This talk and all our lectures are FREE for Friends of the Botanical Gardens to attend. Members of the public are also welcome to join us on payment of £5 at the door on the day. Live talks are held in the Education Centre in the grounds of the Botanical Gardens - easily accessed via the Thompson Road Entrance.
NB Originally planned as an online talk, we now hope that James Hitchmough will attend our meeting and deliver the talk in person. Please check details nearer the date.
A keen gardener from an early age, James Hitchmough has made six gardens for himself and family. Following a move from Sheffield in 2022, he has now taken on a large plot in rural South Somerset, where he is working on the creation of a new garden, meadows and wood pasture at the family home.
Describing himself as no longer being in gainful employment, he finds he cannot step out of the shoes of educator/flier of kites, that he has occupied for the past 40 years and plans to make something that is in some way new or at least experimental that might be of interest to others. He aims to boost biodiversity, to respond positively and creatively to climate change, to plant lots of different trees (lignin therapy), in the right places and beneath these, restore an area of meadowland to what it might once have been or better. Perhaps a stepping stone to encourage others to follow suit?
He also wants to have some fun, to choreograph great seasonal drama on the stage that is the garden, his very own version of the “wow factor” that has been the hallmark of his life’s work. To do this you need numbers for each moment in time…..a single Dodecatheon or Begonia grandis is a fine thing but when you lay 500 of each across a garden landscape a different world is brought into being…..
James completed a BSC (Hons.) in Environmental Horticulture at the University of Bristol, followed by a PhD in Database Design for Plant Selection . He worked as a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer at Burnley College, University of Melbourne, Australia from 1983-93.
James commenced as Reader in the Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield in 1995, was appointed Professor in Horticultural Ecology in 2004, before becoming Head of Department in 2014; he retired in 2022. During this time he worked closely with Sheffield Botanical Gardens on a number of projects.
In parallel with his academic career, James has always worked as a consultant on landscape projects around the world, often using these to translate his research into practice and policy. He was one of the two lead planting designers on the London Olympic Park from 2007-14, following the publication of “The Dynamic Landscape” a seminal text on the application of nature-like planting to the urban realm. Since 2010 he has focused on projects in China, often in collaboration with Chinese Government agencies to advance the use of local native species in large scale nature-like design projects, involving more than 50 visits and expeditions. Post his retirement (not really a retirement at all) James continues to work on design projects, currently in the UK, China, Australia, Spain and Oman. He continues to be in demand as a speaker around the world.
