Summer lives on, so long as there is a festival to go to. The first ever Yeo Valley Organic Garden Festival looks as if it could be a jewel for anyone wanting to ease themselves into autumn with some nature-inspired talks and discussions by some of Britain’s gardening luminaries, demonstrations by local growers, nurseries and horticultural experts, and a spot of shopping from organic, sustainable and artisan suppliers. Among the speakers discoursing on topics from biodiversity, resilient plants and soil health, to people and pollinators, and growing the next generation of gardeners, will be Tom Massey MSGLD, Jon Davies and Steve Williams, Jean Vernon, Heather Whitney, Richard Claxton, and Nicola Hope.
Yeo Valley Organic Garden Festival, 18 to 20 September 2025; tickets must be booked in advance; yvogardenfestival.co.uk
Hello,
In the May 2025 issue of the Journal, John Wyer FSGLD wrote about how more public-realm developers are inviting garden designers to do the planting for their sites – ‘Because landscape architects don’t know anything about planting design,’ he had been told. John concluded that column with an exhortation to garden designers to seek out the many schemes, small places and street corners where, he wrote, ‘the involvement of a garden designer can make a difference...often cheaply and sustainably.’
In this issue, we hear from designers who have done just that, including pre-registered SGLD members Emily Crowley-Wroe, who has designed a community garden on a junction in Newport (page 20), and Maeve Polkinhorn, whose Haven planting is a hit at the Southbank Centre (page 44).
Joe Perkins MSGLD has created an experimental Garden for the Future within the heritage landscape of Sheffield Park (page 30) and Paul Gazerwitz an eco-habitat on a hillside in north London (page 50).
Arabella St John Parker EDITOR | gdj@jamespembrokemedia.co.uk
18 20 30
Editor: Arabella St John Parker
Senior Editor: Lizzie Hufton Publisher: James Houston
Copyright notice and disclaimer: Garden Design Journal is published 10 times per year by the Society of
37 42
Garden + Landscape Designers (SGLD). All material is copyright of the SGLD and/or named contributors and may not be reproduced in any form without written permission. While all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the contents of this publication, the publishers do not accept responsibility for any errors or omissions. The views expressed in the Journal are not necessarily those of the SGLD or James Pembroke Media and publication of an advertisement or article does not necessarily mean the SGLD endorses those products, materials or techniques.
Marcus
Hine,
CONTENTS
UP FRONT
03 Look Around: head to Yeo Valley for a festival of organic gardening
07 Newsprint: industry news, awards and events
SHOWCASE
18 SGLD Promotion: all aboard for the SGLD Symposium’s green spaces tour in Sheffield
20 UK Design: pre-registered SGLD member Emily Crowley-Wroe rises to the challenge of designing a community garden for a junction in Newport
26 Planting: how to create habitats that will support the Lepidoptera’s entire life cycle
30 UK Design II: designing a Garden for the Future, where horticultural science and high public footfall can sit happily within a heritage landscape
37 Materials: why should furniture, sculpture and accessories be part of the garden design process?
REGULARS
14 Member Project: Lee Bestall MSGLD’s design for a Nordic spa garden in south Yorkshire
17 Point of View: John Wyer FSGLD considers the benefits of being certified as a B Corp
41 Meet the Council, part III: lead for Continuing Professional Development
42 SGLD Updates: post RHS Chelsea 2025 report; SGLD Model Specification release; eye-catching pocket planting schemes
49 Round Up: the best garden books
50 Point of Interest: creating an eco-habitat in Highgate, London
Join us today: become a member of the SOCIETY OF GARDEN + LANDSCAPE DESIGNERS
Garden Design Journal is the journal of the Society of Garden + Landscape Designers (SGLD), the professional association for garden and landscape designers. The Society has been championing excellence in garden design for more than 40 years and includes both individual designers and design practices among its growing membership. They are all competent, creative professionals, accredited by the
SGLD and working to its Code of Conduct, on a wide range of projects around the globe.
CATEGORIES OF MEMBERSHIP
COVER Visual, Magda Pelka/The Planting Studio, garden design by Emily Crowley-Wroe (see page 20). Issue 270/£7 ISSN: 1356-6458
Student member Open to students currently attending a suitable course – see sgld.org.uk for details.
Pre-registered graduate For those who have recently obtained their garden design qualification and who wish to join the Pathway to Registered Membership.
Pre-registered member Open to all professional garden designers who aspire to Registered Membership.
LETTER FROM COUNCIL
Almost any guide to corporate strategy will put effective communication high on the list of factors for success. Identifying target audiences, developing consistent messages, and using the right channels are all basic tenets of any communications strategy, including that for the SGLD. Communication is nothing without engagement, however, which should be a two-way process. So, over the last couple of years, the SGLD has been working on increasing internal and external engagement. The name and branding of the Society has been refreshed, a new website launched, its Fake Grass campaign continually promoted, and changes made to the ways in which the SGLD is represented at public events such as the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
MORE RESOURCES HAVE BEEN ALLOCATED TO SUPPORT EDUCATION.
At the same time, more resources have been allocated to support education, with regular visits to colleges and events organised specifically for students. The Society’s network of Cluster Groups is being revitalised to include more continuing professional development (CPD) and site visits to Affiliated Business Partners (ABPs). The entire CPD programme is being re-invigorated (see page 41) in response to membership feedback and the Society has also listened to members’ opinions about its mainstream events. This has begun with the transformation of its one-day conferences into a two-day symposium, being held on 17 and 18 October this year, in Sheffield. The new format includes site visits and opportunities to socialise as well as a world-class line-up of speakers (see page 18).
Of course, there is always room for improvement and to go further, we need more input from our members. There are plenty of opportunities to make your voice heard, so please help us to keep making progress.
Julianne Fernandez, pre-registered SGLD member SGLD COUNCIL LEAD FOR COMMUNICATIONS
Applicants need to provide evidence of competence in garden design either by qualification or review, plus evidence of professional indemnity insurance. This category now includes submission for accreditation as an inclusive fee – there are no additional charges.
Registered member The status awarded to professional garden designers who have been assessed and approved by the SGLD Accreditation Panel. MSGLD (Member of the Society of Garden + Landscape Designers) or FSGLD (Fellow of the Society of Garden + Landscape Designers) can be used after their name and they are profiled and
promoted on the SGLD website.
Affiliated business partnerships Open to landscape professional suppliers who foster and promote sustainable and environmentally friendly garden design, using responsible techniques and practices.
Registered practice A category for Registered Members who would also like to advertise their practice alongside their MSGLD/FSGLD status.
You can also join the Society as a Friend.
To find out more, visit the SGLD website: sgld.org.uk
For
NEWS PRINT
ALL THAT’S NEW IN THE WORLD OF GARDEN DESIGN COMPILED BY ZIA ALLAWAY
SGLD MEMBERS WIN KEY PRIZES AT PRO LANDSCAPER PROJECT AWARDS
Members of the Society of Garden + Landscape Designers (SGLD) have led the field in all the design categories at this year’s Pro Landscaper Project Awards, which celebrate landscaping projects up to a value of £250,000.
A Contemporary Exotic Garden, designed by pre-registered SGLD member Rose Stockley, of Stockley Garden Design, and inspired by her clients’ travels to Vietnam and Cambodia, won the Design under £50,000 award.
Rosemary Coldstream MSGLD, meanwhile, secured the Design £50,000 to £100,000 category with her Tranquil Garden design for an awkward triangular plot that she divided into several distinct spaces for dining, relaxation and unwinding, which the judges said ‘demonstrated the value of professional garden design’.
The award for Design £100,000 to £250,000 was won by Maïtanne Hunt MSGLD, for her Eaton Square Terrace project, which the judges called a ‘fabulous transformation of a tricky space’. The multifunctional green-roof garden features planters packed with trees and perennials, a kitchen-cum-bar area, and seating areas from which to enjoy the spectacular city views.
GRDN Landscape + Garden Design, which is led by pre-registered SGLD member Paul Duffy, received the award for the Design and Build under £50,000 category, for a small city garden in east London. The company also won the Planting Design under £25,000 award for another small garden in London SW4, which was praised by the judges for its cohesively layered planting scheme featuring trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants that create a journey through a series of interconnected spaces.
Pre-registered SGLD member Tom Howard, of Tom Howard Garden Design & Landscaping, also won two awards: the Design and Build £50,000 to £100,000 category for his Lingfield Road project comprising a basement-level courtyard garden with upper level lawn and borders; and the Design and Build £100,000 to £250,000 category for Mountfield House, a large family garden with an outdoor kitchen and seating area beneath a Douglas fir pergola, and play spaces for the children.
Pre-registered SGLD member Sonja Kalkschmidt, of Kalkschmidt Landscape & Garden Design, won both the Special Feature under £50,000 and Temporary Installation under £50,000 categories for her RHS Gold-medal winning show garden Sanctum, which she created for the 2024 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The exhibit, which included planters made from black-charred Abodo wood, was described by the judges as an ‘exquisitely executed design that maximises every centimetre of the space to deliver a beautifully immersive experience’.
The award for best Community Green Space under £250,000 was presented to Sam Proctor MSGLD, of Chiltern Garden Design, for The Water Saving Garden, which was also originally designed for RHS Chelsea 2024 and then relocated to its permanent home at the Iver Environment Centre in the Colne Valley.
From top: Sanctum by pre-registered SGLD member Sonja Kalkschmidt; Mountfield House by pre-registered SGLD member Tom Howard; Tranquil Garden by Rosemary Coldstream MSGLD; Small City Garden in E1 by pre-registered SGLD member Paul Duffy.
The best Sustainable Garden under £50,000 was won by the Meanwhile Garden in Colchester, designed by pre-registered SGLD member Darryl Moore. Described by Darryl as ‘reversible’, the design is built on a brownfield site owned by Essex County Council thanks to a licence acquired by Beth Chatto’s Plants and Gardens to create a temporary design there on the understanding that the site be returned to the council should it have another use for it, hence the garden’s name. For a full list of winners, visit prolandscapermagazine.com –‘Award winners 2025’
A ‘fabulous transformation of a tricky space’: Maïtanne Hunt MSGLD’s award-winning Eaton Square project.
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEW BAREROOT HEDGING AND FORESTRY CATALOGUE
Commercial nursery Wyevale Nurseries has launched a new bareroot hedging and forestry catalogue featuring details of the varieties it grows and the benefits of using them. The guide is free and available to download. wyevalenurseries.co.uk
DOUBLE WIN FOR FRANK P MATTHEWS
Tree nursery Frank P Matthews has won Best in Category and Best in Show for its Prunus ‘Fugenzo’ JAPANESE LANTERN at the HTA National Plant Show 2025. First discovered in Sumaura Park in Kobe, Japan, the winning tree is similar to the original ‘Fugenzo’, but features double-frilled flowers with white, pink, and green petals that deepen in colour as they age. The nursery also won the Visitor Vote, sponsored by Floramedia. frankpmatthews.com
RECORD-BREAKING WEATHER NOW STANDARD
Record-breaking temperature and rainfall extremes are becoming the ‘new normal’, the Met Office has stated in its annual report, published by Wiley in the Royal Meteorological Society’s International Journal of Climatology. The report shows that the last three years have all placed in the top five hottest on record, a trend that is predicted to continue as the climate changes. metoffice.gov.uk
THREATENED PLANT OF THE YEAR
A rare Delphinium elatum ‘Alice Artindale’, grown at Home Farm Plants in Hertfordshire, is Plant Heritage’s winner of the Threatened Plant of the Year 2025 competition. The spectacular delphinium was bred by William Artindale and Son in 1936 and named after William’s daughter-in-law. Earning an Award of Merit in 1936 and in 1945, its azure-blue and mauve double flowers boast an unusual layer of sepals, but it has become rare because it is difficult to propagate. plantheritage.org.uk
MEDALS SUCCESS FOR SGLD MEMBERS AT RHS WENTWORTH WOODHOUSE
SGLD members have triumphed at the RHS Flower Show Wentworth Woodhouse, held in Yorkshire for the first time
SGLD Student member Luke Coleman was named RHS Young Designer of the Year 2025 for his Drakkar’s Drift garden, which also won a Gold, the People’s Choice Best Young Designer Garden, and Best Construction Award for his contractors, Ampersand.
As reported in the August/ September 2025 issue (page 39) of
Garden Design Journal, Lee Bestall MSGLD and his team also took home a hat trick of medals (a Gold, the People’s Choice Best Show Garden, and the Environmental Innovation Award) for their Hazelwood Barn – Reimagined by Bestall & Co, and Phil Hirst MSGLD and pre-registered SGLD member Jo Charlton’s Greenfingers Charity Together show garden was awarded with a Silver-Gilt.
