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Hi Hannah. Tell me about you and your family…

I live in Pinkneys Green with my husband, two children, two dogs and our tortoise. My husband enjoys being in the garden but isn’t so keen on gardening jobs – it’s a great partnership as it means that I have no competition for gardening duties and the space
is my own to play with! My youngest is incredibly green-fingered though, and is always
happy to help in the garden, so I may have some competition in the future. 

 

Tell me about your business – what do you offer? 

Garden Envy delivers a professional, independent garden design service for residential clients in Berks, Bucks and Oxon. As well as offering a high-end, personalised face-to-face garden design service, Garden Envy has just launched a new ‘online design’ service. If clients live outside of the area, or would like a simpler service, they email dimensions of their garden, along with a completed Garden Envy Brief Document, and then receive an email with a pdf of the completed design and dimensioned layout drawings.

 

Have you always been interested in doing this? What do you like about it the most? 

I come from a family line of gardeners and landscapers, so it’s in my blood. My earliest memory is of following my dad around with my mini wheelbarrow, ‘helping’ at every opportunity.

   I’m very lucky as there are very few aspects that I can’t help but love about it. If I had to pick one, it would be the dealings I have with my clients. I love presenting designs to clients and the surprise on their face when they see how they could use the space and the 'that’s exactly what I wanted but I didn’t know how to achieve it’. And nothing can beat the emails I get from my clients once they are using their finished gardens saying the difference it has made to them.

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What did you do before?

I spent almost a decade with a successful career in the corporate world. I was a Learning
and Development Consultant. There are many aspects of that role that have helped me
– consultancy, managing budgets and projects and so on.  

   After the birth of my second child, I couldn’t see how I could do my role to the standard that I expected myself to do it to, and still be the mother that I wanted to be to my children. So, when my youngest was six months old, I decided that if I was going to be away from my children, it would be for doing something that I loved and that wasn’t restricted by 9–5, so I retrained as a Garden Designer. Four months into the year-long course, I received my first commission, and I haven’t stopped or looked back since. 

   I achieved a Distinction in a Garden Design Diploma through the Oxford College of Garden
Design (which is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious contemporary garden design schools in the world). My background in L&D means that I am a firm believer in Continued Professional Development and so I am frequently on courses and at conferences to improve and keep up my knowledge. 

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What is the best part of having your own business? And the worst? 

The best part is the people I get to work with – I have really lovely clients and get to work with some excellent people to create beautiful outdoor spaces. Most people think that the worst part would be standing out in all weather, knee-deep mud, but actually I enjoy that part too! 

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What's the best garden you've ever worked on?  

The one that immediately springs to mind is a substantial project that I’ve been involved with in Marlow since 2014, and is due for completion mid-April this year. I first started working with the clients when they obtained their planning permission to knock down and rebuild their house, and have been involved with the whole process from start to finish. It’s meant that the house and garden have been designed and built to fully complement each other and, from a build perspective, it’s actually been more economical for the client as we’ve been able to work with the house builders and their ground contractors to ensure that different parts of the build have been done by the right people, in the right order, at the right time. Although we’re not part of the same company, having worked with the different house build contractors for that period of time has meant that we’ve become a very efficient team, and it’s exciting to see how all our hard work on this extensive project, that we’ve been talking about and planning for so long, is now taking shape.

 

What's the long-term goal?

Due to the high level of service I like to give my clients, I can only have a limited number of ‘face-to-face’ clients at one time. I’m hoping the ‘online design’ service will help more people get the properly designed gardens that they deserve. 

 

Who is your idol/inspiration?

It has to be my dad. He’s a Landscape Gardener (now retired) and is one of the most hard-working, conscientious people I have ever met. He’s a perfectionist and always instilled in
me that if you do anything, you do it properly and to the best of your ability.

 

Anything else we don't know about you?

I offer free garden designs for charities. With input from 179 children, I designed the Cookham Dean Primary School Garden, which won The Cookham Society Design Award in 2016. I’m a big believer in the health benefits of gardening so, along with another green-fingered mother, run the school gardening club.

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www.gardenenvyltd.co.uk

www.gardenenvyltd@gmail.com">www.gardenenvyltd@gmail.com