Since 1985 when I started in an Architect’s office after leaving school, training day release and I have been designing ever since. I ran my own Architectural practice from 1994 to 2019 and then moved into garden design from 2019.

Yes. In 2008 I was involved in a major regeneration scheme that won the Royal Town Planning Institute Silver Jubilee Cup, The project even had a full page spread in the Radio Times written by Alan Titchmarsh. I was involved in many projects for Center Parcs such as the rebuild of their site in Elveden after a devastating fire in 2002, their treehouses, through to personally leading the masterplan design of their new village in Ireland.

Not as different as you might imagine. The principles of designing spaces, layouts and shapes that work well together are exactly the same. Gardens don’t have roofs and ceilings, which gives that added dimension in the design to work with. Ultimately, whilst both processes are creative, they equally have to work at a practical level to be successful.

Buildings are largely finished on the day they are handed over to the client whereas gardens are never static and change year on year. I find that an interesting concept to work with and understanding how plants and trees mature is an important part of a successful garden design.

Without any doubt an advantage and my more recent experience has been developing site masterplans in landscape sensitive environments, which is even more relevant. My experience has given me the confidence to see opportunities in challenging sites.

One of my early garden design commissions was a beautiful but challenging half acre front garden in Lancashire which has a 4-metre cross fall and a sewage treatment plant right in the middle and more recently a new walled garden in the open countryside with numerous contentious planning constraints. These are the sort of design constraints I have been working around for years and comfortable with.

Not at all. I love an informal naturalistic garden as much as I love the crisp, clean lines of a contemporary design. Garden design is all about context and creating the right garden in the right place. Working into my designs provision for wildlife is increasingly important, as is considering ways to reduce the environmental impact. Communicating that to clients, regardless of the style or layout, is all part of the process.

Ultimately, clients often have their own preferences that influence design which is great. It is their garden after all and my role is to show them the possibilities but not to dictate to them.

In my architectural career I studied for 5 years and ran a successful practice for 25 years. In 2016 my eyes were really opened to how transferable my architectural skills were to garden design. I worked alongside Sean Murray (winner of the 2015 RHS Chelsea Challenge tv programme) and it was that experience that really sparked the passion and realisation that I had the skills and ability to design gardens professionally.

I initially improved my garden design skills by attending various courses and also designing several gardens for friends and family. I attended numerous garden and planting design courses with the garden designer Adam Frost at his Garden School having been on his first course in 2017. During this time, I also successfully studied a Garden Design Diploma mentored by Prof. David Stevens. I have been incredibly fortunate to have connected with talented designers like Adam, David and Sean over the last few years and have learned so much from them.

My experience is probably quite unusual being able to combine my architectural skills, gardening experience and garden design training, all of which benefits clients.

Every project and client is different so the start point is always a face to face meeting to discuss the brief and inspect the site. I find this enjoyable, chatting through what clients would like to achieve, the challenges and explaining the process.

There are often different options when developing the designs and, sometimes, challenging preconceived ideas of what clients think might work, is all part of the process.

My objective is to create designs that help clients get the best out of their gardens and leave them with design information that enables their project to be built.