Sauterelle Limited Garden and Landscape Design was established in 2003, following many years of marketing wines, a devastating skiing accident, several years of taming my friends’ gardens, and a lifetime of passion for plants. Now one of just a few fully registered members of the Society of Garden Designers in the UK, I have turned a passion into a profession.
Designing gardens has been a natural evolutionary process for me in which my design ethos has blossomed and continues to do so... my belief is that striving to constantly learn through looking and discussion, trying new materials, questioning the mundane, accepting nothing as given and always looking at everything with a fresh pair of eyes is the only way to consistently produce a creative, wonderful, inspiring garden. Each garden I design also takes into consideration all of the following elements:
Practicality and functionality
Gardens do not have to be just two flower beds down each side with a path leading down the middle to a garden shed, with a washing line somewhere en route. A designed garden will be a beautiful vibrant outdoor living space that can be used all year round that can and will add real value to your home. It will be a space that you love and will continue to love for many years. The garden may also have a washing line, shed and vegetable garden, of course, and I can turn these usually mundane practical bits on the side into intriguing focal point.
The environment
Protect the planet as much as possible, it’s the only one we have – at the moment. Whilst not on a moral crusade and would certainly not frequently tie myself to a tree in an attempt to save the planet, I do believe we can all do our bit. I endeavour to recommend and specify products from a sustainable source and do attempt to manage my projects with the environment in mind. I try to think ahead – and if we can collect all that rain that falls in the Winter months in preparation for the inevitable hosepipe bans in the summer – I will design with this in mind.
Plants, plants, plants
I just can’t help it; when I stand in a nursery surrounded by plants, I just feel like I am standing in a sweetie shop, with a big grin on my face. I love plants, they are my driving force. I believe that a great design becomes even greater when it is filled to brimming with gorgeous plants; they truly are the icing on the cake. I strive to source unusual and striking plants and will scour the country to get them for you. I don’t really do Marigolds… unless of course I can do something extraordinary with them.
Fully qualified now with an eclectic collection of qualifications including a Higher Certificate in Wine, an Honours Degree in French, Chinese and Linguistics and most importantly an HND Diploma in Horticulture and Garden Design, I am also the proud and delighted recipient of a few awards here and there:
- Sparsholt College’s prestigious Garden Design Trophy for ‘best performance’.
- The Institute of Horticulture Prize for Best Final Project (a strange but intriguing thesis on the use of Industrial materials within the garden).
- The Horticultural Book Prize for Best Overall Performance at Sparsholt College.
- 2004 Daily Telegraph Garden Designer of the Year.
- Whilst not an award... a wonderful experience was to have been filmed over three programmes in the 2005 Channel 4’s Great Garden Challenge, reaching the Semi Finals.
PS: Sauterelle is incidentally French for ‘grasshopper’ a nickname that has stuck – an apt description of my boundless energy, apparently!