How does your Garden Grow?

We are the fabric botanists. 

We are the fabric botanists.

We invite you to explore our textile garden, propagated from our collection of eclectic materials — rescued, reused, kept from landfill and crafted into new species. Each plant is a collection of stories and moments in time.

We are inspired by the JOY of multiples, repeat patterns and never-ending surprises found in nature. By celebrating the materials around us, this is how our garden grows — with mirror balls and neon whirls, and pretty leaves all in a row.

Listen to the garden

How Does Your Garden Grow? is a multi-sensory installation.

Ashley James Brown has composed an original soundscape for the work, creating another layer through which to wander, pause and connect with this imagined botanical world.

→ LISTEN TO THE FULL JOY: How Does Your Garden Grow? SOUNDSCAPE

Gemma Costin has also created a scentscape for the fabric botanics, bringing another sensory dimension to the installation and inviting connection with the natural world through sight, sound and smell.

Growing the garden together

The installation was originally created with support from Arts Council England

That funding allowed us to collaborate with other artists and makers and invite people into the propagation of the garden.

The piece was created with Abeda Begum, with contributions from Alex, Anne, Barbara, Carole, Debbie, Dianne, Holly, Josephine, Jotie, Julie, Kirsty, Marianne, Natalie, Norma, Patricia, Philippa, Rachel, Rebecca, Sandra, Sindhu, Sofie, Steve, Susan and Veronica, who joined us in the studio as assistant fabric botanists during our open studio sessions.

The garden continues to evolve as it travels, with new people, places and stories becoming part of its growth.

Meet the species

Each plant belongs to an existing botanical genus that provided our starting point in nature. We then gave each one its own species and common name, inspired by the materials, memories and previous projects that make up its structure.

‘Scarf Plant’
Strelitzia
S. donum amissum
Cultivated from: The Lost Gift, Coventry Moves, Shoot Festival, Christmas

‘Pop’
Medicago
M. audax spiritus
Cultivated from: GROW, Coventry Moves

‘Ode to Costumes’
Heliconia
H. memoriam celebrantes
Cultivated from: Butterfly Backpacks, Flower Corsets, Carnival, Contains Strong Language

‘Disco Trumpets’
Brugmansia
B. saltare simul
Cultivated from: Birmingham Commonwealth Games and various sparkly party nights

Where the garden has grown

How Does Your Garden Grow? was first exhibited as part of JOY…inspired by nature at The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, from July–September 2024.

It is now growing somewhere rather unexpected: inside Leicester Cathedral, as part of ArtReach’s Journeys Festival, where it will remain until January 2027.

In summer 2027, the garden will grow again when it travels to Torre Abbey, Torquay, as part of the next full presentation of JOY…inspired by nature. For this new coastal setting, local people will help imagine and design a new plant species, which we will create during our residency and add permanently to the installation.

And the garden isn’t finished growing yet…As How Does Your Garden Grow? continues to travel, the garden will keep evolving — carrying new species, stories and traces of the people and places it encounters.