In the Long Borders competition, SGLD Student Sebastian Stall topped
MASSEY & JE AHN RHS CHELSEA SHOW GARDENS TO GO NORTH
Permanent locations in Manchester have been secured for the two Gold-medal-winning show gardens created by Tom Massey MSGLD and non-member Je Ahn for their sponsors at the RHS Chelsea Flower Shows in 2024 and 2025.
The designers’ WaterAid Garden, for RHS Chelsea 2024, is to be included in the next phase of the sky park that is being created on the Grade II-listed Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester’s city centre. A £2.75m award from the National Highways Historical Railways Estate, £100,000 from Manchester City Council, £100,000 pledged by Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and a grant of £150,000 from the Railway Heritage Trust will all help to fund the expansion work, which will include putting in winding paths through the WaterAid Garden.
Meanwhile, next year, the design duo’s Avanade Intelligent Garden, which was shown at RHS Chelsea this year, will be re-built within Manchester’s newest public green space, Mayfield Park. tommassey.co.uk
the awards table with a Gold, Best Long Border and People’s Choice Best Long Border for his design, Habitat Mosaic. Silver-Gilt medals were awarded to two pre-registered SGLD members: Camilla Grayley, for her York Gin Botanical Border, and Skye Bond, for The Calm at the Centre. SGLD Student member Deborah Strachan and non-member Alison Walker won Silver for their Vertigrow: Symbiotic Flow border. On the Main Stage at the Show, Melissa Morton MSGLD delivered a talk titled To see or be seen: Creating privacy in a garden, using case studies to inspire visitors with ideas for creating a private sanctuary.
86 PER CENT OF PLANNING APPLICATIONS ‘MIS-USING’ BNG EXEMPTIONS
In the wake of the government’s proposal to ease biodiversity net gain (BNG) rules for small sites (up to nine homes), a new BNG Industry Report: July 2025, published by environmental economics consultancy Eftec, has revealed that 86 per cent of approved planning applications have already claimed BNG exemptions in the legislation’s inaugural year.
In the light of this research and also a study by the Royal Town Planning Institute and the University of Sheffield’s planning school (reported in the August/ September 2025 issue of Garden Design Journal, page 8), which has found that almost half of the ecological features in planning proposals are missing from the participating housing developments, environmental groups are calling for loopholes in the law to be closed and for it to be more strictly enforced. eftec.co.uk/news
Photographs, (Luke Coleman)
RHS/Neil Hepworth; (Camilla Grayley)
RHS/Josh Kemp-Smith; (BNG)
Jeffrey Hamilton/Unsplash →
At RHS Wentworth Woodhouse, (left to right) SGLD Student member Luke Coleman’s garden and pre-registered SGLD member Camilla Grayley’s border.
MENTAL HEALTH CHARITY LAUNCHES NEW TREE NURSERY
A Cumbrian-based horticultural mental health charity has opened Treebay, a native tree nursery to address an undersupply of native tree species for conservation and rewilding projects across Britain.
The initiative, set up by Growing Well, which uses horticulture to aid mental health recovery and champions the need for 100 per cent homegrown produce to underpin sustainability and improve the health of the landscape and the population, will cultivate up to 20,000 native broadleaf trees each year, including alder, hornbeam, hazel, juniper, whitebeam, crab apple, bird cherry, dog rose, and guelder rose, which will be sold as whips.
The nursery will be based at the charity’s Tebay Services site on the M6, near Shap, and its volunteers will be involved in all stages of the nursery work, from seed collection to final planting. All the proceeds will be reinvested into the charity’s social enterprise services. growingwell.co.uk
NEW
JOHN HILLIER, 1935–2025
Hillier Nurseries and Garden Centres has announced the death of John Hillier, plantsman, devoted family man, and much-loved figure in the horticultural world.
‘John played a central role in the legacy of the Hillier business and made an extraordinary contribution to horticulture over many decades,’ a spokesperson for Hillier said. ‘He leaves behind a legacy rooted in knowledge, kindness, and horticultural excellence. He will be profoundly missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing or working with him.’
As well as leading Hillier alongside his brother Robert, balancing the commercial needs of the family business with his love of plants, John was an active member of many Royal Horticultural Society committees, helped to judge the Wisley Trial, and was a regular RHS Shows judge. He advocated for the RHS Award of Garden Merit and served as President of Plant Heritage Hampshire, and he worked closely with Roy Lancaster on later editions of the Hillier Manual of Trees and Shrubs
In 1996, John was awarded the RHS Victoria Medal of Honour. He retired from the Hillier board in 2018, at the age of 83. hillier.co.uk
WILDING GARDENS CONFERENCE LAUNCHED
A new conference that aims to show delegates how everyday landscapes can be transformed into powerful tools for biodiversity, climate resilience, and ecological recovery has been set up by Wilding Gardens, a not-for-
profit community interest company (CIC) established by Knepp’s Charlie Burrows, Isabella Tree (both pictured left), and Charlie Harpur; garden and landscape designers Lulu Urquhart, pre-registered SGLD member Adam Hunt, and Tom Stuart-Smith OBE FSGLD; and plantsman James Hitchmough.
The inaugural two-day event, which is being run in partnership with the Planning, Property and Environmental Department at the University of Manchester and is aimed at professional garden designers and the wider gardens community, will take place in January 2026, at the University. Speakers from a wide range of disciplines will explore ways in which gardens can lead to global change; food webs and habitats; wilding grey spaces; and designing for drought, flood, and future resilience. wildinggardens.co.uk
BALI CHALK FUND NAMES STUDENT OF THE YEAR AWARDS
The British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) Chalk Fund, which provides funding for developing skills across the industry, has announced its Top Student of the Year awards. In the garden design category, the winners were Mia Roberts (SRUC) and SGLD Student member Chloë Webster (KLC School of Design). The landscape and horticulture prizes were awarded to Archie Matthews (Myerscough College); Patricia Berakova (SRUC); Alfie Grimes (Merrist Wood College); Harry Bulmer (Merrist Wood College); Kieran Byrne (Wiltshire College); Adesola Oyeusi (ARU Writtle College); and SGLD Student member Robbie Avey (KLC School of Design). bali.org.uk
ECOLOGY AWARD FOR SOIL HEALTH
RESEARCH
The Royal Parks charity has been awarded the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM)’s Climate and Nature Action 2030 Award for its research into the relationship between plant diversity and soil health. The study has found that grassland areas with a diversity of plant species have healthier soils that store more carbon, underscoring the potential for urban grasslands to act as significant carbon sinks and help mitigate climate change. royalparks.org.uk
POLLINATORS WIN NEW CHAMPIONS
Blenheim Palace and Rowse Honey have been named Bees’ Needs Champions for their joint commitment to protecting pollinators and enhancing biodiversity. The award, hosted by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, aims to raise awareness of the importance of bees and other pollinators. Blenheim Palace first joined forces with Rowse Honey in 2022 and together, they have transformed the Palace’s Oxfordshire estate into a pollinator haven. blenheimpalace.com
← John Hillier, who, during his long association with the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, led Hillier’s award-winning exhibits, which achieved 74 consecutive RHS Gold medals.
The Treebay nursery will cultivate up to 20,000 native broadleaf trees each year.
ASH TREES ARE FIGHTING BACK
Scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Queen Mary University of London have found that young ash trees are fast evolving resistance to the fatal fungal disease, ash dieback.
The team’s research offers a glimmer of hope for one of Britain’s most iconic trees, up to 85 per cent of which have been lost to the disease in some areas of Britain and Europe.
Researchers found the clearest evidence yet of polygenic evolution, a theory first proposed over 100 years ago, where rapid genetic changes in young trees show resistance to the disease.
The saplings studied had to push through leaf litter infested with the fungus spores, which meant that all would have been infected, and many would have died early on, while only those with some resistance would have survived and grown to form part of the study’s sample. kew.org
A new wetland habitat park in Crewe, designed by CW Studio, will be a key part of Weston M6, a new 96-acre landscape masterplan by Muse Developments.
The wetland will be a central feature of the Green Loop, a path that will run around a wider masterplan that will link a public right of way and a new woodland, which is also being created by pre-registered SGLD member Carolyn Willitts and CW Studio.
The project will be fully integrated into the site-wide SuDS strategy, and will
CALL FOR ENTRIES TO BELVOIR 2026 BORDERS COMPETITION
The Borders competition at the 2026 edition of the Belvoir Flower & Garden Show is now open for entries. At this year’s Show, there were three worthy winners of the Countryside Borders competition. Non-SGLD member Carina Park (pictured) secured the Duchess of Rutland Trophy for Best in Show, while non-member Will Pateman and SGLD Friend Elodie Pradon each received the People’s Choice Awards. To enter the 2026 competition, contact Belvoir’s Head Gardener, Andy Tudbury via halcyondays.ge@gmail.com.
include rain gardens, swales, detention basins, and reed beds all working together to naturally manage water while boosting biodiversity.
‘Our strategy enhances and builds on the site’s existing natural features while supporting the wider ambition to create a thriving, desirable employment destination for the future,’ Carolyn says. ‘We’re not just designing for wildlife, we’re creating places that feel welcoming, calm, and full of life.’ cwstudio.co.uk; museplaces.com
BLUE DAISY ANNOUNCES MERGER
Two sister businesses run by pre-registered SGLD member Nicki Jackson (pictured) are to merge to form one unified brand.
The new Warwickshire-based company will combine Nicki’s garden design and garden care businesses and will be known as Blue Daisy Garden Design.
‘We were apprehensive about telling our garden care clients because it meant our services [will now] be subject to VAT,’ Nicki says. However, she adds, ‘our loyal clients are sticking with us, and it’s heartwarming to hear how much they value our fantastic gardening team.’ bluedaisygardens.co.uk
WHAT’S ON
FOR A FULL LIST OF SGLD EVENTS, AND TO BOOK, VISIT SGLD.ORG.UK
2 OCTOBER LI NATIONAL HOUSING AND REGENERATION CONFERENCE
The Landscape Institute’s 2025–6 series of regional conferences to debate how the industry can help deliver high-quality housing developments opens in Birmingham. The conferences will explore how to achieve housing targets while also creating places that are not just environmentally sustainable but socially and economically successful. landscapeinstitute.org
2 OCTOBER WEBINAR : SHARING YOUR PARK OR GARDEN RESEARCH
This free webinar, hosted by The Gardens Trust, will show anyone who has been researching their local historic park or garden how best to share their report so that planners and developers can make more informed decisions that may help protect and conserve historic special places. thegardenstrust.org/gt-events
7 OCTOBER NEW SGLD CPD: ALIGNED OFFERS AND PERFECT PRICING
Psychologist Abigail Rogers will explore the psychology behind pricing and sales in this online workshop, helping you feel more confident about the value of your services and ready to attract the right clients with ease.
CW STUDIO TO CREATE WETLAND HABITAT PARK
←
CW Studio’s concept for the Basford Wetland Park in Crewe. Photographs,
HRH THE PRINCESS ROYAL OPENS HORATIO’S SHEFFIELD & EAST GARDEN
The eighth Horatio’s Garden, first shown at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, has been opened by HRH The Princess Royal at The Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre in Sheffield.
Designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg, the Horatio’s Sheffield & East Garden débuted at Chelsea in 2023, where it won Best in Show and a Gold medal. Inspired by the history, geography and industry of Yorkshire, the design duo has included a water feature made from historic Sheffield cutlery casts and stone cairns built by fifth-generation master stone wallers, Lydia and Bert Noble.
Margaret Coles, who has been rehabilitating at the Centre, says: ‘The garden is amazing – there is so much to look at and it has such a healing effect. My dad was a Yorkshire stonemason and to see the incredible craftsmanship in the garden is beautiful. Being out here, away from the hospital environment, is really helping me feel more like myself.’ horatiosgarden.org.uk
HMP DOWNVIEW RECEIVES JO THOMPSON SHOW GARDEN
Jo Thompson FSGLD’s The Glasshouse Garden has been installed in its permanent home at HMP Downview, a women’s prison in Surrey.
The garden, which won a Gold medal at this year’s RHS Chelsea (pictured), was designed and built for The Glasshouse, a social enterprise that helps female prisoners prepare for release by providing them with training in horticulture, employment opportunities and resettlement support. theglasshouse.co.uk; jothompson-garden-design.co.uk
CLORE GARDEN FOR TATE BRITAIN REVEALED
Preliminary designs for the new Clore Garden (pictured above), which will lie in front of Tate Britain on London’s Millbank, overlooking the River Thames, have been published by Tom Stuart-Smith Studio and architects Feilden Fowles.
The garden has been designed to enhance the gallery’s neoclassical architecture and will be a rich, varied environment, with planting chosen to withstand Britain’s changing climate. A network of accessible pathways will run through an organic pattern of luxuriously planted spaces to the café terrace and a free-standing, single-storey, lightweight garden classroom, which has been designed by Feilden Fowles
Sculptures by iconic British artists in the Tate’s collection and seating for relaxation will be integrated into the landscape, and an interactive water feature and bench circle will encourage socialising and play.
