Weed Garden, Begbroke Science Park

I was delighted to be asked by Assemble studios to work with them on the design of a ‘Weed garden’ at the University of Oxford site of Begbroke Science Park.

The site was previously used to test herbicides and pesticides and the brief was to create something that played on this history as the site is redeveloped. The design is based on the definition of weed which is simply ‘a plant in the wrong place’. The throughline for the planting scheme was taken from the initial site visit, where I catalogued the weeds and wildflowers that were already thriving on this forgotten site.

The planting design is at some points entirely naturalistic, featuring common ‘weeds’ such as Hawksbit, wild grasses and teasel. And at other moments, the design moves one species or cultivar away and arranges the plants more formally to create something entirely different.

The aim of the space is for visitors to question the rather moveable definition of what a weed is to rethink our relation to them. The garden will be planted in 2023.