Hi all!
I've got a small story time I wanted to share with you all who may not be on Instagram or follow me on Instagram.
Some of you may remember that in 2020, ADA were due to host a seminar at Kew gardens, showcasing aquascaping at a private event. Now unfortunately, as we all know, this was the year of the dreaded covid and like most things was cancelled.
Everything however was set to go for this event, scapes and equipment had been shipped from Japan, even the plants were sat waiting to go. Covid hit, and it was all put a stop to.
The kew gardens representative if you like and host for this event was a very talented scaper called Jean Michael Touche.
I was fortunate enough to meet Jean by chance on Instagram. He posted a photo of a waterfall in 2021 that was local to me, I commented and we got chatting from there. He explained how he used to live in London and work at Kew, but decided to move up north and out of the city to a quieter life.
He told me about the planned event at Kew and how he came to know the incredible scapers at ADA. I was fascinated by the stories and also the great effort and detail that went into an ADA led event.![20200203_kew_001.jpg 20200203_kew_001.jpg](https://www.ukaps.org/forum/data/attachments/220/220436-24bf576d2a0173989632f8373c9bce58.jpg?hash=JL9XbSoBc5)
Over the past few years we became great friends, he was kind enough to teach a newbie such as myself many of the techniques that were taught to him by the guys at ADA which were invaluable in my scaling journey upto now.
Fast forward to the beginning of this year, Jean expressed how he wanted to move back home to France, to be with his family. This is when he asked me to help him move on his collection of ADA he had amassed over the years. Part of this collection were some of the planned scapes from the ADA seminar.
There was 3 scapes, along with the meticulous paperwork showing the hardscape from different angles aswell as planting guides etc. He didn't want to sell these, but also decided he wanted to take a hiatus from aquascaping when he returned home so was in a conundrum.
I asked him if maybe he would be willing to let them go to me and I would set them up as planned for the event, so that he knew they would go to someone who would genuinely appreciate them and enjoy them as originally planned.
After discussion with Yuskuke Homma from ADA, this was a suitable solution. Homma asked if I would set them up and document the story, so they were not wasted.
The scapes in question were a 90P scape, a DOOA terra 30 scape, and the first one I plan to set up, a DOOA aqua 30 scape.
The DOOA aqua 30 scape I initially planned to put in a 30cm cube.. as this is all I had. I had already put the hardscape into a cube. But ultimately I decided it was only right to set it up exactly as Homma had planned the scape so I've purchased (yet to pick up) a DOOA aqua 30 system to replace the cube.
Once I collect this I'll he transferring the hardscape and then planting it up. All being well this will be in the next few weeks and I will update in due course!![20240311_193720.jpg 20240311_193720.jpg](https://www.ukaps.org/forum/data/attachments/220/220437-ac925bc7e16087cbd0dc7ab7a9aa4fff.jpg?hash=rJJbx-Fgh8)
I've got a small story time I wanted to share with you all who may not be on Instagram or follow me on Instagram.
Some of you may remember that in 2020, ADA were due to host a seminar at Kew gardens, showcasing aquascaping at a private event. Now unfortunately, as we all know, this was the year of the dreaded covid and like most things was cancelled.
Everything however was set to go for this event, scapes and equipment had been shipped from Japan, even the plants were sat waiting to go. Covid hit, and it was all put a stop to.
The kew gardens representative if you like and host for this event was a very talented scaper called Jean Michael Touche.
I was fortunate enough to meet Jean by chance on Instagram. He posted a photo of a waterfall in 2021 that was local to me, I commented and we got chatting from there. He explained how he used to live in London and work at Kew, but decided to move up north and out of the city to a quieter life.
He told me about the planned event at Kew and how he came to know the incredible scapers at ADA. I was fascinated by the stories and also the great effort and detail that went into an ADA led event.
![20200203_kew_001.jpg 20200203_kew_001.jpg](https://www.ukaps.org/forum/data/attachments/220/220436-24bf576d2a0173989632f8373c9bce58.jpg?hash=JL9XbSoBc5)
Over the past few years we became great friends, he was kind enough to teach a newbie such as myself many of the techniques that were taught to him by the guys at ADA which were invaluable in my scaling journey upto now.
Fast forward to the beginning of this year, Jean expressed how he wanted to move back home to France, to be with his family. This is when he asked me to help him move on his collection of ADA he had amassed over the years. Part of this collection were some of the planned scapes from the ADA seminar.
There was 3 scapes, along with the meticulous paperwork showing the hardscape from different angles aswell as planting guides etc. He didn't want to sell these, but also decided he wanted to take a hiatus from aquascaping when he returned home so was in a conundrum.
I asked him if maybe he would be willing to let them go to me and I would set them up as planned for the event, so that he knew they would go to someone who would genuinely appreciate them and enjoy them as originally planned.
After discussion with Yuskuke Homma from ADA, this was a suitable solution. Homma asked if I would set them up and document the story, so they were not wasted.
The scapes in question were a 90P scape, a DOOA terra 30 scape, and the first one I plan to set up, a DOOA aqua 30 scape.
The DOOA aqua 30 scape I initially planned to put in a 30cm cube.. as this is all I had. I had already put the hardscape into a cube. But ultimately I decided it was only right to set it up exactly as Homma had planned the scape so I've purchased (yet to pick up) a DOOA aqua 30 system to replace the cube.
Once I collect this I'll he transferring the hardscape and then planting it up. All being well this will be in the next few weeks and I will update in due course!
![20240311_193720.jpg 20240311_193720.jpg](https://www.ukaps.org/forum/data/attachments/220/220437-ac925bc7e16087cbd0dc7ab7a9aa4fff.jpg?hash=rJJbx-Fgh8)