The garden, which is due to open in 2026, is being funded by the Clore Duffield Foundation. tomstuartsmith.co.uk; tate.org.uk
CARBON GARDEN OPENS AT KEW
The Carbon Garden, the newest permanent garden to be created at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, has opened to visitors and brings to life the role of carbon in the life of plants and fungi.
Herbaceous perennials have been planted to a design inspired by the blue-to-red-coloured ‘climate stripes’, which were created by Professor Ed Hawkins to show how global average temperatures have risen over the last two centuries. Alongside the living plants is an exposed coal seam containing fossilized plants, highlighting the connection between vegetation and fossil fuels.
Other areas of the new space, which has been designed by Richard Wilford, Manager of Garden Design at RBG Kew, include a dry garden which showcases drought-tolerant plants of the type that might be found in London gardens in 30 years’ time, and a rain garden showing how water flow can be managed and soil erosion reduced. There are also areas of grassland, wildflower meadow, and native hedgerows, and 35 new trees have been selected for their resilience. At the heart of the garden is a pavilion in the form of a fungal fruiting body, designed by Mizzi Studio Kew.org
7 AND 8 OCTOBER FUTURESCAPE
Britain’s largest and most influential landscaping industry event returns to the ExCeL London this month, bringing together professionals from across the sector for two days of insight, inspiration & innovation. The SGLD will also be hosting talks and workshops at the event. futurescapeevent.com
8 OCTOBER
SGLD CPD DIGITAL: MAKING THE WINTER GARDEN SHINE
Anna Ribo offers ideas on how to improve the garden’s performance at this darker time of the year, between the autumn and spring equinox, looking at bulbs, perennials, and scented shrubs that put on a good show in winter.
15 OCTOBER
BRISTOL AND BATH CLUSTER GROUP: KNOLL GARDENS
This trip to Knoll Gardens, Britain’s leading ornamental grass specialist, includes an afternoon tour of the Naturalist Garden with owner and grass expert Neil Lucas.
17 AND 18 OCTOBER
SGLD SYMPOSIUM: EXTREME! DESIGNING SUSTAINABLY FOR A CHANGING CLIMATE
Book now before tickets sell out for this year’s two-day symposium in Sheffield, which will focus on how garden and landscape designers can respond to climate change and help to mitigate its adverse effects, while also using more sustainable processes and materials (see p18 for more information about the speakers and tour programme).
30 AND 31 OCTOBER
SGLD CPD DIGITAL: AN INTRODUCTION TO MORPHOLIO TRACE
SGLD Friend John Wood leads this course exploring Morpholio Trace, a digital drawing board, ideal for garden design. The software includes familiar tools – tracing paper, pens and pencils, scale rulers and stencils – that work perfectly on a pocket-sized iPad, with no compromise in PDF print quality up to and including A0.
Photographs,
↓
HRH The Princess Royal planted an Aruncus ‘Horatio’ during her visit to officially open Horatio’s Sheffield & East Garden with Dr Olivia Chapple (pictured, left) this summer.
The roof of the pavilion is tilted so that rainwater can be funnelled down into the Rain Garden nearby.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON?
Lee Bestall MSGLD talks to Zia Allaway about his design for a Nordic spa garden in south Yorkshire, which will embrace timber-clad buildings to create a relaxing, sun-spangled retreat
After graduating from university with a hotel catering and business management degree, Lee Bestall MSGLD worked in sales and human resources before setting up a garden maintenance company. In 2005, after being selected as one of eight winners of the TV gardening competition programme Garden School, he spent six months at RHS Garden Wisley and being tutored by Diarmuid Gavin. He then returned to university to further his design studies at Nottingham Trent before setting up Inspired Garden Design in 2010, which he rebranded as Bestall & Co in 2017. Lee is an RHS Chelsea and Wentworth Woodhouse medallist and was named Northern Garden Designer of the Year in 2017 and 2020.
How did this project come about?
The clients had bought a large house with four acres of land about a year before I was brought in by their interior designer, with whom I had already worked on several projects. The couple was initially reluctant to involve a garden designer as they simply wanted their large driveway and patio made smaller, but the interior designer, of Harpers Interiors, persuaded them that a beautiful garden would improve the view through the large French doors at the back of the house, which looked out over a paved driveway and extensive lawns.
What was the client’s brief for the Nordic spa?
Once we had gained their trust and had designed plant-edged dining and seating areas around the house,
we looked at transforming a 5,382-square-foot (500 sq m) area occupied by three sheds, beyond the existing gym building. The clients had recently returned from a wellbeing retreat in Bali and wanted to recreate that experience with a Nordic spa, which was to include a sauna and steam room, ice bath, outdoor hot tub, meditation room, light room, an outdoor and indoor shower, and a lavatory. The garden also had to accommodate a meditation area and space so they could relax in the sun.
How did you interpret the brief?
I felt the buildings and garden had to be designed as a single entity and drew up a plan that included four timber-clad structures, with a central path leading through the space from the gym to the tennis court club
house, which is at the far end. The social space, with fire pit and chairs, is in the sunniest area outside the gym, and the buildings are set in the shade of a mature copper beech and yew trees. The hot tub cuts into the path between the buildings, and all the elements are wrapped in planting.
I am not an architect so I gave my drawings to a structural engineer, and they worked with the builder to create the finished designs.
Tell us about your choice of materials
The timber buildings are clad in Thermowood, which is pine that has been heat-treated to enhance its durability and stability, and they will be painted black to make them recede, visually. The plants will also really zing against this dark backdrop.
During the design process, I attended an SGLD course given by Liz Nicholson, of Nicholsons, about the new web-based ‘green design’ tool elemental, and it made me think about how to reduce our carbon footprint. We are going to crush the broken sandstone paving that is being lifted from the old patio around the house and use the aggregate to cover the areas on either side of the raised path that runs
concept drawings: Lee Bestall & Co.
The existing gym (right) has been joined by a timber building housing the Nordic spa, with a fire pit and chairs on one side (far right), nearest the house, and an outdoor hot tub (below right) on the other.
through the spa buildings and which will be laid with Millboard Envello, to match the cladding on the gym.
Wall lights set into the covered walkways will throw dappled light onto the Millboard path, creating a magical effect, and oak bollard lights will illuminate the garden while uplighters will make key plants in the shady areas sparkle during the day, as well as the evening.
During the excavations for the extension, several large sandstone boulders were found and these will now be used around the fire pit.
What planting are you using?
Three multi-stem birches behind the fire pit area will greet visitors as they enter the spa, while Pinus mugo, Stipa grasses, Lavandula × intermedia ‘Grosso’ and perennials such as Echinacea pallida, Nepeta and Astrantia are to be planted in a mixture of MOT, sand and soil around the sunny seating area. The original block paving on the site was laid on the MOT and sand, which we
separated out to reuse. In the shady areas under the trees, we will include plants with lush shiny foliage, such as Skimmia and Pachysandra, and ferns, including Asplenium
What have been the main challenges?
The rectangular site undulates in all directions, so the buildings are set on ground screws. There is also restricted access to this area, making the build more costly, and we are having to work around the roots of the mature trees to avoid damaging them.
What is the installation timescale?
The buildings are now complete, and we plan to finish the planting this autumn. The garden will be cared for by our in-house team for the first year, to ensure the planting thrives.
bestall.co; @thenortherndesigner
Do you have a project in the pipeline that you could share with Journal readers? Email: gdj@jamespembrokemedia.co.uk
Lee (pictured) wanted the garden and spa buildings to be a single entity and drew up a plan (far left) that has a single path that runs throughout the rectangular site and connects all the differently planted areas.
TO B OR NOT TO B?
With ‘green/social washing’ on the rise, a strong, external assessment of sustainability claims can give peace of mind, says John Wyer FSGLD
hat do the following have in common: Sipsmith, Guardian Media Group, Tony’s Chocolonely, Finisterre, The Jamie Oliver Group, The White Company, LloydsDirect by Lloyds Pharmacy, Gaze Burvill, C. Hoare & Co, and Planit? The answer is they are all Certified B Corporations, or B Corps. But what exactly is a B Corp?
Before we answer that, let us look at how the B Corp certification came into being. In the 1990s, two American entrepreneurs, Jay Coen Gilbert and Bart Houlahan, founded a clothing company called AND1, which specialised in basketball shoes and gear. Because of Gilbert and Houlahan’s principles, the company was a poster child for what a socially responsible business could look like. The staff had great parental leave benefits and widely shared ownership of the company, the business gave five per cent of its profits to charity each year, and it worked with overseas suppliers to ensure good worker health and safety, fair wages, and professional development. What is more, it was very profitable.
In 2005, the duo sold the business but were horrified to see that immediately afterwards, all the company’s commitments to its employees, overseas workers, and the local community were stripped away.
In 2006, Gilbert and Houlahan and a former colleague founded B Lab with the aim of encouraging people to use business as a force for good. Companies are certified by B Lab and can call themselves a ‘B Corp’. Essentially, the certification is based on the principles of good ESG, that is, Environmental, Social and Governance (including transparency). Certified organisations have to report on these areas of their business every year.
Since then, the B Movement has expanded worldwide; there are more than 3,000 B Corps in Britain alone.
Certification is not easy; there is a complex questionnaire involving all aspects of the business, with a minimum score required to qualify. B Corps have not been without controversies, though. In 2022, BrewDog lost its status after just two years following claims of a ‘rotten culture’, with some arguing it should never have been accredited.
of staff was allocated to work on the application and said it was tough, but straightforward.
I also spoke to the furniture company Gaze Burvill, which achieved B Corp status last year. The team employed a consultant to take the business through the application and it took a little under a year.
Both firms said the process was challenging but in a good way; it made them look differently at their practices and rooted out inconsistencies in some of their policies.
I asked both companies why they had done it and they gave similar answers; essentially, it was because their thinking and business was already moving in that direction, i.e. they were focusing on people and the environment. Both companies wanted to hold themselves to a higher set of standards and for these to have external recognition.
Kene says certification has been beneficial for business.
‘We’re definitely hired by other B Corps,’ said owner Adam Kene, ‘and not having to go through endless due diligence and pre-qualification processes is an unexpected benefit. It has also made hiring easier because people understand what a B Corp is and what it represents.’
Simon Burvill, Chief Executive of Gaze Burvill, refers to the fact that B Corp status has engendered staff pride in the company. ‘Our people are proud of the status and to me, it’s proof that we take our staff and the environment seriously, rather than anyone thinking we pay lip-service to it.’
I asked Adam about this and he said: ‘It wasn’t all plain sailing; there were concerns from a few people, as well as worries it would hit our profitability, or ability to work with certain clients. In fact, the reverse has been true –profitability has risen slightly, and our client network has broadened on the back of this.’
Apparently around ten times as many companies use the certification questionnaire as actually apply, which suggests firms are using the process to identify weaknesses in their business.
While the status may not be right for sole traders, smaller firms may find it easier to adapt to requirements than larger ones that may have more rigid processes and cultures. The two case studies above show why B Corps is relevant to all businesses. In an era of increasing ‘green washing’ and ‘social washing’, strong external accreditation can give peace of mind that companies are genuine in their claims. And that is something we can all welcome.
Share your garden and landscape-related talking points via gdj@jamespembrokemedia.co.uk
‘IT’S PROOF THAT WE TAKE OUR STAFF AND THE ENVIRONMENT SERIOUSLY.’
There has also been pushback from some B Corps about the controversial decision to accredit Nespresso. As in so many things, there are opposing opinions on moral purity versus influence through engagement. What is more, friends in America report on pushback from the political right, that B Corp status represents ‘woke culture’, making some larger companies nervous about committing to it.
I spoke recently to the owners of two companies (both with 20 to 50 staff) that have been through the certification process in the past couple of years. Kene, a research and development tax credit advisor, did the process itself and achieved certification in about seven months. A member
JOHN WYER FSGLD
graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a post-graduate diploma in landscape architecture in 1983 and co-founded Bowles & Wyer in 1993. His extensive design portfolio spans private gardens to large-scale development projects, and many have won awards. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Garden + Landscape Designers (SGLD) in 2011, and a Fellow of the Landscape Institute in 2020. As well as continuing to take a lead role in Bowles & Wyer, and to serve as Vice-Chair and Treasurer of the SGLD, he lectures in Britain and abroad and writes a monthly blog that explores the design process and role of landscape and maintenance. bowleswyer.co.uk
SGLD SYMPOSIUM 2025
LAST CALL FOR TICKETS
Date: Friday 17 and Saturday 18 October 2025
Location: Sheffield
To book tickets: visit sgld.org.uk – ‘Events’
Are you joining the behind-the-scenes tours of Sheffield's most ambitious urban greening and regeneration projects, with the experts who made them?
