I am a garden designer and artist living in Cambridgeshire, England. I have been gardening since I was around eleven years old and have always been fascinated by plants, flowers and growing stuff. It’s taken me a long time to get round to gardening professionally. I spent the first 10 years of my career as a graphic designer at the BBC and then another 5 freelancing for NBC Europe, Reuters and the BBC. Finally, I studied for a diploma in Garden Design at Capel Manor College Regents Park.

I like to create gardens for wildlife because I feel that a garden without the sound of buzzing bees and birdsong is a pretty empty place. Nature is important to our well being and gardens can be great spaces to re-connect with it. So I don’t use pesticides or herbicides in my garden or recommend them for any garden I design or work in.

Having studied Biochemistry for a while at uni, I can understand how the chemicals that are sprayed to kill off ‘weeds’ and insects are also harmful to us, and why growing things organically is so important to our health. So much of the gardening that I do involves teaching clients how to look after the soil in their garden and how to grow plants healthily without the use of inorganic chemicals.

The gardens I design are about colour and textures, light that filters through leaves and creates dappled shade on a hot summer’s day. There are layers of greenery which change through the seasons and provide interest throughout the year.