Natalija Cvetic
Garden Designer,
Program Leader for Landscape and Garden Design and
Tutor for Diploma Course in Landscape and Garden Design at
Limperts Academy of Design

 If you are really passionate about your chosen profession, then there is no conventional working time for you. You might commit some of your time to employers and clients, but your mind works overtime. Constantly is a better way of putting it.

Inspiration is all around us, sometimes in most unusual places, and inspiration, apart from knowledge of course, is the main fuel for Garden Designers. It is essential, therefore to record your findings; those precious moments when lighting of inspiration strikes you just like that. You need to be prepared, to have with you means of memorializing those moments. Anyway, that is my feeling. And that is how I had the idea of organizing my little professional kit. 

My suggestion is: Get into the habit of carrying your professional kit with you. You should compile your own, adding and altering as you go. I’ll share with you some of the content of my “Everyday Kit”.

“Everyday kit”

I have a handy “magic” bag easy to carry, and quite nice looking too! It is big enough for all my “gizmos”, but convenient to carry. I’ll give you an inventory; it’s up to you do if you find this useful, or simply silly.

• Small sketch pad: A4 size, medium granulated paper;
• Limited selection of pencils: I use 2B pencil for sketching, but have a few others as well;
• Sharpener: metal one lasts longer by my experience, and good quality eraser :I use “Staedtler Mars plastic”;
• Colouring pencils;
• 4 – sided multi coloured pen;
• A few “Uni-ball” fine pens for notes;
• Hard cover diary;

This part of my kit is essential for recording my ideas “on the spot”. You wouldn’t believe (or maybe you would) as how many ideas I get on “inappropriate” places: in the bus, train, or while driving; waiting for the appointment, or simply walking down the street. If I put it off until I get home most of it evaporates, or loses in effect, and some other things invade my mind... That made me think twice; I don’t want to lose those precious moments! So I decided to put together my “survival of inspiration” kit.
You can always find a quiet spot and a few moments to record your thoughts, and even a draw sketch or two!          

For the additional part of the kit I have to say I got a little spoiled by modern technology, and decided to take advantage of it. So, I added these pieces to my basic kit:

• Digital camera: you can get small disposable cameras instead, or use a manual camera if you have one. The advantage in having a digital camera is that you have the option of deleting images you don’t like on the spot or later, thus clearing memory for better ones. Make sure your batteries are charged at all times.

At first I felt a little embarrassed snapping pictures all over the place, especially if the place is not a usual touristy spot, but soon I got over that, nobody seems to mind. If you like somebody’s front garden, for example, you can always knock on the door, and ask for permission to take a few pictures (even though you don’t need one, generally, the front yard is considered the public area of the residence), but it is polite, and people like to know their efforts in designing the front garden is a successful one. You might be invited to see “an even better back garden”, and who knows, maybe even offered a cup of tea.

• A few clean, empty zip-lock bags, for collecting interesting material, usually from the local Park, or beach: plant for my herbarium, interesting pebbles, fine textured leaves... sticky labels to note details of my “finding”, of course.
• My little Dictaphone, for those awkward moments when I don’t have a quiet spot to sit and write or draw. At least by recording my voice, I can remind myself of the moment I want to keep. And also, sometimes I want to record sounds around me, because those sounds are offering me more information than any sentence of description I can manage.

Additional tip: a good mobile phone is equipped with options of memo writing, sound/voice recording and camera. That could be the choice fit for a modern garden design explorer?!

Natalija