As part of the Society of Garden + Landscape Designers’ (SGLD) two-day Symposium in Sheffield, the opening day will feature exclusive guided tours of the city’s Grey to Green corridor and The Green Estate, site of the Pictorial Meadows. The events will be a unique opportunity for delegates to explore how public planting and placemaking are transforming post-industrial cityscapes.
THE TOUR PROGRAMME
The tours will take place between 12pm and 5pm on Friday 17 October and will be led by some of the designers, engineers, planners, and horticulturists responsible for the transformation of these spaces. Among these will be town planner and local historian Simon Ogden, planting designer Professor Nigel Dunnett and landscape architect Zac Tudor, offering invaluable real-world insight into sustainable placemaking in action.
Delegates will be divided into groups and each group will tour all four sites. See below for further details:
GREY TO GREEN AND PARK HILL
This guided walking tour will explore two of Sheffield’s flagship regeneration projects:
● Grey to Green: an award-winning linear park and an exemplar of climate-responsive urban design that has transformed former traffic-dominated streets into thriving biodiverse corridors; welcometosheffield.co.uk/content/attractions/ grey-to-green
● Park Hill: one of Britain’s most iconic examples of Brutalist architecture and landscape renewal; urbansplash.co.uk/regeneration/projects/park-hill
THE GREEN ESTATE AND MANOR FIELDS PARK
For this tour, visitors will be taken by coach to explore:
● The Green Estate CIC: originally set up as a heritage and environmental regeneration project and now a sustainable landscape for people and nature,
and home of Pictorial Meadows, which researches, designs and sells sustainable seed mixes and urban planting. The tour will include an in-depth look at how cutting-edge plant selection and long-term maintenance strategies have transformed public spaces across Britain; greenestate.org.uk
● Manor Fields Park: a restored green space that is owned by Sheffield City Council and managed by The Green Estate, and which demonstrates the practical application of low-maintenance, high-impact landscape strategies; greenestate.org. uk/ugp-manor-fields-park
The guides will be stationed at each of the tour sites and delegates will meet all of them over the course of the day. The tours will include practical insights into soil preparation and landscape setup, long-term maintenance strategies, plant selection and climate resilience, and managing colour, structure and biodiversity in urban settings.
Nigel Dunnett will deliver the keynote address to delegates on Saturday 18 October, at Sheffield City Hall.
FORMAT AND LOGISTICS
● Delegates should gather in time for the tours to begin at 12pm sharp, and allow time for travel into Sheffield
● Delegates will be divided into groups, with staggered start times
● Each of the tour stops is expected to last around 45 minutes
● Transport will be provided to off-site locations
● The day will conclude by 5pm. In the evening, delegates can enjoy an informal drinks reception/ buffet and an inspiring talk by John Little, followed by a panel discussion on the role of the gardener with Errol Reuben Fernandes, Will Tomson, Graham Dillamore and Andrew Fisher Tomlin.
Clockwise, from above: Grey to Green planting in Sheffield's city centre; Manor Fields Park; Pictorial Meadows trial fields.
YOUR TOUR GUIDES WILL INCLUDE:
NIGEL DUNNETT , Professor of Planting Design and Urban Horticulture, Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield, and founder of Pictorial Meadows, is a pioneer of the new ecological and sustainable approaches to gardens, landscapes, and public spaces. His work revolves around the integration of ecology and horticulture to achieve low-input but high-impact landscapes that are dynamic, diverse, and tuned to nature.
OWEN HAYMAN , Horticulture Innovation Manager at The Green Estate CIC and Pictorial Meadows, has a Masters in Environmental Science at the University of Sheffield, and worked in plant and soil science for a few years before completing the RHS Wisley Diploma. In 2018, he started an allotment within an ancient monastic walled garden in north Sheffield.
SIMON OGDEN is a former Head of City Regeneration for Sheffield City Council, a town planner and a local historian involved in regeneration and the masterplanning of Sheffield for more than 40 years. Between 2002 and 2018, he led the council’s Regeneration Service, an award-winning multi-disciplinary team specialising in regeneration and public green and blue spaces
HELEN McNALLY is Head of Commercial Landscapes at The Green Estate CIC. After completing an MA in Landscape Architecture at the University of Sheffield, Helen joined The Green Estate as a Landscape Manager and has worked for the organisation since 2011.
WILL TOMSON is a garden designer and director of Creative Cultivation, a Sheffieldbased garden-designand-build company and co-founder of social event Talking Plants. He has worked in Japan, America and Britain, as a TRIAD fellow for the National Trust, and has a degree in Ecology and an HND in Horticulture and Plantsmanship from the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh.
ZAC TUDOR is Associate Director for Landscape Architecture at Arup and his creative work has been founded around 27 years of leading the practical delivery of beautiful urban landscapes. As a landscape architect, his focus is on designing healthy, resilient towns and cities, work which includes the Grey to Green scheme.
GATEWAY TO AN OASIS
To win an RHS Silver medal is very special, but as pre-registered SGLD member Emily Crowley-Wroe tells Arabella St John Parker , to see the people of Maindee putting the new community garden she designed for them through its paces is worth its weight in gold
Pre-registered SGLD member Emily Crowley-Wroe has built show gardens and won medals at RHS Malvern before but winning a Silver medal for her Greening Maindee Gateway Garden at the Show this May was especially important. ‘The medal was a moment to celebrate what everyone involved with the garden had achieved,’ she explains.
‘My sponsor, Maindee Unlimited, had wanted to do the show garden to instil in its local community a sense of pride for the garden that was to be theirs as soon as the Show ended. The charity also wanted to encourage other groups to engage in similar work, and to gather more support from the city council and from politicians, which is happening – one of the councillors at the official opening of the permanent garden has told the charity he’s hopeful more of the same can be done across Maindee.’
New skills
The garden has also been a wonderful personal opportunity for the designer. Until she was introduced to the Maindee team by the RSPB lead for the Nature Neighbourhoods project, Emily had only ever worked on residential garden designs. Her first foray into the world of public realm design, however, has been a hugely enjoyable experience, thanks in no small part she says to the collaborative approach of her sponsor’s placemaker, Ruth Essex, and its volunteer gardening arm, Greening Maindee, led by John Stone.
Doing a show-garden version first and trying to please the RHS criteria was tough though, and funding was a big part of the challenge. The team agreed that the grant made available to RHS Malvern show garden designers would be used to pay for the construction of the show garden and some of Emily’s fees for the project. All the materials used in the show garden, however, would need to be repurposed in the real garden as these (and the construction of the permanent garden) were to be paid for by the finite pot of money that Maindee Unlimited had been able to raise to build the garden there.
‘When the RHS judges gave us the score for the show garden,’ Emily reveals, ‘they said I was already in a position of compromise because doing a show garden and a relocated public garden meant there’d always be budget constraints; you can’t use massive mature trees, your plant density can’t be as they’d like it for a show, and so on. But I think it was more important to have something that could be relocated, that could work, and that people could use and enjoy and be proud of, so I’m happy with that compromise.’
Considering the point further, Emily expresses concern that there are currently no judging criteria for relocating (RHS) show gardens.
‘There’s so much emphasis on making sure that show gardens have a purpose and can be relocated. You’re asked, all through the application, to consider the sustainability, to make the show garden as sustainable as possible, but relocation is not actually part of the judging. I find that a little bit frustrating. It could possibly be part of the sustainability criteria, couldn’t it?’
As the garden will be cared for by volunteers and the local community, and without irrigation, the planting has been chosen to be not only drought-tolerant but slow growing, to reduce the need for intensive professional maintenance.
EMILY CROWLEYWROE, PRE-REGISTERED SGLD MEMBER
graduated from the Cotswold Gardening School in 2020, and since setting up her design studio, April House Garden Design, in Gloucestershire, she has applied her naturalistic style to a wide range of projects, from small courtyard gardens to larger countryside gardens, and has won two Silver-Gilt medals, a Silver, and Best Show Garden at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival. She won the Society of Garden Designers’ Fresh Designer and Landscapes Award in 2024 and was shortlisted in the SGD’s 2025 Awards. april-house.co.uk
Greening ambitions
Designed to be built on a junction between the two roads that mark the arrival into the Maindee area of Newport in Wales, the new Gateway Garden is a muchneeded small-scale public park of trees and plants amid the streets of terraced houses, shops and small businesses.
‘When Ruth and John showed me around in July last year, Ruth said she felt this area of rough grass and patches of concrete had the best potential to become a garden; in years gone by, it had been a place where people met and sat on benches while they fed the birds,’ says Emily. ‘When I saw it, the heat coming off the ground was so intense it made me want to run for the nearest tree but there were none very close by.’
ALL THE MATERIALS USED IN THE SHOW GARDEN WOULD NEED TO BE REPURPOSED IN THE REAL GARDEN.
Today, the concrete has gone and in its place are beds filled with planting chosen for resilience and tree-lined gravel pathways running through the almost rectangular space and around a central curved, bespoke gabionbased seating area. The backdrop mural in the show garden was a version of the one that local artist Andy O’Rourke had already painted on the wall of the pizzeria that forms a boundary in the Maindee garden, as part of the Colouring Maindee Festival.
The circular and linear aspects of the garden are a riff on the architectural details of two much-loved Art Deco buildings nearby that had originally housed the swimming pool and the cinema, and the planting approach was inspired by larger public projects by Nigel Dunnett.
The brief
‘It needed to be a place of nature, with seasonal colour and plants and habitats for birds and pollinators, and it
THE PLANTING IS FULL OF MOVEMENT AND NATURALISTIC ATMOSPHERE.
needed to be suitable for people of all ages to sit in, to play, socialise, and to look after,’ says Emily.
The existing desire-line walkways across the site had to be respected – ‘when we walked through my plan on site, Ruth told me that people would simply walk through the yew hedging I planned to put in so we’d need to put in an extra path; the junction is a well-trodden route into Maindee and as I learned, I couldn’t hope to change this.’
Ruth also explained that to help limit any anti-social behaviour it was important that the inside of the garden should always be visible from the outside so people can feel safe while they are inside.
‘The budget didn’t allow for lighting, although that might be put in later, if they can get more funding. In the meantime, the garden is illuminated by the street lighting and the planting needed to be low to medium height. It also needed to be as low maintenance as possible,’ Emily adds, ‘as the volunteers garden one day a week and they have several gardens to look after in that time. While the garden is establishing, the council has agreed to help water using its bowsers, and the businesses nearby have also agreed to let the volunteers attach a hose to their supply, but after that, the plants will be pretty much on their own.’
On one side of the site, a curved hedge of Taxus baccata, chosen for its evergreen structure, slow growth, good habitat opportunities for wildlife, and ability to filter pollution, is a tactile boundary separating the garden from the pavement and road. Along the opposite side, which is the main desire-line pathway, a plant bed alongside the permeable gravel path captures any excess water.
In the central planting zones, which are simply the existing dusty, loamy soil with a locally sourced mulch on top – ‘no new soil was brought onto the site at all’ – the planting is full of movement and naturalistic atmosphere. The matrices of evergreen grasses including Carex will have just one cut a year, and among the perennials that run through them are pollinator-friendly Eryngium planum ‘Magical Blue Lagoon’, Verbascum phoeniceum ‘Flush of White’, and Euphorbias
Phlomis adds further structure to the mid-storey – ‘I’ve told the volunteers to leave the seedheads so they
Emily’s masterplan for the small-scale park needed to accommodate desire-line pathways long used by the community to cross the junction that leads into Maindee.
can enjoy them throughout the autumn and winter too’ –while, for height and much-needed shade, Emily spent a lot of time thinking about which trees would work hardest for the community and the situation, and for the budget. ‘I also chose multi-stem varieties so the gardening team can let them grow to the size they want before they need to start pruning.’
The blossoms of Prunus ‘Accolade’, P. ‘Ichiyo’ and P. x yedoensis and flowers of Sorbus ulleungensis ‘Dodong’ above Narcissus poeticus var. recurvus Haw will herald the spring, while the foliage and barks of Pyrus calleryana, Acer ‘Orange Dream’ and Amelanchier canadensis will be fiery flames of colour as autumn fades to winter.
While she was unable to change the desire-line walkway, there was one local habit that Emily raised as a concern during the planning process. It involved an area where people would park their cars while they went to the Wetherspoons nearby. ‘The parking was just along the edge of the site so to stop drivers from ramping their cars up onto the verge, John liaised with the council to have three massive Welsh boulders positioned there and there are no cars there now.’
A different kind of solution was required for the seating. ‘Ruth said that while it needed to be comfortable to sit on, it needed to be robust,’ Emily explains. ‘It also needed to be fixed so it can’t be lifted or moved.’
