Meanwhile in the Garden with Ryan McMahon | S12 E3 Scotland Grows Show

I think that the whole concept around a temporary garden, which is there while something else is waiting in the wings to take over that space is so clever.

It's real thinking outside the box where instead of looking at a derelict space and thinking, oh, that looks really quite unsettling and quite horrible.

I guess a lot of groups might have looked at that space and thought, how do we make it better? Let's just put some pots around the side to disguise the space because we know that the garden won't stay there.

We know it's not really our space.

But you didn't do that, which is why I think the whole concept, knowing the garden will only be there for a couple of years is really brave.

It's really bold.

But when listeners either visit that space or they can see that space in the winter issue of Scotland Grows magazine, because we've got the pictures there, just realise what an impact that you've made.

So I just find that whole concept of a meanwhile garden slightly different from a temporary garden.

It's there while something else is in development, so you know it's going to move.

Fascinating.

I think that it gave a lot of opportunities as well, like you're saying, to think differently as what this space could become.

Almost similar to like a show garden, it's a temporary space, it's a temporary garden.

And that allows you as a designer to think a little bit outside the box and push that kind of envelope of what's acceptable almost in this garden.

Everything's got a yellow flower on it, which is quite a divisive color in a garden.

And I think if we were to take my existing planters and permanently say everything in this planter is going to be yellow, I don't think it would go down so well.

But saying, well, this is a temporary space, you're almost allowed to get away with more than you would be allowed in a permanent garden.

And is that what appealed to you as a garden designer? Did you look at that space and think of it a bit like a show garden, that it won't be here forever so they can be quite creative?

I think it helped.

Yeah.

I think having that show garden background helps kind of create or allow me to create something different.

Something that wasn't a traditional garden in a way.

And talking to the group as to what we wanted to create there.

A few people said, oh, our maze would be quite interesting, or using this space for certain event, like a Halloween trail or a summer trail to get people into the Town of Central.

So it's a garden, but also an event space that we would hopefully create for the community and for the Blooming Band.

When we looked at kind of what a maze could be, the space really wasn't big enough for a maze.