On 12 February, Grayshott Gardeners were treated to a very interesting talk from Annie Guilfoyle on What makes a great garden?

Annie is an award-winning designer and a RHS Chelse Flower Show Silver Medallist.  She runs a garden design consultancy called Creative Landscapes and her design work has been featured on television programmes.  Annie is also a garden course consultant at West Dean College and teaches at Great Dixter House and Gardens in East Sussex.  Apart from lecturing internationally, she is also a regular judge for the Society of Garden Designers and has had articles published in Gardens Illustrated.  As well as supporting many charities, she has an online masterclass with Noel Kingsley.  One Social Enterprise she mentioned was The Greenhouse based in Kent which offers second chances through horticultural training to women based in UK prisons.  Their garden won a Gold at Chelsea in 2024

Annie showed slides of different types of gardens in the UK, America, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, describing how different climates, texture, structures, focus and repetition can be used to in a garden, also explaining how structural planting enhances a garden.  If you incorporate different trees, topiary, clipped hedges as well as shrubs and perennials, (not forgetting bulbs and old-fashioned plants), it will give gardens focus and interest.

She ended the evening by saying:

‘However, it’s your garden, so do your own thing’

Annie Guilfoyle

Text by Eda Hughes