A huge curved bench with a stone-filled gabion-style base and oak tops appealed as a robust but artistic, sociable and wildlife-friendly solution. In one final conversation with Ruth before sculptor Simon Probyn set to work making the feature, which was designed to fit both the show garden and the actual site without any changes being made, the experienced placemaker recommended that, to make it as multi-functional as possible, a second layer of smaller seats be added on top of the main seat. Then, if children want to jump up and sit, ‘atop o’ the mountain’, they can.
Emily welcomed Ruth’s public realm experience again when finessing the design of the sculpture. ‘Initially, I wanted to create a rainwater planter so they could harvest the water run-off from the roofs around the site, but as they couldn’t get permission to fix it to the buildings, Ruth wondered if it could be designed as a sculptural feature that would also encourage children to climb up and put their faces through.’
Afterthoughts
In May this year, by the end of the same day that the show garden had been broken down in Malvern, loaded into cars and vans and driven the short distance to the Maindee site, which had been prepared by a local landscaper, the gravel grids and paths had been laid and the seating had been installed.
‘All twenty of my sponsor’s volunteers came back two days later, to help us put the plants in – that was a challenge in itself for me as I’d never managed such a huge team as that before – and when I went up for the official opening this July, it was thrilling to see how they’d been looking after the garden; the planting had really come on and the local community was using it and very proud of it,’ says Emily.
When asked if she would like to do more public realm gardens she says ‘Yes, although without the added pressure of building one as a show garden first.
‘I’ve learned so much from the collaborative process though and I think the Maindee team enjoyed working with a garden designer from a residential background because they got a different sort of creative input. John has asked me to attend some meetings with Newport City Council this September, to discuss further opportunities, and I’m really looking forward to that.’
WHO’S WHO
Landscaper and co-ordinator for Greening Maindee, John Stone, maindee.org/greening
Show garden contractor, JG Landscaping, jglandscapingltd.co.uk
Timber preparation and cutting, Reseiclo, reseiclo. co.uk
Gravel (Yorkshire Cream), Stone Warehouse, stonewarehouse.co.uk
Fellow garden designer Sue Kent (pictured far left) with Senedd constituency member John Griffiths and Newport City Councillor Yvonne Forsey were among the local community to welcome the opening of the garden in July.
WHY PLANT FOR MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES?
A
selection of nectar-rich plants, ecologically considerate design and careful site management can create favourable habitats for all stages of the Lepidoptera ’s life cycle
WORDS: HANNAH GARDNER
Butterflies are intriguing, transitory creatures attracting our admiration and attention as they flutter around in summer. There are nearly 60 species regularly found in Britain, and more than 2,500 species of moth.
Both Lepidoptera are a good indicator of biodiversity health and an integral part of our ecosystems. Day and night, they pollinate flowering plants and provide a major food source for bats and birds, their caterpillars sustaining many chicks in spring, amongst them the cuckoo.
However, butterflies and moths are under threat. Eighty per cent of butterflies have declined since the 1970s and moth numbers have fallen by at least 33 per cent in the same time. The decline of both groups is believed to be linked to the use of pesticides and the loss of habitats.
Pockets of planting cannot substitute for the extensive loss of the latter but informed design, considered plant choices, and ecologically focused management can create areas of biodiverse habitat that act as stepping stones. These provide shelter and food as butterflies and moths complete their four-stage life cycle. Adults feed through a long, tubular tongue, mostly relying on the liquid resources of flower nectar, tree sap, and the juice of fallen fruit. The larvae (caterpillars) have chewing mouth parts, feeding on the foliage of herbs, trees, and grasses. A designer and gardener should provide for all these stages of life.
Clockwise, from top left: clumps of stinging nettles are essential breeding areas; a Swallowtail caterpillar feeding on Pimpinella anisum; caterpillars, including that of the Eyed Hawk-moth, chew foliage such as willow leaves; uncut tussock grass is highly beneficial for moths and butterflies; adults such as the Hummingbird hawk-moth feed through a long, tubular tongue so rely on flower nectar, tree sap and juice of fallen fruit; Meadow Brown butterflies and other insects mud-puddling on thistles.
Design considerations
Creating (or regenerating) different types of habitat, such as woodland, flower-rich grasslands, dry stony areas and the valuable transition zones at their margins, greatly extends the ecological benefits of traditional ornamental and edible planting.
Laurie MacIntyre, an adviser at specialist provider Emorsgate Seeds confirms that ‘the single most beneficial thing you can do for moths and butterflies in your garden is create a mosaic of grassland habitats; short, flowering lawn, meadow, tussock grassland and scrub’.
She expounds the benefits of tussock grassland, explaining that it will provide a refuge when a meadow is cut in July. This standing grassland could contain species such as Origanum vulgare, Daucus carota and the very architectural teasel, Dipsacus fullonum, providing a late source of pollen and nectar and an essential habitat for overwintering and egg laying.
Exposed sites can be made more favourable by the inclusion of trees, mixed native hedges and shrubs that create shelter from cold north and east winds. Include species such as Crataegus monogyna, Prunus spinosa, Corylus avellana and Rosa canina, each of which is a food plant for several different caterpillars.
Open expanses of traditional lawn or hard landscaping present a risk of predation and can be bridged by creating nectar corridors at the margins. These need not be conspicuous, but could be a matrix of dandelion, Lotus corniculatus (bird’s-foot trefoil) and Prunella vulgaris (self-heal). Even better, persuade clients to opt for a vibrant and short ‘flowering lawn’ and include these species in the seed mix.
Identify which areas are the warmest and sunniest during spring and autumn. This is where to concentrate diverse, nectar-rich planting. Adult butterflies are less numerous in the spring so create an appropriate balance
The Gardener and the Moth: Planting for Moths and Butterflies – in the moment by Susie White, published September 2025 by Saraband/Contraband
between spring-flowering plants to provide food for the adults emerging from hibernation (these include Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma and Brimstone) and late summer-to-autumn flowers that feed populations at their peak. A dense swathe of planting makes butterflies less conspicuous to predators.
Be mindful that artificial garden plants or security lighting can disrupt the crepuscular rhythms of nocturnal wildlife so minimise harm through careful and ecologically considerate design.
Plant choice
It is hugely beneficial to welcome local wild plants, including those that sometimes get bad press. Consider planting or retaining Hedera helix, a vigorous and valuable
MOST MOTHS FEED ON NIGHT-SCENTED FLOWERS THAT OPEN IN THE EVENING.
evergreen climber that quickly clothes a wall or fence and which offers late-season, nectar-rich flowers as well as shelter throughout the year. A controlled area of Urtica dioica (common stinging nettle) is also desirable as it provides a breeding area for Small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks, Red Admirals and Commas.
Cutting areas back in succession ensures fresh new growth. The hedgerow plant Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) is good for human foragers and also supports the caterpillars of the Orange Tip and Green-veined White that feed on its leaves and pupate while attached to its stems. An area of bramble scrub is useful as it is a popular food plant for many species. Damp, open habitats favour Cardamine pratensis (the cuckoo flower, or lady’s smock), which is in the brassica family, Pulicaria dysenterica (common fleabane) and Eupatorium cannabinum (hemp agrimony). Beneficial species in meadows include cowslip, knapweed and field scabious.
Selecting a planting palette of cultivated species with deep tubular flowers and utilising local wild plants is ideal. Nectar plants that attract the greatest number of butterflies and moths include lavender, which attracts the spectacular hawk moths. Their caterpillars feed on the foliage of Epilobium (willowherb) and Galium (bedstraw), both prolific British wildflowers, so are a nice example of the usefulness of growing both cultivated and wild species.
Asters, Echinacea, Helenium, Hylotelephium, Nepeta, Centranthus ruber, and Verbena bonariensis are all magnets for butterflies while most moths feed on nightscented flowers that open in the evening: the heady fragrance of Jasminum officinale, Oenothera biennis, Hesperis matronalis, and Nicotiana attract them, as do wild plants including honeysuckle, Silene latifolia, Galium verum and mullein.
Clockwise, from top left: planting should accommodate all of the Lepidoptera’s life cycle, including cocoons; an Emperor Moth; welcome local wild plants, especially if they offer late-season, nectar-rich flowers.
Shrubs and small ornamental trees can also be part of the story. Buddleja species are manna for butterflies. A versatile choice is Buddleja alternifolia, which also has an elegant habit while Myrtus communis, Bupleurum fruticosum, and Ligustrum vulgare are good evergreens. The flowers of the guelder rose, Viburnum opulus, and the wayfaring tree, Viburnum lantana, are a valuable food source and in autumn, birds feast on the berries.
Successful planting for moths and butterflies is ultimately dependent on habitat management. The key is to provide for all life cycle stages. Egg-laying sites are usually on the larval food plants. Shelter is required for pupation/ hibernation and eventually, nectar-rich flowers to feed adult populations.
Naturalistic perennial planting that slowly decays through much of winter offers good shelter for butterflies, caterpillars, and moth pupae but over-zealous tidiness is harmful, so allow for piles of fallen leaves and raked cuttings to ensure any eggs, hibernating caterpillars or chrysalis have a chance of survival, and enjoy the show the following summer.
Photographs, Getty Images/Andi Edwards, Robert Trevis-Smith, Matt Cook 500px
CAN OUR CURIOSITY SAVE LANDSCAPES?
Joe Perkins MSGLD’s Garden for the Future at Sheffield Park in Sussex is not just a space for the public to enjoy. Its planting has been carefully selected to test for resilience to harsh conditions, to help inform those facing the challenge of caring for Britain’s heritage landscapes. Arabella St John Parker finds out more
Afew months after the 2019 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Joe Perkins MSGLD received an email from Laura Booty, General Manager at the National Trust-owned Sheffield Park and Garden in Sussex.
‘She and others from the wider National Trust organisation had seen the Facebook Garden I’d created for that Show,’ Joe recalls, ‘and they’d decided to invite me to tender for a project to create a new garden within the historic landscape at Sheffield Park and Garden.’
He was given a brief – ‘it was very long and very well defined’ – and asked to submit a design concept. ‘The submission was followed by an interview and then another rather more developed submission, and that was followed by another interview before I was selected in March 2020.’
Things were almost immediately put on hold however as the country entered a period of lockdowns in response to Covid-19. The project was resumed the following year, and The Landscaping Consultants began constructing the garden in January 2024.
‘That was completed in April 2024 but because the plants needed to remain in quarantine at Kelways for another year,’ Joe explains, ‘we put in a temporary wildflower scheme across the site.’
The final plant scheme is now in situ and the garden, which is the first major development to be undertaken at Sheffield Park since the Trust acquired it in 1954, was officially opened this July.
JOE PERKINS MSGLD graduated from the Oxford College of Garden Design and holds an MA in Landscape Architecture from Greenwich University. He set up his eponymous studio in Hove, East Sussex in 2018 and has been involved in creating gardens for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for many years; this year he won his third Gold medal, for Seeding Success, in partnership with The King’s Trust. He is currently training as an RHS Judge and is also an associate member of the Landscape Institute. joeperkinsdesign.com
The brief
The Trust’s original brief was for a wellbeing garden. As the project developed, though, Joe says he felt the place needed to be able to metaphorically transport people away from a country garden in Sussex to somewhere else in the world, somewhere they can get lost in a natural environment that was new to them or felt different.
As a review of the history of Sheffield Park will attest, both its planting and planting design have always been progressive and experimental, and the continuation of that was an essential part of Joe’s brief. The decision, therefore, to create a garden from an entirely different geographical location, somewhere that did not look or feel obviously English, seemed to be an eminently practical solution.
‘As we refined the brief further, we realised the garden was also an opportunity to find solutions for British historic gardens in the future, or in the south-east at least,’ says Joe.
‘These places are facing so many climate-change-related challenges at the moment that using plants from another hemisphere would be a chance for us to experiment and to record data so we can see which species or varieties and changes in horticultural practices might be acceptable and good to introduce in the future.’
THE PLACE NEEDED TO BE ABLE TO METAPHORICALLY TRANSPORT PEOPLE TO SOMEWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD.
Photographs, National Trust/James Dobson; (Joe Perkins) Natalia Perkins
Below: an aerial view of the Garden for the
how it nestles in among the existing
Above right: the garden seating, including the large ‘pebbles’ sculpted from Sequoia and charred for longevity, is as much a part of Joe’s design as the planting; wildflowers will naturalise in the Horsham sandstone wall and to the right of it is Feijoa sellowiaa, which bears edible fruits and beautiful flowers.
The site
With its expansive lakes and exploratory walks, elements of which were landscaped by ‘Capability’ Brown and by Humphry Repton, the 250 acres of Sussex gardens are a Grade I-listed landscape. The site chosen for the Garden for the Future, however, is west of the lakes, in an area where the new creation does not affect the historic Reptonian and Brownian landscape views.
