I call myself simply ‘The Ordinary Gardener’ for many years now I have been a designer of gardens and it is my experiments within my own garden that enables me to both advise and help clients get the best from their gardens. I am a grower of vegetables, cooking food from what I grow, a flower arranger using material from the garden, but above all a lover of nature of all things organic, even the pigeons that endeavour to eat my produce. I believe there must be a balance between ourselves and nature. Each garden I create is different, they are perhaps not instant gardens as those you would see at Chelsea, but both the growth of plants and a clients budget does not always allow such a privilege. However what i aim to do is build and create a garden that over time will grow and develop into a garden that is essentially yours, I purposely work with the client if possible throughout the year, not to make money I hasten to add but in order to create a garden that each season has plants of interest and colour. For example if I was to start in the autumn weather permitting, the design that I have created would be established, the skeleton of structure would be planted using shrubs and trees both evergreen and deciduous, bulbs would also be planted at this time ready to inject spring colour, already the garden is beginning to take shape. In spring perennials would be sourced and planted in-between the already established evergreen and deciduous shrubs, and the bulbs. Annuals can be added in late spring and early summer to allow the shrubs to increase in size filling any gaps. The next stage would be to plant the autumn flowering perennials, ensuring colour right through up until the winter months, the seed heads from perhaps Rudbeckia and Echinacea giving seeds for the birds and winter shelter for the insects. The garden has been created. All that is left is for it to grow and for you to enjoy. This is just a brief outline of I aim to create for my clients, a seasonal garden throughout the year, regardless of the time or the experience they have, I adapt the garden to the clients needs. Each clients needs are very different, and above all I work on each commission from a fresh prospective some gardens being formal garden others contemporary.