Latest work & Cotswold life in March

17th March 2025

Hello, this is just a quick round up of various projects & things I’ve been up to here in Hardwick in March. It was our wedding anniversary on the 5th so we went to The Wild Rabbit at Kingham for dinner. It’s my favourite restaurant where the food & style are both excellent. Highly recommended it’s one of the Bamford/ Daylesford group & all their places are fantastic. I’m a huge fan. Work-wise I’ve quite a range of work on my books at the moment. This one pictured above is my latest garden design & it’s quite complicated. The plot …

Buying mature trees & topiary @ fabulous trade nurseries

29th October 2024

Buying mature trees & topiary for clients is a real perk of my job. I get to go to wonderful places & buy fantastic specimen trees – some so enormous we have to plant them with the aid of a crane. Last week I went with Tom to find trees & topiary for my Bath project currently being built by his team. This is one of my drawings of my design. It is a courtyard garden behind one of the fabulous classical Georgian facades at this elegant townhouse just near the Royal Crescent. My aim is for the garden to …

Homes & Gardens Magazine article November issue 2024

3rd October 2024

Great news! I am really proud to say Homes & Gardens magazine dedicate a whole page of their November issue to a lovely shot of one of my gardens – see Pip’s Place in my portfolio. It’s a lovely article about Autumn & Winter gardens with other top designers work so I’m in excellent company. I’m always talking about how important structure as Winter here in England is a long time, is so this is really relevant!….have a look Thanks to Homes & Gardens magazine, Jacky Hobbs for getting in touch & writing the article, Garden Design Co ltd who …

Well – today is my birthday!

19th August 2024

I am so sorry it’s been such a very long time since I wrote a blog. All I can say is I’ve just been exceptionally busy – apologies! Anyway I am not working today as it is my birthday but as David my web chap has told me off for not writing a blog since May I am writing an update now. Last week I was at my client Jane’s in Coleshill to discuss my design for her new garden & the house she is having built in Old Amersham. Designed by Gresford Architects it will all be stunning! I …

Before & after!

17th May 2024

I do love to show people before & after photos of gardens I have designed. It’s always great to prove what can be done & for me it’s reassuring to see the end results of my time at my drawing board & the toil involved in creating beautiful gardens. I saw a client yesterday who was originally incredibly nervous about making any changes at all but really wanted a lovely garden. She is now over the moon! …they use the garden constantly & will be celebrating a big birthday in it this summer. I hadn’t realised but yesterday she said …

A birds eye view!

2nd May 2024

I had a busy day yesterday with several meetings. The third one was to present the next phase of a very large scheme in the Chilterns – see Pip’s Place in my portfolio. I arrived & all was looking lovely as the garden was coming back to life after a horrible Winter… I arrived to hear a real racket but couldn’t see anything so went to meet Ginni via the back door. Look at what I saw! A bright blue helicopter had landed on the back lawn. Doesn’t it look good with all the camassias! It transpired her gastro pub …

A new Cotswold garden design

25th January 2024

A belated happy new year to you! I had a lovely break with family but that already seems like a distant memory. I’ve lots of really interesting projects on my books at present & am ploughing my way through my project queue. This new garden design is near Bath. It’s a Cotswold farmhouse on a sloping site so is a tad tricky. I do love to play around with levels though so the before & after will be great. I will keep you posted as it progresses. Here are some of my garden plans & illustrations… A couple of my …

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 …

Apologies for my absence!

17th July 2023

How time flies as they say – apologies for my absence from my blog but I’ve been pretty snowed under (again!) Firstly – very sad news as we lost Dillon, our beautiful 16 year old Maine Coon cat a week before we came out to France. He featured in my last blog actually – I showed a photo of him sprawled as usual all over my desk & keyboard. He hadn’t been well & thankfully we were both with him when he unexpectedly died. Such a gorgeous boy & a happy adventurer too as we always brought him to France …

The evolution of one particular garden design

27th October 2022

This is the story of how the garden design process for one reason or another can be a little protracted but we always get there in the end. This is about the evolution of one particular garden design. The entrance at Pip’s Place in the Chilterns. I first met Ginni during the summer of 2018 & took the photo below of her then recently completed house. You can see photos of Pip’s Place in my portfolio that show how it has developed in 3 phases so far. I liked Ginni immediately & really loved this fabulous project! It was pretty …

Chelsea Award Winning Garden Design