The half-acre site was an open and uncared-for clearing of grass where the property’s early 20th-century owner, Arthur Gilstrap Soames, an aficionado of ‘exotic’ plants and who had introduced many north American species to the estate, had experimented with growing gentians (they failed utterly). Surrounding it were the Nyssas that had been brought over by Soames, a few Hamamelis and some Cornus, and a huge veteran oak.
‘As an unusually open part of the wider gardens, this was an opportunity,’ acknowledges Joe, ‘but being surrounded by specimen trees was the challenge: how do you protect the trees and still do development work around them?’
The site slopes from north to south (‘It’s not noticeably steep until you start to set things out on it’) and the soil is clay so hard, dry, and cracked during the summer, and waterlogged in the winter. ‘It creates a lot of issues for the planting, and for the trees especially as it damages their root systems and the fibrous feeding roots on the surface particularly,’ Joe explains.
It is an issue affecting so many of the trees planted during the late Victorian period and knowing this made the need for a scientific aspect to this new garden, to study and share the gathered knowledge with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, with Wakehurst and others, all the more valid and urgent.
Above: the Sheffield Park estate was sold in 1953, and the National Trust bought the gardens and parkland but the house remains in private hands.
Future, showing
historic plantings.
Above left: among the planting in this raised dry exotic bed is Prostanthera cuneata, which the Gardens team will monitor to see how the species responds to winter cold. Experimentation and recording and sharing the data with other National Trust properties and organisations is an important aspect of this garden’s existence.
Above right: plants of interest in this flat exotic dry bed include Maytenus boaria (not seen anywhere else at Sheffield Park), providing shade for the boardwalk, and dry-tolerant Chamaerops humilis, for its evergreen, architectural form.
The seating
‘WHEN YOU SIT ON THE BENCH YOU FEEL SECLUDED, AS IF THAT SPOT WAS WAITING TO BE DISCOVERED.’
The design
‘I took the view that the garden should be very serpentine because we were creating a place that would be part of the English Landscape tradition, and it needed to slot into that form of fluid design with viewing points. It needed to feel like a continuation and yet a contemporary interpretation of the historical design,’ Joe explains.
Introducing raised beds with planting of different heights has allowed the designer to make spaces within the new garden that, in spite of the relatively small area, each feel private and not overlooked. ‘There’s a bench, for instance, at the top of the site, in the sunniest part of the
The overall design of the garden also needed to be fully accessible, with plenty of seating, so that as many people as possible can enjoy the garden comfortably.
Great historic gardens such as Sheffield Park were originally designed for their owners and their guests to enjoy, not for the hundreds of thousands of people who visit them today. Any seating that was put in, therefore, was more likely
to have been designed so one or two people could capitalise on a particular view or a special environment or feature, or it may have been added later, to comply with regulations affecting public spaces.
Having spoken to frequent visitors and local user groups such as Headway, a braininjury charity, Joe understood that they not only wanted to have seating that was flexible
garden,’ he says. ‘The seat runs along one side of the raised bed we’ve put in there and along its other side is the main path that leads you through the wider new garden. The height of the planting within the raised bed is such that when you sit on the bench, you have no idea the path is anywhere near you so you feel secluded, as if that spot was waiting to be discovered.’
The layout
There are three different types of planting area within the new garden, a response, Joe explains, to the requirement in the final brief that while the garden should be a place for experimental planting and planting husbandry, it also needs to sit comfortably within the existing landscape.
‘The Dry Exotic area is the most eye-catching and the second, the Gondwanan Forest area, is more focused on southern hemisphere planting, but the third area, the Temperate Woodland, contains dry, shady, groundcover planting that includes many species that designers will be familiar with, such as Brunnera and Azaleas, so that as this section merges with the wider landscape, it relates to it. That’s the balancing act we had to perform, providing a core area that’s quite unusual and then making sure the rest of the planting sat well within its context.’
The layout was largely dictated by the mapping out of the tree root protection zones as these dictated where the team could make any interventions. The veteran oak was especially challenging as its status required the zone to be a radius that is 15 times greater than the radius of the tree’s girth. ‘That’s why the timber boardwalk had to go in, so people can get close to the tree and experience being under its canopy without compacting the roots.’
depending on their needs but that they wanted to feel they could stay in the garden without worrying about overstaying their welcome.
‘The seating was clearly critical,’ he says.
Measuring between 36.1, 39.4 and 45.11 feet (11, 12 and 14 metres) in length, the three oak benches that delineate Joe’s sinuous garden are capacious and delightfully multi-functional.
‘In places, there are backrests, and in others, the surface widens so you can lie down and look up at the sky or sit with others to eat a picnic or listen together while someone talks,’ says Joe.
There are also huge boulder-like seats dotted around that can be used to perch on or scramble over. ‘They’re made of Sequoia which, like all the timber we’ve used is local and which fell either as a result of the weather – the oak is from trees that came down in the 1987 storm – or disease,’ says Joe. ‘The redwood is not as durable as oak so it’s has been scorched to give it an extra layer of protection.
‘The seating is not just furniture,’ he continues. ‘It’s been designed as part of the garden so that it’s fully integrated into the place.’
The dry exotic beds include equatorial plants such as New Zealand native Corokia cotoneaster (wire netting bush, seen by the end of the bench) as well as zingy euphorbias.
‘THE NO-DIG BEDS HAVE ENDED UP AS A MOSAIC OF PLANTING, WITH FERNS AND SHADE-TOLERANT GRASSES.’
including N. antarctica, and Podocarpus salignus and P. nubigenus, which are from Chile and Argentina.’
A visit to Lullingstone Castle to see The World Garden there and to meet its creator, Tom Hart Dyke, set Joe on the path to his southern hemisphere plant selection.
‘He advised that I really needed to identify the fortieth to forty-second parallels, which cut through parts of Argentina, Chile, Tasmania, southern Australia and New Zealand, and it was Tom who told us what to look at from a species point of view.’
The horticulturist and plant hunter also advised Joe that with harder winters just as likely as drought-ridden summers in Britain, and especially in the south-east, he would need to consider elevation too. ‘We needed to select plants that can grow at altitude and can cope with cold temperatures.’
Below: aside from some plant labels, signage has been kept to a minimum in the garden, to encourage visitors to think and imagine freely.
WHO’S WHO
Main contractor, The Landscaping Consultants, thelandscaping consultants.co.uk
Garden for the Future at Sheffield Park and Garden, funded in part by The Royal Oak Foundation and a generous legacy in a will, nationaltrust.org.uk/ sheffield-park-and-garden
The planting Aside from the few Hamamelis and Cornus, which were relocated to another part of the Park, and the specimen trees, which had dictated the layout, there was no existing planting. Joe also decided that instead of ameliorating the heavy clay, they would create the experimental planting conditions required for the garden by introducing different planting mediums through a series of interventions.
‘For the Dry Exotics plantings particularly, we’ve built raised beds and filled them with a mixture of recycled crushed brick and sand, a recipe we created with the Trust’s own soil consultant and with Bourne Amenity. Under the trees, we’ve created no-dig beds with layers of cardboard and as we could only build up to 200mm above the existing root zones, that’s ended up as a mosaic of planting, with ferns and shade-tolerant grasses, perennial forget-me-nots and shrubs such as Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’ and Azalea species.’
In building his plant list, Joe has taken the least risk with the trees as they should live longest and are, he feels, most likely to see the hardest conditions. ‘We’ve introduced species such as Araucaria, which we had to bring in and so had to deal with the nightmare Cites paperwork, and we’ve also introduced some Nothofagus,
Health & safety
The boardwalk, which is on screw piles to raise it above ground level to avoid damaging the roots of the veteran oak, has to comply with health and safety regulations so it has been made with a reclaimed marine timber that is highly impermeable and unlikely to become slippery. A low-level bumper rail runs along both sides of the pathway, to stop buggies and wheelchairs from coming off it and great care has been taken to make sure there are no trip hazards, and that the thresholds and the benches were designed so wheelchair-users can easily sit with and move around them.
Dave Root and his team at Kelways have been highly valued collaborators throughout – ‘Together we figured out what would and wouldn’t work’ – and all the plants have been grown on in peat-free media, in line with Trust policy. ‘That brought its own challenges,’ says Joe, ‘but experimentation is part of the garden’s reason for existence.’
Prostanthera cuneata, a southern hemisphere evergreen shrub with aromatic foliage and lovely white flowers, is the plant that Joe will be watching with the utmost interest this winter. ‘It doesn’t look very tender but it’s the one I’m most worried about and I limited the number on the plant schedule,’ he admits. ‘It’s a lovely low-mounding, fine-leaved shrub and I’m hoping the drainage will mean it’s going to do well but I’m a bit nervous about it. More so than the aloe which I think will be alright, again, because of the drainage although if we have a very hard winter this year, well, that would be a bit unfortunate in the first year.’
He is also keeping a weather eye on the three different varieties of Euphorbia. ‘They’re all in different places and it’s such a useful, versatile plant with a long flowering season, which is why we designers use it so much. It would be nice to see what happens to those.’
Last but not least, there are also several Salvias in the beds, including the aromatic ‘Nachtvlinder’. ‘The Trust wanted a bit more diversity in the plant list so we put in a few more salvias and unless we’re really unlucky this winter, they should all come back but it’ll be interesting to see how they do.’
Above: Aloe striatula, a sturdy succulent that grows in the Karoo region of South Africa. Behind it are flowers from an annual pictorial meadow mix and to the right (above right) is a Chamaerops humilis
ANOTHER DIMENSION
Furniture, sculpture, and accessories have more than a walk-on role to play in garden design
Awell-designed garden should be beautiful, long-lasting, and sensitive to the wider landscape. It also needs to be fit for its owner’s purpose. ‘How clients use their gardens is fundamental to the design process, and places in which to sit, on well-made and well-considered furniture, are just as important as the planting choices,’ says garden and landscape designer Tabi Jackson Gee.
‘Finding the right furniture, and other pieces, for clients is a big part of the design process,’ agrees garden designer Ed Oddy MSGLD. ‘There’s
nothing worse than nice planting or landscaping and not-so-great features. I think it can really bring a scheme down.’
‘As designers, we talk about focal points’ adds Tabi, ‘and while these can so easily be a specimen tree or something created with soft landscaping, I think it’s wonderful to have other options available to us, such as a piece of sculpture chosen by the designer and client and made by an artist whose work you both admire. Or a large planter with beautiful detailing on it, made from interesting materials.
‘The narrative you build with the
Above: furniture from Gloster’s Bora collection, designed by Henrik Pedersen and available through The Modern Garden Company (moderngarden.co.uk).
planting and the hard landscaping can be enhanced with carefully considered furniture and sculpture,’ she continues. ‘Interesting standalone pieces, whether furniture or sculpture or planters, start a dialogue with the surrounding planting and setting, and with the landscape beyond; they also add another wonderful dimension to a garden.’
Golden opportunity
Factoring furniture, sculpture and decorative pieces into the garden design process is a golden opportunity for designer and client, then. ‘If you’re putting in hard landscaping, you’re thinking about where people are sitting, and so on, so you’re probably thinking about furniture at the same time,’ says Tabi.
‘The materials you’re using on a terrace, and the hard landscaping choices in general might naturally fit well with another material that you could recommend for the furniture while the colour scheme and form
of the planting might be enhanced by certain tones and forms that could be found in planters, obelisks, or any other manmade shapes that you are introducing to the garden.’
Searching for the right furnishings can take time, though, precious hours that a designer, and a sole trader in particular, perhaps may feel they cannot include in a client proposal. However, says Tabi, ‘I’ve never come across a client who’s felt confident about choosing garden furniture and it’s such an exciting area to expand your business; there are so many ways to make it your own.
‘It can be something you do together with your client. If they lack knowledge or interest in planting but you notice they have a great eye for furniture, you can work together to develop a furniture scheme for outside that fits with their taste inside their home.’
Familiarity with the best suppliers (such as the Society of Garden + Landscape Designers’ list of
Left: Sheep benches, by Fred Clark for Them Outdoors (themoutdoors.co.uk), and garden building by Bonni Outbuildings (bonnioutbuildings.com).
Right: shell planters by Mel Campion for Them Outdoors.
Affiliated Business Partners (ABP), sgld.org.uk) and having a clear concept and budget will help to take a lot of the time-consuming web-scrolling out of the equation.
‘We understand how to translate a designer’s vision into a cohesive, refined outdoor scheme,’ says Susan Perry, Director of SGLD ABP member The Modern Garden Company, ‘and our support extends far beyond product selection; we provide moodboards, swatches, design development, procurement management, and industrybenchmark levels of delivery, installation, and after-care. In other words: designers gain a trusted partner who can bring their ideas to life with precision, while clients benefit from a considered, stressfree experience.’
