GEORGE HARRISON MEMORIAL GARDEN
We were privileged to work with the Hare Krishna community at Bhaktivedanta Manor their UK Temple and a spiritual sanctuary.
The site was dark and choked with overgrown laurels creating almost complete shade at ground level. The soil was essentially dead, and the containment and privacy of the space leaked in all directions. We planned a new garden removing substantial areas of laurel, improving the soil using composted manure from the temple’s cow heard and brought light and health back to the garden. We created a new path network based upon spiritual geometry and auspicious dimensions, a new viewing deck, installed new mature hedges and developed substantial areas of new planting. Planting was further supplemented by Olivia Harrison and her own team of gardeners from their family home. Perhaps the most important part of the project was to commission and work with 8 artists to install artworks. This is a garden for celebration and spiritual meditation and receives thousands of visitors each year.
…When the late Beatle George Harrison bought the Manor, he particularly wanted Krishna devotees to have the benefit of the peaceful garden surroundings to meditate on Krishna. Hence, when George passed away at the age of 58 on 29th November 2001, the Manor decided to create a special garden in his memory, which would be set aside for quiet prayer and contemplation. The chosen location is a shady woodland dell which George himself had liked, and the garden was opened by his widow, Olivia. It includes a series of eight artworks celebrating the diverse aspects of George’s spiritual life, aligned with the eight aspects of devotion to Krishna and the eight couplets of the Hare Krishna mantra. (source www. krishnatemple.com).
LOCATION: Watford
CONTRACTOR: Stewart Landscapes
CONTRACT VALUE: £100,000
