Biography:
Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Iowa State University, Mira Engler began to carve her career with design internships at Yahalom-Zur Landscape Architecture in Israel in 1978. In 1984 she was appointed as Chief Designer with Gideon Sarig Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning in Israel having studied for her BA in Landscape Architecture.

Academia called and in 1988 she was appointed research assistant at the University of California, Berkeley, following which Mira rose to her current position having completed a Masters in Landscape Architecture in 1989.

Mira has written extensively on art, landscape, environment and culture. Her work has been universally recognised through numerous awards including the 1995 Visionary Landscape Competition (ASLA) and contributed to the Hiriya in the Museum international exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Her latest book, 'Designing America's Waste Landscapes' will be launched in May 2004.

Design philosophy and inspiration for 'The Otherworld Garden':
Mira has approached her garden as a cultural artefact. Always site specific, a garden design is dictated by place, soil and climate, and by cultural and personal traditions and values. A garden is physically and spiritually alive, able to stir emotions and intellect, to charge soul and mind, and provoke fear and opinion.

'The Otherworld Garden' is a garden embedded in local myth and culture and landscape: in the traditions, symbolism, language and material of the Cotswolds and Gloucestershire. Its central concept in Celtic mythology recognises the spiritual connections of people to nature.

Magical and mystical figures, fairies, goddesses, unicorns, gargoyles, and other ancient symbols invite visitors to explore the garden, a world of wonder and imagination.

Ideas to steal:
The garden is a riddle to be deciphered, it is a carrier of mystical and mythical lore. Mira invites visitors to borrow ideas and conceptual elements of the garden to serve as inspiration.

Key materials:
Local limestone contained in sculpted gabions (mesh-wire baskets) is shaped into giant gargoyles, animals and other enigmatic, mythological figures. Partly buried in the ground, the sculptural gabions seem to rise from the land and emerge from the trees.

A Galla’n, an erect stone inscribed with the ancient Ogham symbols, is placed in one corner of the garden. Other stones placed near existing trees are carved with letters that represent the corresponding tree in the Ogham signs.

Key plants:
Ajuga reptans (Carpet bugle); Diascia whisper (Shell flower); Surfinia (Petunia); Verbena tapiens.

E: miraengl@iastate.edu
E: info@johnpacker.com W:www.johnpacker.com

Sourcing Directory
Metal Artist John Packer 5 Lancashire Rd Bishopston Bristol BS7 9DL tel: 0117 9667225 email: johnpacker@jollama.co.uk www.johnpacker.com	Stone Natural Stone Market Ltd contact: Matt Fulford or Roger Fulford Grange Hill Quarry Naunton, Nr Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL54 3AY tel: 01242 820837 email: information@cotswoldstone.co.uk www.cotswoldstone.co.uk
Plants & Garden materials Malmesbury Garden Centre Crudwell Road Malmesbury Wiltshire SN16 9JL tel: 0117 9459225	Letter Carver Pip Hall 38 Liverpool Road Reading Berkshire RG1 3PQ tel: 0118 926 0644 mob: 07979 473 189 pip.hall@virgin.net
Structural Engineer Structures One contact: Ian Duncan tel: 0117 9459225 email: ian.duncan@structures1.com	Irrigation Hozelock Limited Haddenham Aylesbury Buckinghamshire HP17 8JD tel: 01844 292002 (Helpline) www.hozelock.com