My Story into Garden Design

I am delighted that I am now Designing Gardens alongside creating artwork in my busy little studio. This is the story of what led me here.  

Over the last couple of years there has been a natural shift from painting the landscape to pondering how successful landscapes come together in a similar way to a painting.

Having created my own garden with my husband in 2019, I started gardening in 2022 alongside painting. I was immersed in a completely new way of engaging with the landscape. I began to see the impact planting decisions had on shaping and creating a landscape. The gardens I worked in were the result of their specific micro climate, decisions by their inhabitants and custodians, to their history merging together to what they are today. The gardens that had been designed stood out to me, they always had a cohesive feel, a direction, an atmosphere and a strong identity which always intrigued me.

Created with thought, a garden can be a completely immersive artwork; alluring in the way it continually shifts and changes and able to surprise you with colour, form and texture. A garden has the ability to alter how you engage with it depending on how it is put together as well as to create a sense of a place. I noticed how beautiful design and planting can significantly impact a landscape and this became something I was increasingly curious about and drawn to. 

Following my curiosity, I completed an RHS course in gardening at Hever Castle in Kent, learning about plants and how best to care for them alongside a lovely group in the historic Castle gardens. Following on from this, I embarked on a Post graduate Diploma in Garden design achieving a distinction and am now a qualified designer. I am really excited to be designing gardens, reimagining beds and borders and working to create tranquil and painterly gardens to bring people joy, enhance people’s experience of their home. 

That is how I ended up here, allowing my creativity to venture in a new and exciting direction.  It is so rewarding to see and hear of new gardens bringing so much excitement into our client’s day to day life. 

If you would like to have your Garden Designed or to have a new planting scheme established to make the most of what your space has to offer we would love to help. I design gardens with my horticultural husband, Ru, under Mackintosh Martin Garden Design. Reach out to us at info@mackintoshmartin.com and we will be glad to guide you through the process. 

If you know of friends or loved ones who would benefit from investing in a garden design, please do share our details.

Thank you so much for your support, Liza x