Emma, Designing Gardens in London
Where is home and how do plants fit into your life?
Home is Earlsfield, and I work for my Mum’s London-based garden landscaping company. I do most of the independent designs (using CAD), and a lot of the soft planting, including window box design. I also do updates for clients who like a fresh look - I often go in twice a week to update the plantings in their gardens.
Do you have a digital presence?
No. The landscaping company is a word of mouth business, and has been for the last 20 years.
What do you love about your job?
I love doing window boxes, they are really fun to do (unless it’s raining like today and everything gets dirty) I have my waterproof at all times..!!
I like putting in new plantings - we’ll design a garden and draw a rough planting plan, and then we’ll order the plants, or go and choose them ourselves and see how they fit together. So it will always be me and Mum laying them out, and if we’re short on time, we’ll lay them out and get the team to plant them.
I also go to New Covent Garden Market a lot and I like the community feel of seeing the same people every day. And with project based work there is a lot of camaraderie - let’s get this done, then job well done and let’s go home. That’s nice!
Is there anything that you need to consider when designing London gardens?
A lot of London gardening is about screening other people, without losing light. And a lot of the time you are putting up boundary plants.
There is a real thing in London for having a line of bleached trees at the bottom of your garden, with a hedge underneath it, topiary balls in front, and then seasonal colour between. So you are designing on three levels at all times, hiding your neighbours.
There is always a trade off between light and privacy.
What do you enjoy about working with clients?
Some clients are interested in their gardens and gardening, and it’s a really nice collaborative process. Quite a lot of them know what aesthetic they like, or they’ll go to Chelsea and take photos of the things they like - so you get an idea of the colour schemes and the ‘look’ they are going for.
If we are maintaining a garden over a couple of years, we build an enjoyable relationship. If we are just designing a garden, we usually do one lot of planting in the spring, and then come back in autumn to plant bulbs, and take a look at how everything is settling in.
A lot people assume we plant and then we are done, and they don’t really understand that it is a constant process. There are things that need to be done every year, for instance tulip bulbs need to be replanted and not everyone understands that.
Any intriguing requests?
For a client we planted beautiful Allium ‘Mount Everest’ (which are white and about 110cm) in big plants pots in the front garden - a big statement. She said she loved them, but asked if we could do anything to keep the bees off them!
I was also once asked to plant a window box to look like a Cornish meadow out of Poldark.
Where do you buy plants/get your plants?
We buy most of our plants from New Covent Garden Market. Our main supplier is Evergreen, we have a longtime partnership with them.
We also have specialist suppliers for acers, amazing magnolias, topiary trees - those are usually infrequent, one-off orders.
Are you growing anything at the moment?
No - but the love of plants has snuck over into my home life, where my husband is taking ‘grow your own’ very seriously. He’s got a crop of potatoes going, he’s in a constant battle against slugs, he thinks that snails are absolutely terrible.
I tend not to put too much effort into my garden at home, because I’m involved in gardens all day.
What is your dream garden?
It’s a really difficult question, as I think it ties into your stage of life. So right now I would love a lawn, because I have young children, and I would love the space for them to run and play. But I think as I get older, or if I am living in London it wouldn’t be such a priority for me.
I do love a very full blousy border. Not a wild prairie planting - the type that is so fashionable at the moment. I love a cottage garden! Although I once spent the month of May planting cottage gardens for other people, and I was very ready for some agapanthus and box balls and nothing else!!
I also feel you can get really into a plant, and then by the end of the season you are rather done with that plant for the moment!
Earliest memory of being in a garden?
I grew up in Hong Kong, and my earliest memory of being really aware of plants is that the grass in Hong Kong is actually quite rough, on your feet it feels almost plasticky.
When we came back to Scotland to visit my Grandparents for the summer, I remember standing on the grass, which is almost ninety percent moss, and although it hadn’t rained for three weeks it was completely sodden. Gardens weren’t a huge part of our life in Hong Kong, although we were very lucky to have one!
Pick a plant
It really changes throughout the season, totally changes. I’m currently having a bit of a dahlia moment, they give such… joy! I love that there is ‘a dahlia for every person’ - the big dinner plate styles like peonies, and then you have the little cheery ones, and the ones with intricate forms. I love the fact that they profusely flower, which I think is so nice.
And other than the zinnias and salvias clinging on for dear life, there’s not a lot going on right now (end of October). Whereas the dahlias are still shoving out flower, after flower, after flower!
Astrantia is also one of my favourite plants. And I love herbs - Jekka McVicar, I would love to do one of her courses.
Pick a garden
The Botanic Gardens in Sri Lanka, which are incredible. There is a giant fig tree in the middle, 20 metres across, and when we there, lots of locals were having a picnic under it, with all their children running about.
In the UK, I find gardens tend to focus on families, it’s all about the play area and the tea shop. I would love to walk around a garden with a head gardener, and understand what they are doing with the landscaping and planting. It would be great to have an audio guide tour explaining why they have done what they have done.
Kew is better than most, but generally gardens focus on the ‘nice day out’, and I don’t always feel like I have learnt anything after the visit.
Thoughts on sustainability and gardening?
I think the wastage within the landscaping business is really shocking, everything comes in a tiny plastic pot, and nothing is recycled, you can’t send anything back to the suppliers, it all goes straight to landfill. The wastage is extraordinary. We have clients who come in and strip out their entire garden, a bit like they might re-do their kitchen.
Gardening is as much a fashion as everything else, and it makes the house more marketable. It’s all trend-driven, everything in London is. But plants don’t always play to trends. This year the salvias and calibrachoas have been amazing, but next year they just might not perform. We had one year which was terrible for hydrangeas, every time we planted one it just gave up the ghost. So the following year we didn’t really plant hydrangeas.
We do steer away from artificial plants and grass as much as possible, but of course some clients want it, particularly if they have children.
Last Question… What do you love about plants?
I think one of the things I love most (about plants) is when we have people to stay in Scotland. I’ll go round the garden, and snip, snip, snip. We don’t have a cutting garden, but we have a lot of things that are suitable for vases.
I have a dahlia, roses in the garden, things like astrantias which look really good in bunches; gaura, which you can put into a posey for a night or two and they will look fine. It’s like a little bit of joy, don’t you think? Giving someone a room full of flowers is just the nicest thing.
