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My first introduction and first love of plants came through my cousins’ great rhododendron gardens in Cornwall, and my great grandfather’s conifer collection at Stanage on the Welsh borders. While these Edwardian woodland gardens were mainly the domain of the men, the matriarchy were busy building flower borders to Gertrude Jeckyll’s prescriptions. Even when toying with many new plant combinations it is always to the beauty of the flower garden that I return for inspiration and simple good taste

My first passion was natural history, thus my instinctual style of gardening has tended towards its wilder forms. I see each garden as at a different point along the spectrum between Man and Nature. Some gardens express something closer to Man as Supreme, while others come closer to Nature. Although I love creating formal gardens, my heart prefers to lay down with nature. Nevertheless the garden, whether wild or formal, is both an artifice and a fantasy; the magic is in hiding the hand that made it.

My interest in the Japanese Style evolved out of a desire to comprehend the genius behind the simplicity and abstract interpretation of nature that the Japanese had explored for centuries to such perfection. I am also intrigued how they inscribe Painting, Zen and meditation into their gardens, especially the ancient aesthetic of ‘yugen’, or mystery and depth.

Water; the element that can lift a garden from simply beautiful to the sublime. Blessed are those who have water naturally flowing in abundance but for those who are not so blessed we must give it a go. Creating any water garden, whatever the size is a nerve wracking challenge. My years of experience has lent me a degree of confidence.

Originally I was inspired to create a building that would bridge the aesthetic of Japan and the British school of Mackintosh, as a place for tea and quiet contemplation. The Morton Teahouse was designed in collaboration with the artist/architect Jon Weallans, the building has a steel frame clad in the timber from a Cedar of Lebanon in the garden that needed to be felled. Western red cedar shingles instead thatch.

Although my natural medium lies with plants and nature I do find designing more formal settings deeply satisfying, especially when establishing the most comfortable proportions for garden walls, steps, arbours, fountains and fences. At Morton Hall, I designed the iron arbour, bronze fountain and stone surround before commissioning artisans to create them and instal them on site.