about Mark Laurence, MSGD


mark laurence

I am known principally for my work with water and issues of sustainability. Water has always been popular in gardens but sustainability issues are new on the horizon. I have been designing and implementing ecologically benign methods of landscaping for at least fifteen years, long before such things were fashionable. Indeed, often I have had to put in such elements without the clients even knowing they were there - a sort of green slight of hand, as it were. Now we are waking up to the realities and needs for sustainable principles to be at the very heart of all aspects of our lives and I am pleased to be at the forefront of this new awareness.

I am a registered member of the Society of Garden Designers (see links page) and work in the UK, Europe and the USA (and just about anywhere else!). I pay carbon taxes on my travels!

I first started my landscape career in the late 1970's, working for Anthony Archer-Wills, an Internationally renowned water garden specialist. What started as a temporary job, soon had me hooked and I spent several happy years working with plants, wading in ponds and building waterfalls. I have never been the same since!

After that, I worked for a number of firms, but mostly for myself as a landscaper and later, as an arboriculturalist, after working for some time with a skilled tree surgeon.

In 1986 I took the plunge and set myself up as a landscape designer. In those days there were only three of us advertising in the back of the RHS journal and I soon found myself working from Devon to Kent, to South Wales.

I have continued in this vein ever since, sometimes running a design-build practice. I mostly now work in a design only context but still contract the occasional project that particularly excites me (usually larger water gardens).

Also until recently I ran a small nursery, producing the plants I love and use. I don't grow plants any more except to trial in my garden. You can see that I'm a hands-on kind of guy and there's not much I haven't tackled over the years. I am currently experimenting with greywater filtration and vertical biomembranes for buildings.