Jon Lambert
Jon Lambert began his love affair with gardening before he had even put on his school shoes. In the years since being thrown out of high school, Jon has launched his own landscaping company, scored a host of medals for his sometimes controversial garden designs, and been asked to show his tattoo on nationwide television. Now he is one of the trio of experts on TV One's gardening series Ultimate Garden.
The new show follows four teams over ten episodes, as they attempt to turn a bare patch of lawn into their ideal garden. Alongside Ultimate Garden's host Xanthe White, Jon will be on hand to offer help and advise, and also encourage contestants to think outside the square. And Jon's labrador Bob will likely also stop by to check on progress.
By the time he hit his teens, Jon's bedroom was covered in hundreds of pot plants. "I've always just loved the magic of growing something," says the laidback designer.
At high school in Nelson Jon was steered away from art and technical drawing, two of the subjects that attracted him the most. Despite high marks in the sixth form, Jon lost interest, and the following year he was thrown out of Nelson College for not attending enough classes. In 1994 Jon topped his design class at Wellington Polytechnic, when he passed a certificate in Landscape and Design.
It was at Auckland's annual Ellerslie Flower Show that Jon first made his name. After winning a coveted gold medal with his first entry, he followed up the next year by spending $3000 on a garden inspired by a beach on the Kapiti Coast. Favouring grasses and sand over the traditional flowerbeds, the garden won instant controversy.
"A lot of people got really upset about that because it won a gold medal, and the other one that won gold that year cost a quarter of a million," says Jon. "I'm really into simplicity. For me, if you have to put something in a garden to show off, then it's not right."
Each year that Jon has won gold at Ellerslie, he has marked the occasion by extending the tattoo on his shoulder. Eager-eyed television viewers may still recall the moment in 1999 that gardening host Maggie Barry asked him to show viewers his tattoo.
Still based in Waikanae on the Kapiti Coast, Jon Lambert continues to design and build gardens through his self-titled company. He believes that in the end, good garden design comes down to a certain feel.
"At Ellerslie we had hundreds of people sitting eating lunch in my garden every year. Most nights, my garden was where people came to party. I just put it down to the fact that somehow the garden felt right."
Now Jon's children Caitlin and Millie are carrying on the family tradition. Nine-year-old Caitlin began helping her father with garden plans at three, roughly the same age that Jon himself first started to show an interest in plants. "She colour codes all my plantings," says Jon with a sheepish grin. "I pay her $5 a plan."
