Award - winning Garden DesignerAnn - Marie Powellhas been design private and commercial-grade gardens since 1998 and has since become a prominent figure in UK Horticulture .
In 2021 , Ann - Marie releasedMy Real Garden , a Word of God base on the advice of the on-line residential district she fostered during the lockdowns of 2020 , with issue going to the charityGreenfingers , of which she is a patron .
RHS Gold Medalist Ann - Marie is also place to appear on an episode ofArt of the Gardenin June of this year .
We spoke with her to learn more about how she found gardening , her life history to date and some exciting plans for the future .
Can You Tell Us A Little About How You Got Into Gardening?
“ unco for a Garden Designer , I grow up without a garden , because my male parent was in the army , ” says Ann - Marie .
“ My grandfather was a mineworker and lived in Leeds . He had a very small lawn that he was very lofty of ; I think back he used to cut it with kitchen scissors ! He also had an allotment , which supplement his family table but also give him a rich connection with light and sunshine after spending all his days in the dark .
“ He was so inspiring and I think of him often . ”
Photo credit – Charlie Hopkinson
“ When I was in my early twenties , I went travelling and see India , Nepal , Singapore , Thailand and Central America . That ’s when I see the magic that my granddad was experiencing when he was not down a coal shaft .
“ I ’d been doing textile design at college but drop out as at that sentence of my life sentence , I found the nightlife of Nottingham more fun than studying ! But whilst abroad , the beautiful textures , material and color that nature puts together in a last landscape painting astounded me .
“ When I come up back from go , I enrolled directly into a Garden Design Course at Capel Manor College in Enfield back in the mid-90s . I trained in Garden Design and Hard Landscape . ”
Photo credit – Ann-Marie Powell
What Do You Love About Gardening?
“ I ’ve been designing gardens for long than I have n’t and I still get a kick from it , ” Ann - Marie shares . “ My grandfather once said ‘ find a Book of Job you love and you ’ll never work out a day in your life sentence ’ , and even though I do work very hard , I definitely find that I remove up his advice .
“ I ’m also amazed at how gardening is at the centre of almost everything we do . There ’s a horticultural component in everything that shapes our sidereal day - to - twenty-four hour period , and after so many years , I ’m still learning .
“ I think it ’s dependable to say that without plants , we ’re roll in the hay ! ”
Do You Have A Process For Garden Design? What Are You Inspired By?
“ inspire by all those geezerhood ago whilst travelling , for me , it ’s all about overdraw what nature does so brilliantly , ” she aver . “ We have 2 mottos in our studio apartment : ‘ nature inflate ’ and ‘ plants , people , place ’ .
“ Every garden is different , so we want to make indisputable that we ’re designing each blank for each single client and their unique outside space – I do n’t think any of our gardens are the same .
“ I think one matter we do really well and are not afraid of is colour . Back in the mid-90s , when I first start up my practice , it feel like Garden Designers were being very secure when design their planting schemes and there was a preponderance of green , Edward Douglas White Jr. and pastel people of color .
Photo credit – Ann-Marie Powell
“ I was very much work by Sarah Raven and Nori Pope , who were boldly putting together some exciting and very different color schema together .
“ So , my team and I are exalt by what nature does and what wildlife and environmental science our work with plants bring into any garden we project , be it in a town or city . We like to embrace the wildness and the uncontrollability of nature to create exciting spaces for our node and wildlife to live in harmony together . ”
You Mention You Garden In Your Spare Time –
“ Full - time , ” she laughs . “ Garden design is my vocation , but I do n’t feel good about my lifespan unless I go out into my garden every individual morning before I go to work , and if I can , when I get home too !
“ I garden in almost any spare fourth dimension that I ’ve got – it just make me feel better . ”
Do You Have Any Secret Tips Or Hacks That You’ve Developed Over The Years For The Garden?
“ I think you have to be true to yourself .
“ When people first set out gardening , they ’re very self - conscious about what they do in their own garden . It ’s intelligible , and when I first grab a trowel and a works , I bed I certainly was . You ’re constantly think ‘ am I doing this right ? ’ , so I call back that the best gratuity I can give to any starter gardener is do n’t be afraid of plants because plants want to grow .
“ They do n’t want you to plant them and then to curl up and die . suffer a morsel of confidence around plants in reality enables them to rise well . Think about them as small beings , give them unclouded , and water and run them regularly . That ’s all plants want really – a good kickoff .
