hand. I spied a pothole at the end of the road during my last visit, and I created this little garden which has managed to stay there for some time now - let me know if you've seen it!
Recently I've been sent some photos of wonderful pothole gardens and I've been meaning to post them. It's great to see potholes from all around the world getting some love!
I was lucky enough to be in The Big Apple recently and I decided to get my fingers dirty and create a little pothole garden in the shadow of the Flatiron Building. There were no little apple trees available (OK, bad joke) so I thought a little Money Tree might be appropriate...