About me
I suspect my early interest in plants and colour was more of a hindrance than a blessing to my parents; my clothes were regularly marked with stubborn felt tip and grass stains. I am grateful they chose to foster those interests rather than discourage them. I was never without paper, pens, or green spaces to explore.
I grew up on the southern edges of the Peak District among green rolling hills, tranquil woodlands, and long stretches of pastoral farmland. My mum and grandad tended to my love of gardening within our plot, whilst my dad nurtured a curiosity for what lay beyond it. Nature, it seemed, did not observe the boundaries of our garden as strictly as our neighbours did, coming and going as it pleased. Rather than always fighting it, my mum chose the places where it could settle. She doesn’t remember when Myosotis arvensis (the forget-me-not) found its way in, but each year she would dutifully collect the seed heads and shake them as she walked the borders. It was a quiet, instinctive act of collaboration with the natural world, and one that has stayed with me.
This lesson is fundamental to how I design; creating planting borders that work as a healthy, functional part of nature rather than trying to tame it. I think this approach to planting yields more beautiful results, but also requires less maintenance than one solely focussed on decoration.
Blending thoughtful aesthetics with ecological awareness
It’s easy to look at gardens purely for their utility, and good gardens will provide that perfect space for children to play, or for you to sit and enjoy the evening sun.
But when at their best, gardens are a beautiful conduit between you and the living world. You can express yourself through the colours of the clothes you wear or the rooms you paint, but it is something else entirely to express a love of a colour in a garden and to find that a passing butterfly shares that same preference and wishes to enjoy the space alongside you. That is the magic I found in gardening, and it is a privilege to be able to share it.
Through experimenting with colour, toiling in soil and moving a pen, gardens have brought me closer to myself, to creativity, and to the natural world. The closer that connection becomes, the greater the benefit to the wellbeing of myself and to the ecosystems within which I am working.