A new garden design on my drawing board amongst other news

14th July 2025

Very busy recently – as usual – with some lovely new work to tax my design skills. There is a Manor house in my work queue which I’m looking forward to starting. Meantime, here is a new garden design that is currently on my drawing board for a pretty house in Goring, Berkshire. My clients bought the house next door so my job has been to amalgamate both plots to not only look fabulous throughout the seasons but provide shelter, various entertaining spaces & great sight lines… …& here is an axonometric sketch of how it might look. The pool …

Designing my own gardens

16th October 2023

I do love a project! We have moved house several times over the years where we have gutted & redesigned the house & the garden too. It’s fun to design it all but I also really like to put my stamp on a place. Everyone has their own distinctive taste & style & I’m no exception. I thought I’d show you a few of my own gardens I’ve designed & built over the years… Henley on Thames We bought a townhouse right in the centre of Henley as we wanted to be able to walk everywhere & enjoy all that …

April news

28th April 2022

It’s been a busy month as usual but I thought you might be interested to read what I’ve been up to so here’s my April news. I designed several schemes from my French studio throughout February & March & this month I have been presenting them. Wednesday’s presentation was for Jane, a client I have worked with for many years & this is the fifth garden I have designed for her & her husband. It’s so incredibly flattering to be asked to do this – I am very aware of my good fortune. I recommended Tom Gresford who is a …

Progress on our own garden build

29th April 2020

This is a quick progress blog on our burgeoning new garden. I am so pleased with it & truly delighted it is still happening through this wretched coronavirus pandemic. It’s been a brilliant distraction & something that truly brings me joy! David of DS Landscapes is coming on his own & ploughing on with it – all safe & at a distance from us who are mostly working indoors. What a difference now the trees have come into leaf & the planters are planted up too… Look at the size of this heap of compost! This is after most of …

Our own garden is being built at last!

23rd March 2020

After two years of being here, we have completed the work on the house & finally work has started on the garden. As you can see above, the magnificent Acer globosums arrived on the lorry last week. We were very excited & half the village came out to see what was going on! This is my husband posing for a photo. Here they are awaiting their new home. Aren’t they magnificent? I have loved this variety of tree for many years after seeing them in France in village squares providing shade. I took this photo below in 2014 in Provence …

Progress on the home front!

28th February 2019

Moving on from my last home blog I am delighted to report I finally have a lovely studio to work in. So much space too! Phew! It’s been a long haul & quite a drag but it’s all worth it now – hooray! Here are some photo’s of its journey… We moved into our Cotswold stone barn just over a year ago & we’ve had the builders with us pretty much ever since. They have finally left now & we’ve been able to enjoy living here. The layout wasn’t ideal so I redesigned it the way I wanted it to …

New studio on the way!

4th October 2018

If ever you wonder what it’s like working from home – read this! Usually I love it but doing it whilst you’ve got the builders in is just no fun! This is an update on a previous post about our building work… We bought our Cotswold barn last December & we’ve had the builders here pretty much ever since – it’s October 20th as I type! It’s been quite trying to say the least but it looks like we are getting there at last. The whole house has been refurbished & renovated & now the link extension to my office …

A garden designers own project – from the beginning

17th January 2018

I spend my life designing gardens for my clients but always design my own too. It’s something I love to do & learn from as an added bonus. I’ve had quite a selection over the years; a shoebox with my first little house, a large & casual Cotswold garden, a contemporary courtyard in Henley on Thames, a large & very formal garden to suit my fairly large Victorian house in Berkshire that we sold recently & now this. See blog posts regarding both of these last two gardens. Now I have redesigned what was a pretty confused garden that is …

Designer garden for sale!

3rd March 2017

Here’s the heads up – we’ve decided to sell our beautiful large house & garden. Yes, the time has come to be moving on to a new project. I normally stay around 5 years so it’s a bit of a record to have enjoyed 7 years doing up our large Victorian house & garden here in Berkshire. The garden has been transformed from a seriously awful mess with sheds & island beds galore, into a very simple & stylish formal garden to suit our Victorian house. If you’ve read previous blogs of mine you will have followed its progress which …

My French Foray!

4th July 2016

I can’t remember not loving France & all things French. I find it so inspiring – particularly their grand gardens which are just tremendous. We always spent holidays there with our dog & our dream was to own our own place & work in France for part of the year. A couple of years ago we bought a place in Loches in the Loire Valley & now I divide my time between here & there. It’s working really well; I meet clients here in England, go to site meetings here & then draw over there where there are fewer …

Chelsea Award Winning Garden Design