Hello my name is Andrew Wain I am the Head Gardener at Euridge Manor and I am
the 2020 Creative Stripes Winner... finally! So Euridge Manor is a private house set in the middle
of a 500 acre organic farm and as of the last five years we have been a wedding and events venue. So
I heard about the Allett Creative Stripes Competition about four years ago on social media
and i've been entering ever since with various degrees of success in terms of positions so
second place third place and finally in the fourth year it was my year- I won! Did I mention I won?
So when I started the pattern originally it was going to be a flower but then when I put the drone
up for the first time to look at the pattern I could see what to me looked like a butterfly
so I started with the butterfly adding in more details like with the eyes on the wings and
the funky pattern on the butterflies bottom and then with everything that's been going on this
year with Covid and you know, family matters people with cancer I decided that this year
was the year to say thank you to everybody at the NHS for all the amazing work they've been doing.
So the idea is is that the butterfly is carrying the thank you message to the NHS on its wings.
So to create the pattern I used my usual tape measure and sticks
to mark out the pattern and the pattern stems from the width of the mower. Once you know the width of
your mower then you can measure out from there so you know the number of stripes you're going to get
to make the pattern fit the lawn. I don't want to give too many secrets away and it takes about a
month to get the stripes to really pop because you it takes that much time to train the grass
it takes a long time to get the feed regime up as well and then this year copying previous entrants
I decided to do different heights of cut just to give the pattern
a little bit more depth and to do that I used a little steel HSA 26 hand trimmer
which you know is quite a narrow cutter so you can really really really get some
real detail in the pattern and it's also really good for lettering as well. But you don't have
to do that you can also use a little hand brush to create finer detail. So this year with Covid
meant that we didn't have as many weddings as we normally do which allowed me more time to be
creative with the pattern. There was less foot traffic on the lawn which helped me
so and also with less weddings that allowed me to be brave and use the two heights of cut.
As you all know we had some really dry weather as well
so you know there's a lot of pressure to keep the lawn well watered which takes up a lot of time.
One thing that does get mentioned quite a lot when you're doing your
photo for the competition it's really important to get the light behind your stripes
so that they really pop and because I wasn't thinking properly when I laid out my pattern
I left myself with about a half an hour window each day to get the photo because the
light was coming from behind the ruin which was casting shadows had I thought about it properly
I would have positioned the pattern this way so I would have had all day to take my picture. So
if you're going to enter next year's competition just think about where the lights going to be
throughout the day to give yourself the maximum opportunity to get your photo because it is really
important to get a good picture. So one of the highlights to the prize is the fact that it is
battery-powered and anybody who knows me will know that I am a massive fan of battery technology.
Being a private house and a wedding venue we need to be very conscious of the noise that
we're making don't want to be disturbing the owner or guests and battery kit is fantastic you've got
less noise less vibration you're not messing around with petrol and fumes
it's just an absolute pleasure to use so battery technology
is an absolute win for me. Well what happened was is the company that was running the competition
dragged it out so long made me wait all weekend and left me pacing up and down all Monday
driving myself nuts but then I knew when the phone rang I knew who it was and I was like
finally four years I've won so I was very excited when I got that phone call yes but you guys were
very cruel dragging it out. I mean it's not good for my blood pressure and I was drinking way too
much that weekend so you know I should be able to claim some of that back as expenses to be fair
but it was very very stressful- wasn't it not stressful?
I was tempted to drive all the way to Edgbaston and ask the guy himself- too much stress.
So my advice to anybody who's thinking about entering the competition
is firstly and I've mentioned this before earlier is think about where the sun's going to be when
you are planning on taking your picture because getting those stripes to pop in the picture is
really important so that is of all the advice I can give is think about the photo. The next thing
is and I'm stood on what is quite a large area of lawn is don't be put off by the size of your lawn-
that's what she said you might have to edit that bit out so it's like behind me there we've got the
the head of the butterfly or if you just take the eye itself or just the butterflies bottom
you do not need a big space to be creative. If anything actually a smaller lawn is easier because
it's less stress you know the time that I spend on this area if you're on a small lawn and you
focus your time on there you can be so creative with a small space and you really don't need
and this is very important you really don't need expensive kit to do it. You can create stripes
with push mowers that have got a roller on or you can use your flymo lawnmower and then
go behind with a brush afterwards to create the stripes it really isn't about expensive kit it is
all about the creativity just have some fun with it and my advice as well would be base a pattern
on something that you can relate to- like in previous years I've used features around the
the property here like windows as inspiration for the shape. It's not necessarily about going online
and finding a pattern and trying to recreate it do something that's personal to you and that will
shine through in your design. I'm really excited to be the judge next year because having seen some
of the entries that have been coming in over the last four years that I've done it there has been
some amazing work so I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes in and in all honestly it's
all about the creativity so my advice would just be to have some fun with it and I look
forward to seeing everybody's designs. I'll be subtle it's fine did I mention I won get in!