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design of private gardens

Garden design has been the backbone of my work for over twenty years. Here I have experimented with design and psychology, pushed boundaries on water, biofiltration and sustainability, fine tuned the selection of plants and planting styles (running my own small nursery for many years). Most of these gardens I built myself, learning hands-on the consequences of all design decisions, for good or bad! Despite being busy in many other directions, I still run a small construction service for gardens local to me. Other work will be put out to contract and supervised.

All garden elements must be sustainable, for there is no benefit in beautifying one space at the expense of another, an ethic I hope all my clients share. Gardens have a long way to go in becoming truly sustainable places and much of that is connected to lifestyle decisions that we all are having to take. Gardens can play a major role in reducing our carbon footprint, not least by being beautiful spaces which we use more, consequently traveling less for our leisure.

All the aspects discussed in the “elements” section of this site apply to private gardens, some of the more obvious aspects of sustainability are:

Whilst sustainability gives us a new set of criteria to work with, this doesn't mean sacrifices in terms of design or quality! New expectations, methods and materials give rise to something new, exciting and holistic in it's thinking, execution and its use. Feeling secure in a world of growing environmental insecurity is perhaps the biggest bonus of all.