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 …

I won again! Best of Houzz 2025

19th February 2025

Hello & apologies for not writing for such a long time – oops!! Time flies as they say 🙂 So on Monday I checked my emails & Houzz had sent me an email telling me I had won the best design award – Best of Houzz 2025. What a lovely start to the week & I’d done nothing to make it happen; the lovely users of the Houzz website had done it so thank you all @ Houzz!! I believe it is about how many saves a garden gets & this one is a Cotswold garden I designed 20 years …

A week of site visits

6th December 2024

It’s definitely Winter here at Manor Farm Barn this week as we’ve had the first flurry of snow. It looked so pretty but didn’t last long sadly. The Winter sun has taken over showing the Hakonechloa off in it’s Autumn colour against the Cotswold stone… Busy busy with work as always – I have several projects being built at the moment so am spending my time travelling about visiting 3 separate sites & my clients both new & existing. On top of that I’m madly trying to get some drawing done. All good – it’s great to be busy – …

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 …

What do you think?

16th October 2024

I don’t really advertise to be honest as I get so much work via word of mouth, my instagram page & here on my website. I’m lucky in that way – thankfully! When I first started out I put ads in various magazines to garner work but all I got were calls from people trying to sell me stuff! I have therefore avoided advertising ever since. Anyway, the Cotswold planning department got in touch recently & asked me if I would add my details to their new online portal. It seemed like a good idea so I said yes. It …

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 …

CAD or hand drawn? Which do you prefer?

16th September 2024

I hold my hand up & state I only ever design & draw using pens & pencils on my AO drawing boards. I stand for hours & become totally absorbed in the process – which I love. It comes naturally & is just how I’m made. I never use Autocad. When I was studying garden design we were given a computer & a book on autocad & left to get on with it. I hated it as the book was written by engineers & I’m not one of those – I am basically arty through & through & my brain …

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 …

Chelsea Award Winning Garden Design