Inspiration

So what is it that we garden designers do all day?  There are many schools of thought about what we do and often they include something about being outside a lot.  The reality of my life as a garden designer is that I am only “outside” when I am either on site making a planned visit during the construction phase of the project or when I am planting up a garden after the hard landscaping has been finished.

My blog of course keeps you relatively up to date with my existing projects, but my accounts of these don’t always include some of the thought processes and research that goes on behind the scenes. There are other things that take up my time too so I thought you might be interested to learn a bit more about my life as a garden designer from month to month.

Even though we’re almost half way through February already I thought there was really no better place to start than January which, now that I look back at it, had some real highlights…

A range of garden accessories – I am working with English Garden Joinery at the moment to help them to develop a range of furniture and garden accessories.  They have mocked up a few designs and we are now working to develop them further.  I’d love to have a range of furniture for each of the colour seasons so that we have something to offer all tastes and styles.

Focus & Flourish workshop – In January I attended a Focus and Flourish workshop with Fiona Humberstone and Elizabeth Cairns at Flourish Studios, a brilliant day to help me to get focussed on the year ahead.  When you run your own business, it’s really important to take some time out every now and again to reflect and do some planning.

A Day at the Sir Harold Hiller Gardens – You’ll probably remember the blog post I wrote about my visit here and it was the highlight of the month for me because I was able to spend the day with another garden designer (always a good source of design inspiration) and visit a great winter garden on a perfect crisp, clear, winter day.  It’s so important to get out there and visit gardens.  These visits don’t only provide opportunities for blog posts, but they also provide design inspiration and learning opportunities.

Site Visits and Surveys – In January I carried out 2 surveys and also made a site visit to my project in London.  I always pop back and visit projects a couple of months after the planting has been completed so that I can check that everything looks ok and to touch base with the client who often has questions to ask.

SGD Speaker Evening – I coordinate the local Society of Garden Designers’ Esher Cluster Group, a monthly get-together of members of the society where we cover various design topics – a network of garden designers.  We also arrange trips out to gardens and nurseries etc.  In January, Scott Hadley of SH Landscapes came to speak to us about garden electrics.  This was a really brilliant evening that went into detail about fittings and installation…really important stuff to know when designing any of these garden elements.  The cluster group is a great source of information and brilliant for networking with other garden designers who have different levels of experience.  It also helps to keep up with current construction methods and use of materials.

I spent a wonderful day on Friday with a garden designer friend who, like me, wanted to practice her photography in a garden with winter interest.  We chose the Sir Harold Hillier Garden in Romsey primarily for its winter garden but also for its amazing collection of trees.  The weather was on our side too, bright and cold and perfect for bringing the winter stems and tree bark to life. Read more

I often find design inspiration when I’m out and about.  Noticing hard landscaping elements is definitely an occupational hazard and normally at some point when I’m away on holiday there’ll be something I just have to take a picture of for future reference. Read more

It’s been almost 2 months since I last visited Loseley Park so the changes to the garden were really quite dramatic when I popped in there yesterday.  Many of the perennials were just coming to the end of flowering but amazingly, just a day before the garden is closing to the public, there was still something to take photographs of.  Read more

I have recently returned from 2 wonderful weeks on the Island of Kefallinia in Greece.  We stayed in a villa in the mountains overlooking the sea and although I feel now that it’s almost becoming a distant memory, I wanted to share with you the pictures I took of some local gardens.  Despite the dry hot weather that generally presents itself from May to end September, some islanders really made an effort. Read more

I made my August visit to Loseley Park Garden last week and, as usual, it didn’t disappoint.  Just 4 weeks since my July visit, I was surprised once again to see how much it has changed. Read more

A week or so ago I went to Savill Garden with Rona Wheeldon of Flowerona to see the new Rose Garden which was designed by Andrew Wilson and opened for the first time earlier this year.  Because of the challenging weather conditions we’ve had this year, the hot dry spring and the warm wet spell over the last month, unfortunately the roses were past their best – if we’d managed to get there a month ago, I think we would have seen a much more impressive display. Read more

My visit to Loseley Park Garden was a little later than anticipated this month, but it certainly made for a more dramatic change than I had been expecting.  It has been 6 weeks since my last visit to the garden, which doesn’t sound long, but in the world of perennial planting it can make a huge difference to the overall look and feel of a space. Read more

When I was recently invited to Loseley Park for a special tour I met Rebecca Younger, Features Editor for the Surrey Advertiser.  We got talking about the Chelsea Flower Show and she asked me if I would like to contribute to the next House and Garden Supplement with my views about Chelsea and how the readers might be able to recreate some of the design ideas in their own gardens. Read more

I spent last week in Brittany with my partner, Phil, getting the family house ready for rental over the next few weeks of the Summer.  We were very fortunate to be able to see one of the stages of the Tour de France which went through the local town, Mur de Bretagne….but that’s another story for another time, and not very garden design related! Read more