IN AN ILLUSTRIOUS career spanning decades Dave Fountain has designed a Lord of the Rings inspired garden, carried out landscaping work for the Prince of Qatar and broken the Guinness World Record for transplanting the tallest tree in the world.
But the 68-year-old, from North Fambridge, of Dave Fountain Designs, maintains that building this year's gold medal-winning entry at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is "the most complicated garden he has ever worked on in his life".
Designed by LDC and built by Dave with a team of helpers, the Mind's Eye Garden took home the accolade of Best Fresh Garden at this year's famous London show, which ran from May 20 to 24.
Created for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), the winning exhibit incorporated texture, sound and smells to stimulate all the senses.
Dave said: "The water feature was created to give the effect of having partially lost your sight. It's a glass cube with water flowing on top and running down the sides which blurs your vision. There are touchy-feely stands, the sound of dripping water and moss on a wall to give sensation.
"It was the most complicated garden I have ever worked on in my life, the most challenging – the minute we finished it I said we have a gold medal winner here."
The sensory walled garden was inspired by a joint scheme between Countryside, the company behind the multi-million pound Beaulieu housing development in Chelmsford, and the RNIB, to redevelop the existing RNIB Community Living Service facilities at Redhill, Surrey.
As a former landscape director for Countryside, Dave was asked to oversee its construction, a process which took nine labour-intensive days, although work commitments kept him from attending the show himself.
In his time working as a landscape architect the businessman has built a garden for car manufacturer Skoda, been involved in a Tolkien-themed outdoor space which now features on the official Lord of the Rings website, created designs for Qatar royalty, and appeared on BBC Gardeners' World Live.
In 2001, together with singer turned gardener Kim Wilde, he secured the Guinness World Record for successfully moving the world's largest tree – a 17.8 metre high London plane tree – from Belgium before replanting it at a new housing development in Manchester. The tree stood for six years until it was toppled by a storm in 2007.
"For me this is more than just a job it's a passion," Dave said. "I'm thinking of semi-retiring but I'll keep gardening. I'm very interested in doing care homes for dementia patients."
Graham Cherry, chief executive of Countryside, said: "We are delighted that the RHS judges honoured us with the Best Fresh Garden award against some very tough competition. The garden really does look fabulous and it is a credit to the team effort of everyone involved.
"Our partnership with RNIB has given us insight into the valuable work the charity does and we are pleased that our sponsorship has allowed them to share this on the world stage at Chelsea Flower Show."
