Biography
After twenty years working in the creative industries, I retrained between 2015 – 2017 at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to become a horticulturist and landscape designer, opening my studio full time in January 2018. Writing, art and nature have always come naturally to me – my first loves – and they all pointed to this new career after a key turning point in my life.
I have designed over 70 gardens across the UK and written columns and features for Gardeners’ World, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Gardens Illustrated, RHS The Garden and The English Garden. I released my first book, Wild about Weeds, in 2019 and A Greener Life in 2022, and was lucky that both were named The Times Gardening Book of the Year.
The combination of growing, showing and explaining what I do to help others has allowed me to communicate a new approach to gardens I create in my designs. This new wild way connects people to nature deeply and more meaningfully than other gardens can. It is explored in my weekly Wild Way newsletter in which I also share the study of wildlife and wildflowers from our remote farm in the Pennines.
Designs
2023 Easter Shian, Scotland
2023 Huddersfield, Yorkshire
2022 Blackshaw Head, Yorkshire
2022 Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire
2022 Todmorden, Yorkshire
2022 Old Town, Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire
2022 Dulwich, London
2022 Clapham Old Town, London
2021 Heptonstall, Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire
2021 Old Town, Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire
2021 Pecket Well, Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire
2021 Taunton, Somerset
2021 Clapham Old Town, London
2021 Wandsworth, London
2021 Battersea, London
2021 Clapham Old Town, London
2021 Myatt’s Fields, Brixton, London
2021 Holmfirth, Yorkshire
2020 Herne Hill, London
2020 Clapham Old Town, London
2020 Chislehurst, London
2020 Clapham Old Town, London
2020 Fulham, London
2020 Belsize Park, London
2019 Brickland, London
2019 Balham, London
2019 Fulham, London
2019 Abbeville Village, Clapham, London
2019 Clapham Old Town, London
2019 Wimbledon, London
2019 Clapham Old Town, London
2019 Clapham, London
2019 Clapham Old Town, London
2019 Clapham Old Town, London
2019 Battersea, London
2019 Stockwell, London
2019 Leyton, London
2019 Oval, London
2019 Hitchin, Hertfordshire
2019 Clapham Old Town, London
2019 Balham, London
2019 Plaistow, London
2019 Sevenoaks, Kent
2019 Barnes, London
2019 Braughing, Hertfordshire
2019 Bromley, London
2019 Byfleet, London
2018 Abbeville Village, London
2018 Clapham Old Town, London
2018 Edgware, London
2018 Kew, London
2018 Wandsworth, London
2017 Dulwich, London
2017 Camberwell, London
2017 Clapham, London
2017 Clapham, London
2017 Kensal, London
Books
Awards
The Times Gardening Book of the Year 2022
The Times Gardening Book of the Year 2019
Environmental Journalist of the Year 2022 (finalist, GMG)
Garden Blog of the Year in 2017 (winner, GMG)
Gardening Book of the Year 2020 (finalist, GMG)
Garden Journalist of the Year 2020 (shortlist, PPA)
The Drum Top 50 Most Influential People in Social Media
TV
Gardener’s World | BBC
Big Dreams, Small Spaces | BBC
This Morning | ITV
Writing
The Telegraph (gardening columnist since 2018)
The Guardian
Gardener’s World Magazine
Gardens Illustrated
RHS The Garden
The English Garden
Bloom
Rakes Progress
Selected articles
I needed growing space: why I escaped to the country | The Guardian
How I embraced dynamic planting, and why it requires much less effort | The Telegraph
A beginner’s guide to allotments | The Telegraph
30 ways to get your garden ready for summer | The Telegraph
How I created a tropical jungle garden… on my patio in Clapham | The Telegraph
The best flowers to buy for dazzling autumn colour, from clouds of asters to Japanese anemones | The Telegraph
Why vegetables are the real stars of your garden and how to plant them | The Telegraph
5 ways the new RHS Bridgewater is paving the way forward for public gardens | The Telegraph
Gardens: weeds to love and loathe | The Guardian
‘Big up Monty D’: what young people think about gardening | The Guardian
Press
‘It’s critical to make this work’: small firms go online to survive coronavirus crisis | The Guardian
Jack Wallington: back to his roots | National Garden Scheme
How to build a bee hotel | Metro