Just happy to say that House & Garden magazine have just selected me as one of their featured designers! So pleased as it is such a prestigious magazine & they have chosen a lovely photo of one of the courtyards I designed at Pip’s Place
I have won the Best of Houzz award for 6 of the last 7 years – something I am very proud of. Today I was told I had won the best design award for the 7th time – hooray! Thank you so much to the Houzz community. Houzz showcases the work of great architects, interior designers, product designers, decorators & garden designers. All top of their field so it is a great resource for all interested in the design world or looking for a good designer. If you don’t know it – check it out!
Visiting Chelsea 2021 – I was kindly invited to visit Chelsea this year by Rob Jones of The Garden Design Co ltd with whom I have worked for many years; his company has built many of the gardens featured here on my site. We were there be inspired & to discuss our new projects for the next 18 months. Due to covid the show was a late Summer/ Autumn show which made an interesting change. It was a very early start. Rob had arranged for us to meet before 8am which meant a 4am start for me – yikes! We …
Six years ago our dream came true & we bought a house in France. I love the relaxed French way of life; their fabulous architecture, food, style, culture & in this area – the weather! We bought a stone house two miles away from the Medieval Royal City of Loches in the Loire Valley. It is a picture perfect French town with a fantastic market that takes over all the cobbled streets twice a week. We love to sit & people watch from one of our favourite cafes on a Saturday morning & buy wine from one of the independent …
I was nominated for Muddy Stilettos 2021 best garden designer in Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire recently. It’s their #inlovewithlocal awards which is a very fine thing; their mission is to encourage independent businesses & for people to discover & use those businesses.I have no idea how or by who I was nominated but I was very flattered indeed! I asked my clients & instagram followers if they would kindly vote for me. Such generous & kind people they are as they voted in sufficient numbers to get me into the finals – hooray! According to Muddy Stilettos there were over 500,000 …
I’m madly busy as usual with so many schemes on my books at the moment. I feel very honoured to be asked to design new gardens for some fantastic projects – thanks to all of you if you are reading this. Between site visits I popped in to see one I designed a while back on a glorious sunny day. I actually designed this walled garden back in 2012 & I had a lovely time walking around chatting with my happy client Rebecca & catching up. I felt so proud! Not sure if I am supposed to say that but …
As a designer, I am always juggling several schemes in order to meet deadlines & at the moment there’s no exception. I have a couple of very large Georgian houses in substantial grounds, a new oak framed house with several acres on a sloping site, a Gospel Hall conversion in Norfolk, a large modern house with underground parking & a lake near me in Witney, a cottage in the Cotswolds & a converted stone barn. I am never bored!! Here are a few new drawings to show you what I’ve been up to. It shows a range of projects I …
We had a beautiful blanket of snow this week – the first we have had since the garden was built & it looked beautiful! Sadly it’s all gone as I type but I took some photos I’d like to share. We live on the edge of the Cotswolds in a group of converted stone barns that wrap around our new courtyard garden. Every room looks onto it so it has to pay its way…. It does – waking up to this was such a joy! The frozen pool & Cotswold stone wall looking beautiful in the snow I dashed out …
2020 has been a great year so far. Firstly I’m very pleased to have been invited to be on The List by House & Garden. It’s a prestigious place to be & I am in impressive company so thank you very much House & Garden! I am also delighted to say I won the annual Houzz Best designer award 2020. It’s wonderful to open an email with exciting news so thank you to everyone at Houzz & all the people who follow my work there. Exciting news on the home front too – After two years of builders knocking our …
This is my initial plan for a small contemporary garden on an estate. It’s a great location – right in the heart of Newbury & within walking distance of all the amenities. The downside was the buildings around were quite imposing. The builders had left rubbish around & compacted the ground so much the lawn really struggled. My scheme aimed to create an inward focused garden & provide privacy where needed too. The water feature provides a distraction to the bustle going on beyond the garden. As you can see it was pretty boring when I first saw …