Limited editions
A growing number of designermakers create bespoke or limited-run pieces suitable for outside use. Artists Eleanor Goulding and Russell
Denman (denmangould.com), for instance, specialise in working with fellow creatives to create unique artworks for public realm spaces such as the wildlife pods for pre-registered SGLD member Maeve Polkinhorn’s Haven garden at the Southbank Centre.
Pearpod (pearpod.co.uk) began as a one-woman band and has evolved into a small team of women across the south-west of England who weave willow harvested from the Somerset Levels into cocoon-like garden pods and other bespoke features, while
‘WE’VE MADE BENCHES FROM MUCH-LOVED TREES THAT HAVE FALLEN DUE TO THE WEATHER IN CLIENTS’ GARDENS.’
optional extra might be one way to gauge interest from clients,’ says Tabi, ‘but personally I would always include it in my main fee proposal as I think it is so important. I would also have it on the moodboard from the moment we start the project process.
‘The best time to involve us is right at the beginning, while the garden’s layout and functions are still being shaped but before specifications are locked in,’ says Susan. ‘This way, we can bring our expertise to the table early – advising on materials, dimensions, durability, and placement – so that the design isn’t just visually striking, but also practical, achievable, and perfectly suited to the site, timeframe, and budget.
‘That said, designers shouldn’t feel they’ve “missed the moment” if they come to us later. Because of our design-led, collaborative approach, we’re usually able to step in at almost any stage, helping to refine selections, solving challenges, and seeing a project through to completion.’
Talking to clients about materials, and the origins of everything that is going into their garden, is another opportunity to raise the matter of furniture and accessories.
Tabi’s new online gallery venture, Them Outdoors, offers very carefully curated furniture, sculpture, and accessories by artists who know their materials and who are expert craftspeople.
When Ed needed a bench for one of his garden projects recently, he struggled to find anything suitable off the shelf. ‘I was looking for something really solid and chunky but not just a square-sawn piece of wood; it needed to be special, crafted, and in the end, I decided to design it myself and the Bow Tie Bench is the result. I’ve always loved the bowtie/ butterfly/dovetail key/Nakashima joint, so I used that as my inspiration for the design of the overall profile and leg construction and had it made from a piece of green oak that, over time, turns silver and mellows into the environment.’
Ensuring furniture, planters and accessories are intrinsic to the design process makes it easier to introduce them early to client conversations. ‘Offering furniture sourcing as an
‘We’ve made benches from muchloved trees that have fallen due to the weather in clients’ gardens, which is a way of putting the tree to good use and enabling it to live on in a different way,’ says Ed. ‘We’re also using solid green oak sourced from storm-damaged trees all within thirty miles of the sawmill where I’m having future commissions for the Bow Tie Bench and my other designs made.’
Understanding the story behind how or where something was made, and by whom, adds a deeper layer of meaning to a garden and makes it more special and unique to the people who live there. ‘You could incorporate something small and beautiful into a scheme as a talking point whilst still having money for a well-made, well-designed set of furniture that comes from a quality supplier such as Hay or Jennifer Newman, or that you or they may have found at a reclamation yard, auction or vintage market, for example,’ says Tabi. ‘The whole point is for you the designer to help your client curate something that has meaning for them.’
Bow Tie Bench, by Ed Oddy MSGLD, made to order, edoddy.co.uk.
MEET THE COUNCIL
he Society of Garden + Landscape Designers (SGLD, or Society of Garden Designers as it was then) was formed in 1981, to support and promote the work of garden designers (as opposed to landscape architects or gardeners). Today, that mission remains the
Tsame and the Society continues to be run by its garden and landscape designer members, through its Council.
The make-up of that august group, and its responsibilities, are governed by the Society’s formal Articles of Association and values but who are the people who sit on the Council and what do they
COUNCIL ROLE: LEAD FOR CPD
JOANNA ARCHER MSGLD studied garden design at the Inchbald School of Design and was awarded the Director’s Top Student Award at her graduation. She founded her eponymous studio in 2009 and creates gardens for private clients in London and further afield.
When did you join the Council, and why?
I joined in February 2024 having been a cluster group leader for some 18 months beforehand. I was one of a committee of seven leaders for the West London Group and responsible for organising the talks and garden tours and as I see the Council as a natural next step, when I was asked to join, I considered doing the same thing on a wider scale and at a higher level as an exciting challenge.
What position do you hold and what does it entail?
I took up the mantle of lead for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) from Ali Paterson MSGLD and I quickly realised, it is a huge job. Previously, the goal for the CPD programme had been to provide relevant material for people on the pathway to accreditation and the content was aimed more at our pre-registered members. I believe we should be providing CPD for all our membership categories, and the fact that the Society is in the process of applying for Chartership makes that even more important as CPD is and will be a vital cornerstone of that development.
How is the programme being developed?
It has been a busy first 18 months. I began by surveying members to find out what they wanted from the CPD programme, and in what format. I had a great response and have been working through the suggestions since then, finding the right tutors and working with our Affiliated Business Partners (ABPs) to provide the desired content and to create courses, talks, workshops, and tours that will be interesting as well as suitably tailored to the range of audiences that forms our membership.
Then, with the invaluable assistance of the Society’s administrative team, I set up the new programme of events and that is now live and proving to be popular.
do, and can anyone become a part of the group?
We have already met the present Chair, Andrew Duff MSGLD, ViceChair and Treasurer John Wyer FSGLD, and Chair of the SGLD Awards Lynne Marcus FSGLD. Here, we meet the Council’s lead for Continuing Professional Development, Joanna Archer MSGLD.
The Society’s website was being redesigned at the same time as all this so I have also worked really closely with the web team to overhaul the CPD web page. That too is now up and running and I hope members feel that it not only looks much more inviting but that it is informative and easy to use. Developing the CPD programme and finding and working with the tutors is the main, ongoing part of the job. Alongside that, however, Council and I have agreed that for the rest of 2025, I should also focus on making the CPD sessions as accessible to members as possible. We are working on a way of offering recorded content via the SGLD’s online shop, for instance, which is very exciting and the launch will be announced in due course.
I am also working with the Society’s PR team, Hind + Osen, to promote CPD via a new-look e-newsletter and we are also working on a social media-based approach, with stories that click through to our online calendar.
How much of your own time do you spend on Council business?
I treat it like a garden project. CPD and SGLD work is a live project and a permanent entry on my weekly, monthly and annual schedules and I put as much time into it as I do for all my other work. It is a juggling act but the SGLD admin. team is incredibly efficient and once I have spoken to and confirmed the engagement of a tutor, they do all the nitty-gritty thereafter.
My work is to be more of a creative strategist, I suppose. However, CPD is not something that can be done in isolation; it is linked to the ABPs, so I work with the lead for Sponsorship & ABPs; it is linked to the cluster groups, so I liaise with the National and International Co-ordinator; and of course, a lot of the CPD is to do with sustainability so I am linked to and do a lot of work with the SustainabilityWorking Group too.
What do you hope to achieve during your tenure and what would you like to be your legacy?
I want to see the CPD programme fully reinvigorated and more accessible. To that end, my most recent development has been to work on several series of Bitesize content sessions across many different topics, from business to CAD software. These are CPD sessions that are an hour long, cost a few pounds, and take place in the afternoons so that members can settle down to watch them with a cup of tea at the end of a working day. We began using the approach with the Sustainability Working Group’s Sustainability Bitesize webinars and the level of take-up has been so good it has shown us this is a formula for success and we are going to roll it out across other areas.
If I was to talk in terms of a legacy, I think it would be to see that CPD has become second nature to our members, that they attend as many of the events as they can because they see the value in it, and that they understand that that is how they improve their professional careers and the service they provide their clients. I want people to engage in continuous learning, to make it a painless experience and for there to be something for everyone all of the time, be they a Student, a pre-reg, a full member, or a Fellow. On a wider scale, I would like our CPD to help our members achieve a level of professionalism that draws the attention of the public, for the right reasons. Why should we not become the RIBA of the garden and landscape design world?
Would you encourage all SGLD members to consider serving on Council?
Yes, provided they are well-organised and committed to the Society’s forward momentum. Council service means embracing change and contributing to collective goals, especially as we move towards Chartership, which will mark a significant new chapter for us all.
‘I WANT PEOPLE TO ENGAGE IN CONTINUOUS LEARNING, TO MAKE IT A PAINLESS EXPERIENCE AND FOR THERE TO BE SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE ALL OF THE TIME.’
Joanna Archer MSGLD
HAVE YOU ENTERED THE SGLD STUDENT AWARDS 2026?
Calling all SGLD Student members graduating this year or in 2026, or who graduated in 2024: have you registered your entry to the SGLD Student Awards for 2026? If not, you are warmly encouraged to do so as soon as possible.
AWARDS CATEGORIES
• Student Design Public Realm
• Student Design for the Environment
• Small Domestic Garden for projects up to 350 sq m
• Large Domestic Garden for projects over 350 sq m
• Open Choice - the Awards judges will allocate your entry where they consider it has the strongest chance of success
Deadline to register:
29 October 2025
Deadline to submit entries:
5 November 2025
To enter: sgld.org.uk - ‘Events’
POST-RHS CHELSEA 2025 REPORT
Rachael Emous-Austin MSGLD’s design for the Society of Garden + Landscape Designers’ trade stand at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show was a hit with the RHS Judges, who awarded it with four out of five stars. They loved the concept and the design, which was, they said, very eye-catching and ensured we stood out from other trade stands and trade body and college stands, writes Andy Barringer, the Society’s lead for Sponsorship, Education and Membership.
We do not create our stand to please the Royal Horticultural Society, of course. However, if the RHS Shows team feels that what we present does not enhance the customer experience of visiting the Show, we will not be invited to return. The SGLD Council, therefore, must always take this into account when deciding what our trade stand looks like at Chelsea Flower Shows.
Our four stars this year has assured our place on Eastern Avenue again in 2026 and the SGLD has already launched its competition for members to design the stand for that year, with entries due to be judged soon – see Garden Design Journal, August/September 2025, page 41.
THE STATS
Returning to our presence at this year’s Show, our stand location, very close to the showground’s main entrance and exit, means we are in prime position to witness the ebb and flow of visitors. In previous years, arrivals at 8am
Rachael Emous-Austin MSGLD’s design for the Society’s trade stand at RHS Chelsea this year was an artfully visual and physical journey (pictured: her elevation, below, and the built stand in action, above, day and night).
‘IF WE’RE TO ATTRACT POTENTIAL CLIENTS FOR MEMBERS, THIS HAS TO BE ONE OF THE MORE IMPACTFUL WAYS OF DOING IT.’
have been constant and heavy for the first 20 to 30 minutes. This year, however, the surge took place later in the day, with people on the afternoon or evening tickets and therefore with less time to spend looking at everything.
This was reflected in visits to our stand.
Across the week, a total of 1,012 people came to talk to our volunteers and take a leaflet, while 1,596 took a leaflet but did not engage with us. The number of visitors looking for a garden designer was up by 19 on last year’s figure, and while we saw a slight drop in the number of those who visited us on RHS member days, the number was up on non-RHS member days (up by 70 across three days on the results of the last two years).
Visits by existing SGLD Student members was very slightly down, but more concerning was the decrease in the number of potential Student members, a factor that may have been due to the Show ticket prices. Certainly, we noted that most of the garden design students who visited us came onto the stand during the afternoons, i.e. they were using the more
economical Show tickets, and most of them told us that they wanted to get around the show gardens in a shorter time.
FEEDBACK FROM OUR VOLUNTEERS
Happily, all 30 of the rota slots for volunteers to be on the stand to talk to visitors were filled at the first time of asking, and I for one am very grateful for all their help and energy throughout the week.
Their feedback has been overwhelmingly positive about the stand and the need for the SGLD to be present at Chelsea. ‘We ABSOLUTELY have to be at all the RHS Shows,’ says one. ‘If we’re to raise public awareness and attract potential clients for members, this has to be one of the more impactful ways of doing it.’
Others have added: ‘A fun atmosphere’; ‘a playful, visual stand’; ‘great plants’; ‘design books with the members’ plans were great’; ‘useful meeting point’; an opportunity ‘to explain the importance of the Society to the public and its members’; ‘we’re a friendly bunch and need to get this across to everyone’. There was a feeling that the Show overall felt slightly quieter than usual, which was reflected in our experience on the stand (there were several long periods when no one visited followed by a sudden rush of several visitors all at once). However, ‘the scent of the roses was a draw and initial talking point...there should be a huge number of good, solid leads for future members and clients from all over the country’ is a positive note on which to close our RHS Chelsea 2025.
