Best Cad Software For Garden Designers
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Producing immersive designs with a thoughtful emphasis on seasonality and sustainability, Alasdair works in city locations in addition to rural sites. His signature projects combine sweeping borders of perennials and grasses with a wild-spirited palette of native multi-stems.
With a reputation for work on expansive private estates, Arne is currently busy with projects as geographically and stylist-ically diverse as a semi-arid Mexican garden and a historic garden in Upstate New York. A beautiful private garden in Tuscany that he designed is featured in this issue.
balstonagius.co.uk Now under the energetic lead-ership of Marie-Louise Agius, Balston Agius is a sought-after design studio with more than 40 years of experience in land-scape design. The practice is known for its high-end, bespoke designs for private gardens and estates, as well as public spaces.
Chris has worked in the horticulture industry for more than 35 years, and won 15 Chelsea gold medals. Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, he creates formally structured outdoor spaces that are filled with a rich palette of plants that blend with the landscape.
Cleve believes in designing gardens that have as little impact on the environment as possible. Working in the UK only, he connects with clients who want to manage their gardens in a sustainable way, creating biodiverse spaces in which wildlife can flourish.
Working from offices located in both London and Florence, Tommaso del Buono and Paul Gazerwitz produce elegant gardens with clean lines that are softened by rich planting. Current projects range from London and Kent to Greece.
While she has a reputation for nature-led urban gardens, in recent years Jane has also worked in rural locations from Cornwall to Scotland, where she has focused on enriching the ecology of each site.
For almost 30 years, Jinny has created gardens all over the world, with an emphasis on conservation as well as the therapeutic power of plants. Last year, as well as juggling multiple design projects, she published her second book, What Makes a Garden*, and she is launching a range of outdoor paints with Mylands.
A graduate of the Inchbald School of Design, Jonathan worked with Arne Maynard before setting out on his own. Three award-winning Chelsea gardens raised his profile and he now designs accomplished spaces that combine classical and modern elements.
Frequently using artworks and sculpture to bring spaces to life, Jo creates gardens that combine architectural excellence with romantic planting. Current projects include the regeneration of the walled gardens at Water Lane in Kent and a rooftop garden in Rome.
Combining imaginative hard landscaping and naturalistic plants, Matthew Childs makes bold gardens. After a Chelsea debut a decade ago, he is back this year with a design for the Terrence Higgins Trust.
With a client list that currently includes a private equestrian facility and several Michelin-starred restaurants, as well as residential properties ranging in scale from a 20-acre estate to an urban courtyard, Matt Keightley creates sleek, con-temporary garden designs. These are then executed to an exceptionally high standard by his landscaping team.
Emma Mazzullo and Libby Russell create gardens with sustainability and manage-able maintenance at their core. Recent projects have included the restoration of a historic garden in Somerset and a Hampshire newbuild.
Working across the south east of England and internationally, Gavin McWilliam and his team produce contemporary gardens with detailed construction and creative planting. Recent projects include a five-acre landscape in Hampshire and a family garden in London.
Pip Morrison has a particular interest in historic gardens and in the settings of listed buildings, ranging from small urban plots to large master plans for rural estates. His newly designed garden around Auckland Castle, in County Durham, will be opening to the public this year.
Having won more Chelsea gold medals than any other garden designer, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Garden Designers, and recognition as an RHS Iconic Horticultural Hero, Sarah has an exceptional track record. Projects include public and private spaces worldwide.
At Chelsea last year, Sarah Price created an eye-catching garden inspired by the work of artist Cedric Morris, which demonstrated her own painterly aesthetic. She brings the same skill to her private commissions, currently including several historic properties.
With offices in London and in Utrecht, Stefano combines strong structure with sensitive hardscaping and rich planting. His family are nursery people, and he grew up with a love of plants that underlies his work.