“ I also retrieve one of the biggest things citizenry have issues with is that they are really scared to edit their garden . They ’re worried that if they clip something , deadhead it or dig something up to divide it and make something pocket-sized , they are going to stamp out the plant .
“ Editing is something that , as a nurseryman , you ’re doing every single 24-hour interval when you step outdoors into the garden . You need to do what works for you and get rid of what does n’t . Do n’t let fear keep you back . ”
You Published A Book That Seems To Have A Real Focus On The Gardening Community. What Does This Community Mean To You?
“ At the starting time of lockdown , a lot of our projection got put on hold , ” Ann - Marie explicate . “ Our studio designs a lot of gamy - conclusion commercial and individual gardens , and as lockdowns result , many of our client were cautious about the future of their own business enterprise and obviously did n’t prioritize the service we usually declare oneself .
“ It was a really frightening sentence for me , so I ended up doing what I have a go at it best and garden my way , frenetically , through it quite frankly .
“ I find having my hands in the earth foundation and comforting , and it gave me some focus to my Clarence Shepard Day Jr. in between doing whatever I could to keep the business afloat . I started doing Instagram lives on a dissimilar account called@myrealgardenwhere I shared what I was doing in my garden because I believe it might help the great unwashed .
“ The biotic community farm really fast . Every day at 12.30pm for 100 consecutive days I went live and show up people what I was doing in my garden on any particular day , it was such a irrefutable experience for me and , dead , a large joyful , generous biotic community was build .
“ I wanted to do something convinced with this elated community we had built .
“ It was the community ’s estimate that we crowdfund to do a book called ‘ My Real Garden ’ , with a portion of the profits going to my favourite horticulture charity Greenfingers , which I am a patron of . Greenfingers fundraise to build gardens in children ’s hospice throughout the UK ; it ’s such authoritative piece of work .
“ We manage to crowd arouse £ 35,000 , ( books are expensive to raise ! ) which I was blown away by .
“ Everybody from the My Real Garden residential district charge through pictures of their own garden , their gardening tips , tricks and hacks , and intelligence about how horticulture made them feel . My booster Tamsin Westhorpe spent countless hour editing and designing it all , and then had it impress and institutionalize out .
“ It ’s an awing leger . My preferred quote about the book is that ‘ it ’s a compendium of gardening joy ’ – and it really is . It ’s colorful , undimmed and unlike any horticulture volume that I ’ve ever seen , so I ’m very proud of it . ”
Do You Have Any Standout Career Highlights You’d Like To Share?
“ I was late proud to be madea fellow of the Society of Garden Designersrecently . To be picked out by your peer for your contribution to gardening and garden pattern is really quite something .
“ It ’s a vast laurels because these people are those that I look up to and have animate me for the whole of my career , so for them to make me a fellow is quite extraordinary .
“ I was also thrilled last year when my team and I make headway theAmerican Horticultural Society ’s Environmental awardfor our show garden that we did at the Philadelphia Flower Show ; that was super hard body of work for me and my time and came at a specially unmanageable time for me personally .
“ I ’m also majestic to be a patron of Green Fingers , so I can endeavor to raise the every twenty-four hours of small fry with short lives , their families and the stave in the hospice that indorse them .
“ And , I love the My Real Garden residential area and what we ’ve create together , inspiring masses to garden because , whether professionally or personally , if I can give people a tiny bit of the joy that I get from my solar day - to - day horticulture life sentence , then I ’ve done my task well .
“ I think my grandfather would be dead majestic of me . ”
Do You Have Anything Exciting Coming Up That You’d Like To Share?
“ There ’s a documentary about me coming up on the Sky Arts show ‘ The Art of the Garden , ” says Ann - Marie . “ It highlights selected Garden Designers throughout the series and talk about their work and their approach to intention .
“ I ’m really gallant of that because it ’s a really great series . I ’m so nervous about my episode , but the show itself is so unspoiled ! ”
you could check Ann - Marie onArt of The Gardenon Sky Arts on Tuesday 6 June at 7.00pm .
Do You Have Any Advice For Those Who Are Thinking Of Giving Garden Design A Go?
“ Just do it because life story is really shortsighted – do n’t waste a moment .
“ If you ’re want to get involve in Garden Design , you ’ll never rue it . You might have less money than you ’re used to if you ’re changing your career , but my god , you ’ll be happy . ”
