"The client care on this contract was exemplary. A very proficient job delivered with excellent attention to detail."

National Landscape Awards 2003

My family background has always included a love of plants and making gardens - Sundays were often spent admiring plants and sharing cuttings among relatives and I learned the names of the flowers. I grew up in a fairly large-sized, leafy suburban garden which had been landscaped by a previous owner in the style of the time, planted with interesting and exotic species, and I was encouraged to help with the weeding! When we moved to a very large garden in the country, wild flowers became my passion. A career in horticulture, however, was never contemplated as art was my greatest love and after four years studying at art college I went into the fashion industry, beginning as assistant to Rahvis, a ladies' couturier in Mayfair.

After ten years and a great deal of experience in business development, I was unfortunate to be made redundant in the early nineties due to illness, and explored the world of complementary therapies, first as a means to restore my own health and then to help others. Aromatherapy and sports massage qualifications reinforced my belief in ecological principles and I contemplated studying herbal medicine.

Around this time, however, I helped a friend to clear her garden, then designed and made a garden for an erstwhile boyfriend, and I found myself launched into a career in horticulture - back to my roots! So I then decided to study garden design which incorporated art, design and plants.