Assemble and Sarah Alun-Jones
Assemble and Sarah Alun-Jones
Weed Garden
In Progress
Curation and commissioning for Oxford University Development. The ‘Weed Garden’ is a work in progress by Assemble and garden designer Sarah Alun-Jones, serving as both an artwork and an inventive biodiversity initiative. The garden celebrates, and hopefully will change some perceptions on, plants that many would usually regard as weeds.
The hard landscaping has been constructed from locally sourced materials relating to the surrounding landscape, oolitic limestone sourced from Grange Hill Quarry, 28 miles away. The wall was built by the science parks next door neighbour Love Dry Stone, the most passionate and enthusiastic of stonemasons.
Celebrating the plants that many would usually regard as weeds, the garden combines planting and architectural elements to create a space of humble beauty and contemplation. The focus on weeds is especially apt as, from 1960 to 1985, Begbroke was home to the headquarters of the UK’s Weed Research Organisation – one of the world’s most influential centres of weed science.
The new Weed Garden flips the historic narrative on its head, giving space to “weeds” where scientists were once engaged in finding ways to control them. As the garden grows over the coming years and new plants make their own way into the planting scheme, it poses an interesting conundrum - which of them get to stay?
This project was co-curated with Rebecca Heald.
Related Projects