SGLD MODEL SPECIFICATION RELEASE
he Society of Garden + Landscape Designers (SGLD) is pleased to announce that it has now released the SGLD Model Specification, which we have designed to build upon and replace the Heather Spec, writes Paul Harris, the Society’s project manager for the Specification
For those who have not yet tried the new Specification, its objective is to assist designers in accurately specifying their designs so their landscapers can have a more comprehensive understanding of the project in hand. This greater clarity has multiple benefits, such as increased cost certainty, reduction in unforeseen changes, and the reduction in liability to both designer and contractor. However, the main benefits of a comprehensively considered design are, of course, better end products and happy clients.
The release of the Specification has necessitated essential changes to correct information that came about from differing working practices and guidance over time. We deliberately constrained the scope of the update as it is a stepping stone to a more radical approach to specifying that the SGLD has been working on in parallel. The latter will be a more user-friendly, web-based tool that will replace the current Word-based document.
We are also engaging with other interested organisations such as the British Association of Landscape Industries, the Landscape Institute, and the Association of Professional Landscapers, which have experience and needs that will make this a more useful tool for all of us.
It is too early to say when the digital specification product will be available, hence the release of the updated Word-based SGLD Model Specification in the interim. However, the SGLD Council will be meeting interested third parties this autumn and further news will be shared with members as soon as it is available.
NB. Pre-registered and full members of the Society have been issued the updated SGLD Model Specification as part of their membership package. We have also provided it to those who have purchased the old version in the last year. For everyone else, this product is available for purchase via the SGLD office; email info@sgld.org.uk
MEMBERS’ SUCCESSES WITH POCKET PLANTING
re-registered SGLD member Maeve Polkinhorn has been given the glad news that Haven, a temporarily installed micro-meadow with wildlife-friendly sculptures that she designed and built with artists Denman + Gould in 2023 as part of the Southbank Centre in London’s Planet Summer Programme, will now continue to grow in place until 2027.
‘Haven has added a real sense of joy to the Southbank Centre’s classical Brutalist landscape,’ says Cedar Lewisohn, Curator of Site Design at the London arts centre. ‘It’s a delight to see the plants coming and going with the changing seasons and members of the public and staff have noticed birds, bees, butterflies, and insects enjoying the flowers and making use of the wooden pods.’
More than 40 British native plant varieties live in the planting that covers the 269-square-foot (25 sq m) site, supplying multiple food sources for insects and birds, and even browsing bats. A succession of wildflowers blooms over the spring and summer months, followed by a wonderful display of seedheads in autumn and winter.
Resting and nesting space is provided by the plants and three sculptural wildlife hotels, which rise on stems amongst the foliage. Hand-carved in
untreated, sustainably sourced English oak, these ‘pods’ echo the seedheads that develop around them as the seasons progress.
‘The pocket meadow demonstrates that modest urban spaces can become valuable, biodiverse habitats capable of supporting many species of flora and fauna,’ says Maeve. ‘Along with those who care for larger green and grey urban spaces,’ she continues, ‘home gardeners can take inspiration from Haven and the range of visitors it attracts and use their small balcony or windowboxes to help counter habitat loss.’
‘Haven brings a sense of wildness to Southbank and offers much-needed support to the creatures that depend on it,’ add the artists, Eleanor Goulding and Russell Denman. ‘The meadow can be viewed,
‘THE POCKET MEADOW DEMONSTRATES THAT MODEST URBAN SPACES CAN BECOME VALUABLE, BIODIVERSE HABITATS.’
and listened to, by the public, but it can’t be directly accessed by people. Wild creatures are the only true visitors. However, we all benefit from their presence and this type of habitat.’
Haven can be seen all year round on a balcony adjacent to the entrance to Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre. For the full story of Maeve’s design and installation, see page 18 of the November 2023 issue of Garden Design Journal.
This summer, SGLD Educator Norfolk School of Gardening celebrated the achievements of its 2024-5 cohort of Diploma in Garden Design students.
Among them was SGLD Student Laura Strand who, days earlier had, together with her fellow Norfolk School of Gardening student Sam StarkKemp, won a Gold medal and the Best City Pocket Planting award for their Teucer Wilson: Green the Gap Garden at this year’s RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival.
The designers are both career-changers: Laura is an award-winning jewellery designer and for many years Head of Design for jeweller Jessica McCormack while Sam is an experienced horticulturist who originally trained at The Savill
Below: now entering its third year of growth, the temporary roof meadow called Haven has become a welcome year-round sight nestled into the Brutalist architecture of the Southbank Centre.
Words, Arabella
St John Parker; photographs, (Haven) Joanna Kossak, Denman + Gould
Garden and worked for the National Trust and private Norfolk gardens before, like Laura, deciding to switch to a career in garden design.
As a Student member of the SGLD, Laura read about show garden opportunities in one of the Society’s monthly newsletters. ‘I rang Sam and asked if she fancied designing a Pocket Planting garden with me for RHS Hampton Court. That was the beginning of our collaboration,’ she recalls.
Their award-winning début show garden, a pocket design for towns and cities, was both an opportunity for them to explore the creative re-use of materials and to offer Show visitors a solution for creating a compact but sustainable splash of nature in the middle of a built-up area that would be a sanctuary for wildlife and a visual enhancement for people passing by.
Off-cuts and unwanted pieces of Portland stone donated by Albion Stone were repurposed by Norfolk-based stone carver Teucer Wilson into sculptural forms that echoed a city skyline. These were arranged in Sam and Laura’s ruderal-styled plant scheme of drought-tolerant species that included Seseli gracile, Bulbine frutescens, Stipa tenuissima and Reseda luteola, with concrete from a demolished workshop crushed and used as a mulch.
‘Visitors have an immediate understanding and sense of place captured by the designers,’ said Jo Thompson, Head of the Judging Panel. ‘The verticality resembling a cityscape through beautifully selected tall trees and recycled stone carved pillars perfectly reflect the garden’s intent. Planting was refined and considered with a sense of real horticultural knowledge and evolution while an atmosphere and sense of theatre was balanced with a cohesive and considered overall design.’
Laura and Sam, who have now set up Stark Strand Garden Design (starkstrand.co.uk), created their début show garden at the same time as finishing their studies to complete their diplomas at the Norfolk Gardening School. ‘It was a whirlwind, studying, designing, working our day jobs, and building a business all at once,’ recalls Sam. ‘There were a lot of late nights, but we realised how well our skills complemented one another, me from a design background and Sam from horticulture. We knew it was a winning combination and not just that, we worked really well together and shared a clear vision of what we wanted to create.’
OFF-CUTS
AND UNWANTED PIECES OF PORTLAND STONE WERE REPURPOSED INTO SCULPTURAL FORMS THAT ECHOED A CITY SKYLINE.
Above right: SGLD Student member Laura Strand (left and pictured below left, at her graduation show) and non-member Sam Stark-Kemp designed their first show garden (above left and below right) for RHS Hampton Court 2025 while completing their diploma in garden design at the Norfolk School of Garden Design.
BY: MONIKA MAECKLE
PUBLISHED BY: TEXAS A&M
UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRICE: £31
ISBN: 978-1648432446
BOOK OF THE MONTH PLANTS WITH PURPOSE: TWENTYFIVE ECOSYSTEM MULTITASKERS
Journalist and nature writer Monika Maeckle has an easy conversational style that is underpinned by thorough research and close observation. In Plants with Purpose, she demonstrates a solid commitment to engaging with plants on a deeper level and guides readers towards responsible stewardship of the Earth.
Undoubtably a call to arms, the author, who is based in San Antonio, Texas, mostly focuses on plants of the American southwest. It does feel quite back garden in scale, but the wider context is planting practices worldwide and a plea for gardeners and designers to gain a knowledge of their local plants and consider their value for wildlife, ethnobotanical history and uses.
The plant profiles are concise but fascinating and are illustrated with beautiful line drawings and engaging photographs that (in keeping with the text) add to our knowledge of the plants’ usefulness.
Appealing culinary and medicinal recipes are threaded through – Luscious Agastache Brownies sound good to me. There will be plenty of familiar and relevant plants for an international audience, but you also will learn something new and gain a fresh perspective. Further resources and some helpful pointers for planting are listed at the back of the book.
Reviewed by Hannah Gardner, Kew-trained gardener, writer, and planting design and horticultural management consultant.
MY GARDEN: A YEAR OF DESIGN AND EXPERIMENTATION
It is always revealing to see how garden designers experiment and create for their own private spaces. For the last 40 years, Jacqueline van der Kloet has tested out ideas in her home garden, using it as a springboard for her acclaimed designs worldwide. Known for her mixing of bulbs and perennials in a naturalistic way, Jacqueline has worked on many large public schemes, often collaborating with the plantsman-designer Piet Oudolf.
Jacqueline began her garden from scratch in 1985, on an historic bastion in the River Vecht, east of Amsterdam, and it would have been helpful to begin the story with a description of this fascinating site, alongside a map. It is not until halfway through the book that there is a garden plan, presented within a passage about replacing trees.
The book shows the author’s planting combinations, and her responses to problems and challenges, month by month, from September onwards. If a year can be said to begin anywhere, and the gardening year is a continuous process, it is September that is the time for planning and
looking ahead. Jacqueline’s 12 months, with her detailing of trial plantings and techniques, are the jumping-off points for descriptions of schemes that she has worked on as well as what she calls ‘musing and philosophising’.
Just as her work interweaves bulbs and perennials, her writing is interspersed with pages of favourite plants and each month ends with 12 Months in My Garden, a set of photographs taken from a series of spots in the garden. Her excellent photographs tell stories and form as much a part of the book as her writing.
There are border plans for some of her projects and these, together with recommendations for plants, will be very helpful to designers. Her Golden Rules for Bulb Planting, warnings about what not to plant, combinations for containers, and tips about the ‘Chelsea chop’ make this a very practical book from an eminent expert.
Reviewed by Susie White, gardens columnist, RHS-listed speaker, and photographer.
BY: JACQUELINE
PRICE: £35 (HARDBACK)
ISBN: 978-1643264561
VAN DER KLOET PUBLISHED BY: TIMBER PRESS
AN URBAN PLEASURE DOME
Food, ecology and creativity are celebrated in this resilient, multi-faceted landscape for pollinators and people in north London
or award-winning landscape architect Paul Gazerwitz, working on the OmVed gardens in north London over the past eight years has been a challenging but rewarding experience. The project began when his client Karen Leason contacted him about a large plot of land she had purchased on the steep hillside behind Highgate High Street. Paul had worked on two of Karen’s own gardens, and she asked for his advice on how the former garden centre and contractor’s yard could be transformed into a garden for the local community. ‘When I arrived, the greenhouse at the top of the hill was in a state of disrepair, and most of the site was covered in tarmac, while any exposed soil was completely overgrown, with pockets of Japanese knotweed. But this hidden wilderness, tucked behind its urban façade, had great charm and huge potential,’ says Paul.
Planning the unplanned
With the idea of upgrading the greenhouse so it could be used for talks, workshops and other events, Peter took Karen to Petersham Nurseries in Richmond to show her what he had in mind. ‘The OmVed site is undesignated land, and it was unlikely we’d get planning permission to build a new reception centre so we called in HASA Architects to make the glasshouse safe and usable, while I designed a winding path across the steep incline and through meadow planting so visitors can enjoy the views over Highgate,’ Peter explains. ‘Further down the north-facing slope, I designed a productive plot on a terrace, tilted slightly to capture more sun and edged with pleached apple and pear trees.’
Working with the site
‘After removing the tarmac, we tested the soil and, despite the oil spills, found most of it could be reused so it was buried into the ground and top-dressed.’ Any concrete was crushed and used as foundations for the terrace, and as infill. ‘The hill-top soil is free-draining Bagshot sand,’ he continues, ‘but there’s a layer of heavy clay at the bottom so it seemed logical to include two ponds here. New trees, including pollarded willows and Cornus, lime, oak, and elder, were planted around the ponds, providing new habitats and screening the gardens from neighbouring properties. This area is now home to our resident frogs.’
Community benefits
The gardens opened in 2017 and quickly became popular. The glasshouse, however, limited the ambition for a year-round hub so it has been replaced by a cluster of new buildings comprising a kitchen, café and gallery space, seed library, pavilion, and a new greenhouse to showcase permaculture. ‘A roof garden over the kitchen blends the building into the landscape and offers more space to grow a mixture of productive and drought-tolerant ornamentals,’ says Paul. ‘A retaining wall of concrete blocks doubles as a productive growing space and the beds alongside the paths include Arbutus and three types of elderberry planted among the ornamentals. I want to show people that it’s easy to grow food alongside other plants in beds or raised planters rather than in formal rows, and still produce bumper crops.’
studiogazerwitz.co.uk ; omvedgardens.com
A WINDING PATH THROUGH THE SLOPING MEADOW PLANTING ALLOWS VISITORS TO ENJOY THE VIEWS.
