An artist rarely starts on a canvas another artist has begun. Unless of course, that canvas is a garden.
When potter Bridget Bodenham moved her studio and practice onto a five acre section on her mum’s property in Hepburn in 2018, she also inherited a beautiful garden designed and planted by artist and gardener Lily Langham.
With a verdant and abundant base to build off, Bridget has added to Lily’s work in the years since, taking cuttings and spreading seeds to different areas to extend the canvas and incorporate new plants, including cactus, natives and herbs.
There have been failures and learnings along the way; in certain areas poor soil quality stymied growth, and whilst some plants suffered from too much moisture (the cacti), others hankered for more. But, as Bridget says undeterred, ‘trial and error always builds knowledge!’
With plenty of mushroom compost, sand and new soil, her plants now sit in nutrient-rich ground and her flourishing, layered garden is humming with life, colour and texture.
Bluestone boulders are dotted around the garden — ‘they’re nice to sit on, especially when the sun warms them,’ says Bridget. She’s also used recycled and crushed bricks, cement and tiles for the pathways. These add form and structure amongst the swaying grasses and perennial blooms.
‘Combining contrasting foliage and form is what I’m most interested in exploring in the garden,’ says Bridget of her latest plantings; red kangaroo paw (Anigozanthos rufus) and Japanese blood grass (imperata cylindrica).
‘I’m always adding things and viewing it from all angles, always noticing something new,’ she says.
The garden, and the surrounding bushland, have become the main inspirations for Bridgets’ work. Her ‘bee bowls’ (petal edged plates mounted on stakes and filled with water) were born from the desire to have something beautiful and useful to look at in the garden.
‘If you want to see my work, see my garden first,’ she says. ‘Each season brings something new and different, it’s changing all the time and becoming its own.’