George Cullis is a landscape architect working mostly in the south of England, where he creates calm spaces on a range of scales. He is experienced at working in conservation areas and is currently developing several city gardens attached to listed properties, in addition to a four-acre project in Wiltshire.
Tim was at the vanguard of the new perennial planting movement in the 1990s and went on to work in the Mediterranean. These two influences give a unique character to all of his designs. His studio includes a multidisciplinary team that works on conservation and planning, as well as garden projects in the UK and abroad.
Rapidly rising star Tom has produced thought-provoking show gardens and nurturing outdoor spaces for private and commercial clients, in the UK and as far afield as Korea. His work is underpinned by an ecological impulse to create spaces that support wildlife and promote biodiversity.
Alongside his team of 19 land-scape architects and designers and one overseas consultant, Tom works on projects in the UK and further afield. From small private gardens to large public parks, his landscapes are rich and multi-layered, and blend a romantic naturalism with clean modernity.
With advisory roles at The Crown Estate and at Historic Royal Palaces, Todd works on traditional properties, but also enjoys such eccentric collaborations as his recent design for the sculpture garden of a gallery on Cork Street, W1.
In my heart of hearts, I knew I wanted to work outside and for myself, so after leaving my role as an interior design assistant at Colefax and Fowler back in the nineties, I took many short courses at the English Gardening School and then went onto to complete the year-long Plants and Plantsmanship course. I toiled away for years learning my craft as I raised our four children. When they were older and I felt I finally had an undiluted amount of time to commit, I went on to do the year-long diploma course in Garden Design at the London College of Garden Design. Both of the courses I took were exceptionally inspiring and beautifully run. I found them difficult but so transformative and fulfilling.
For most of my twenties, I worked as a freelance fashion and travel journalist and loved it, but always felt like something was missing and I wanted to do something more creative. I've always felt a real need to be outside in nature and had thought gardening was something I'd get into in old age - but suddenly thought, why wait? I studied at the brilliant London College of Garden Design at Kew, which taught me so much. I set up my own practice fresh out of college which was a baptism of fire but it has really paid off.
Even some of my best friends still don't understand what I do - most of them think I spend my days up to my elbows in soil. Actually, I don't do any gardening for clients and I think this is a common misconception about garden designers versus gardeners. My job is largely desk-based, but I do enjoy working on site and designing en plein air with a pencil and a piece of paper. It's so important to spend time in the landscape you're working with and it means I fulfil my need to be outdoors - and often in the countryside - which is glorious! Working as a garden designer is challenging but very rewarding - you can't control much and that's part of the fun.
It's an amazing and complex time to be a landscape designer, while as a society we are finally realising how separated from nature we've become. I'm incredibly inspired by rewilding, the regenerative agriculture movement, and learning from some of the amazing scientists, farmers and land managers working in these areas. I think that we all have an incredible opportunity to reimagine how we connect with and understand the natural world; starting in our own gardens.
Having said that, garden design is an incredibly rewarding career. You just need to go into it with an open mind and also realise that becoming a garden designer goes way beyond putting nice planting combinations together, there is a whole technical side to the job that is just as important.
"I charge extra for marriage counselling" I quipped as husband and wife gave me two contradictory lists of 'must have's' for their new garden. We were all laughing but it's not the first time that I have played referee when meeting design clients.
Have you considered hiring a designer but wondered how much it would cost, if you really needed one and how the whole design process works? Let me take some of the mystery out of it for you and explain how I do things as well as typical variants.
Typically a designer will be a trained horticulturist with extensive hands-on plant knowledge, be an artistic visionary and see exciting possibilities where homeowners only see problems. Designers will also have demonstrable design skills that marry function and form. We see in 3-dimensions, 4-seasons, and 360 degrees. We understand scale, proportion, balance. We see the big picture.
There are no qualifications legally required for someone to refer to themselves as a designer although many like myself have chosen to take a series of professional certifications in horticulture, have taken design and construction courses and are members of professional landscape design related organizations at a state or national level.
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