What does a garden designer look like?

20th March 2015

I had a call the other day from a lady wanting her garden designed. I was out on site & being windy I couldn’t really hear what she was saying. What I did hear though was that I was recommended by an interior designer who always referred to me as ‘Prada Jo’. Intrigued, I called the lady back when I got back to my studio to discuss her project. According to her interior designer friend I was the garden designer who turns up with a Prada handbag & designs great gardens. It amused me & made me smile – not …

Quite a week last week!

19th March 2015

I have been working at least 6 days a week lately to try & keep up with an amazing workload – I’m not complaining – truly! Just apologising for not writing a blog for yonks & explaining what a nightmare it is when I lose a day to ‘unforeseen circumstances’… In case you hadn’t guessed, my car died in London in the middle lane of the A40 just by Madame Tussauds on my way to see a client. I had a full day planned with several meetings but alarmingly spent a great deal of it directing traffic away from my …

Happy New Year!

20th January 2015

I know I’ve been extremely quiet of late so apologies to those who follow my blogs – I can’t always find the time to write about what I’m up to aswell as getting on with what I’m paid to do! I am having the best year ever as I’m so inundated with fantastic work.Thank you so much to all my super clients old & new for trusting me with your gardens. How I love my job – I am one lucky designer. I’m juggling quite a few different schemes at present & have some lined up too. Here’s what I’m …

Can’t we too have stone pavements?

5th November 2014

After tree buying in Sunny Autumnal Hampshire I dashed off for a few even sunnier days in Portugal for a quick break with my husband. Besides enjoying 25 degree sunshine & warm balmy evenings – yes in November lucky me! It was great to see & enjoy a different culture. We visited the newly built Paula Rego foundation with its fantastic architecture. She was a local girl (now living in London) & designed the place herself I understand – it’s gorgeous… Pictured here next to it on the right is a scientific research centre just up the road from us. …

Buying mature trees for Autumn colour

5th November 2014

Last Monday I spent the day at Hilliers tree nursery in Ampfield, Hampshire. They are a terrific source of British field grown trees & are fairly local to me which is all great. As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m working on a substantial Acer glade for my client Jane, so went with my colleague Rob Jones of The Garden Design Co Ltd as he & his team are implementing the scheme for her. We had a wish list of what we wanted & had reserved some on principle but, it’s really important when buying large expensive specimens that you are really …

Latest News

10th October 2014

Latest News I have been busy on so many projects I’ve not had time to update my behind the scenes section so here’s a brief update of what I’ve been doing… I am part way through a design for a very large (100 acre) estate in the Cotswolds. My client won’t be moving in for a couple of years & it is currently a building site but forward thinking such as this means we can design & get the landscape establishing first. There’s a lake (see above plan) for example which will have a couple of islands & maybe some …

A parterre in the making here at home

18th August 2014

We garden here on a budget as we’ve quite a large garden at just under an acre & only so much spare dosh if I’m honest! We’re doing it ourselves, are still creating it & although gardens are always a work in progress, we’re still building the bones of ours. When we bought the place it was such a mess that needed dismantling & sorting out – here’s proof! Agreed? I wanted to create a new terrace within the garden itself as the one we inherited was in completely the wrong position. It was at the bottom of the garden …

A walled garden in Oxfordshire

15th August 2014

I’ve been really excited about this project as it’s been quite a long time in the making & the difference has been immense. It’s now virtually finished & my delighted clients let me take some photos last week. Here a before & after shots. They show my clients’ office from the house… Quite a difference! We had to lose the tree unfortunately & it wasn’t an easy decision but it was really worth it in the end. This was such a lovely project to design – a virtually blank canvas within a walled garden & beautiful buildings in the Oxfordshire …

Recycling at home

13th August 2014

Recycling at home We inherited several sheds when we moved here four years ago together with sand pits, play equipment & other stuff we didn’t need so we had a big clear out to create the garden I wanted. Friends were delighted to receive various sheds, trellis & a greenhouse (providing they helped to dismantle & collect – we weren’t that generous!) but we did keep one large & very practical shed. Here it is in its original position looking very sad & very brown – yuk! sorry folks but I really can’t stand brown wood stain. I’ve been desperate …

Formal Country Garden

4th July 2014

I designed a formal country garden for my clients Anne & Andrew back in 2008 for their substantial plot in Berkshire. The grounds include paddocks for their daughters’ horses where they wanted some large heritage trees such as oak & walnut. It was quite fun too as Andrew’s hobby is flying helicopters so I had to consider a suitable landing spot. Here is the plan I drew – It is now quite mature & when I visited a couple of days ago was looking just fabulous – The lakes weren’t complete last time I visited so it was wonderful to …