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Designing my own gardens

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

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

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!

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

  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 …

A slight deviation from gardens

    We’ve been here for just over 5 years & have been gradually doing the house up as well as creating a garden. Above is the old kitchen that came with the house. Everyone said how lovely it was but it just didn’t do it for me. I did what I could with it – had it painted & bought it smart leather handles but really I wanted more. More worktop space, more circulation space, more light as we are north facing, a proper overhang for our barstools so people can talk to me whilst I cook & now …