Page 22 - Damianos Sotheby's International Realty Magazine Vol. 3

DESIGN EXCHANGE TIM REES
it, together with rose and perennial borders. It is,
he stresses, not the formal garden some might ex- pect, largely because it’s on a hillside and surround- ed by woodland, but it does express his site-specific expertise. With much of his work in the Mediterra- nean, too, Rees has a special affinity for planting for the extremes of the climate.
“Hot, cold, dry, wet, abundant soil, thin soil—all of these regional factors affect how you design a garden,” he says. “Terraces need shade. Surfaces get hot. In northern Europe, the distinctions are much fuzzier. Here in the Mediterranean, you have to obey the parameters, so your plant palette changes and becomes more textured.”
Being away from his home garden so much calls for plenty of delegation, which is sometimes life changing. Rees notes proudly that two of the lo- cal teenagers who tend his garden have gone on to pursue careers in horticulture. When he’s home, he enjoys a degree of experimentation that his profes- sional life doesn’t allow; it can be a testing ground for new ideas. And, he can make mistakes—“Put
in things and then take them out again”—whereas the rigours of liability when working for clients nec- essarily keeps a lid on too much risk-taking.
Rees is keen to make his clients’ garden dreams come true, right down to the “extraordinary colour preferences they often have, which I understand, because I’m not that keen on bright yellow in my garden either.” But nor is he a mere facilitator. “You can’t impose a design on either a garden or a cli- ent,” he says. “It’s a compromise to come up with something everyone is happy with. But if I don’t like something, I’ll say so. My clients aren’t paying me to not have an opinion.”
Rees’s clients are, after all, inevitably more gar- den-minded than your typical homemaker, though he argues that, after a long spell in the desert, garden design is now as high on the cultural and creative agenda as interior design. Yet his clients, just as in- evitably, go a step further.
“Typically, you want to get your home straight— get the books out, get the Wi-Fi set up—before you focus on the garden, “ Rees notes. “But I’ve always done the garden first, and I’ve had clients who think that way too. They start planting trees before they do anything else. That’s very wise, because while deco- rating is a finite process, gardens exist in time. They have to grow and evolve. So the sooner you start on the garden, the better.”
Pratia angulata 'Tim Rees' was named for him a er a trip to Papua New Guinea.
“ While decorating is a finite process, gardens exist in time.”
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Photo: (top) Tim Schram