Chelsea Flower Show: Scotttish garden to explore new sounds

The soundscapes of the garden are set to be displayed at one of the biggest events of the year for landscapers – the Chelsea Flower Show taking place in May.

Afterwards the project, which was started by landscape designer Semple Begg, will be redeveloped to help provide art therapy at a Glasgow hospital with the help of charity the Teapot Trust.

East Lothian sound engineer Michael Begg, 56, has gathered garden sounds from the underground to the tops of the canopy to create an entirely new experience of our green landscapes.

“A garden is more commonly thought of as something that you experience visually, or even through a sense of smell if things happen to be in bloom,” Mr Begg said.

“What we’re doing is we're using various audio techniques to try and get under the skin of the garden and find its sounds.”

READ MORE: Invasive plant threatening to 'choke' bluebell woodland cleared by volunteers

The landscape has to bridge the “strict discipline and rigour” required of a show garden at the prestigious flower event and the “childlike expression of creativity” that echoes the process of art therapy.

Since 2010, the Teapot Trust has been providing art therapy opportunities for thousands of children with chronic health conditions, who often spend long periods in hospital having invasive tests, injections and treatments.

It involves using creativity to help children reclaim the space which may have become a place of anxiety following treatment.

“Semple Begg has had to be so careful about toeing that line whilst making it seem like a hybrid of Oz and Willy Wonka's chocolate factory,” the 56-year-old said.

Using sensors, microphones, tiny computers and even an ECG machine, the garden will even respond to touch and sound.

Audio-visual artist Kathy Hinde has also been contributing to the project and even created a way for the plants to speak back through a microphone hidden in top of a watering can.

“When you talk into the watering can we have some little motors that are hidden in the grasses, the longer plants, they'll begin to shake,” Mr Begg explained.

“There'll be voices that respond to your call into the watering can so the garden will kind of shimmer and start coming to life.”

Alongside the “dancing grass”, Mr Begg built an ECG machine which measures the electric activity within a plant.

“When that plant is touched it responds to touch,” he said. “It draws attention to the medical nature, the need to reclaim some of these medical processes that have made kids anxious before.”

READ MORE: 'Devastating': Scotland could lose doctor after visa refused for child in her care

Sensors collect data about the garden’s humidity or temperature which the 56-year-old artist can convert into sound.

A silent-disco style rig will also allow those taking in the garden to listen to three different “layers” of the landscape – “under the ground, just above the ground where the foliage is thick and up in the tree canopy”.

In the tree tops contact microphones gathered the sounds of birds moving along branches which sound like “springboards that they're using for bouncing,” Mr Begg explained.

At ground level, sensitised paper was used to capture the seemingly silent movements of insects and worms.

“Put on the headphones and then the garden will just suddenly come to life in a completely different way,” the sound artist said.

After the Chelsea Flower Show, the garden will be reconfigured to become a permanent feature at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow as the Elsewhere Garden.

It is very likely it will be brought to the hospital in a “completely different” way due to more exposed conditions, but it will maintain the same whimsy.

His wife Susan Begg and business partner Nicola Semple have had to “rein [the two artists] back” to keep the emphasis on the plants, Mr Begg said.

“As part of this, it has to be fun, it has to be being utterly childlike about how we approach it so that has given us a huge amount of freedom.”

Ms Begg previously said: “Teapot Trust Elsewhere Garden represents a child’s imagination as it blossoms in response to the freedom gifted by art therapy.

“Through this escape into art, children find coping strategies to deal with life.”

Prof Tom Steele, director of estates and facilities for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said about the future plans for the sound-led landscape: “We are delighted to be receiving this unique garden space which I am sure will have an instant benefit for our patients, families and staff.

“NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde manages a diverse portfolio of land across central Scotland that has the potential to improve the wellbeing of surrounding communities by enhancing the environment and creating green spaces which improve mental and physical health. Increasing evidence links access and use of green space to a multitude of healthcare benefits.”