Projects
A Selection of Current and Previous Projects
Firbank Children’s Centre: Construction of 4 Edible Ornamental Play Gardens for the children’s centre on the premises of Ridge Community Primary School.
Lancaster Cohousing at Forge Bank: in conjuection with EcoArc architects. Landscape design for application for planning permission for 35 home development in Halton, Lancashire.
RSPB Leighton Moss Nature Reserve, Lancashire: Wildlife Garden Gateway, a design for a transition garden between the visitors’ centre and the entrance to the reserve. The garden will showcase numerous habitats that can be created in a typical domestic garden, provide educational facilities for close-up observation and sensory planting for people with special needs.
Eden Rural Foyer, Penrith: Consultation, design and construction of a courtyard sitting garden for this social housing project for young people leaving care. The foyer is part of Impact Housing, a social landlord in Cumbria.
Lancaster Steiner School: Consultation, design and project management of the construction of a children’s play garden at this local independent school.
Plants for a Future: Plant propagation nursery – a new business for the propagation of edible ornamental shrubs. The purpose of the propagation project is to help expand yields of food for people from urban and suburban landscaping and gardens, complementing allotments and traditional fruit orchards, to increase Lancaster & District’s food security.
Asby Hall, West Cumbria: Consultation and design for a large country garden, including coppice woodland, new forage and nut tree hedgerows, orchard of top fruit, kitchen garden, ornamental flowering hedges for bees and new formal herb and flower sitting garden.
St Catherine’s Care Home, Horwich: Consultation and design of a sensory sitting garden and fruit orchard for elderly mentally infirm residents.
The Grange Retirement Home, Rennington, Northumbria: Design and project management for the renewal of a large garden at this former vicarage, now home to 24 elderly residents. The project includes:
- Overseeing the sensitive renovation of a small woodland of ancient trees behind the parish church of All Saints, and developing this into an accessible woodland walk of rainbow colour and scent, enhanced with additional habitats for birds and other wildlife.
- Design of an aromatherapy herb garden for the residents.
- Design of ornamental and edible and vegetable planting to provide fruit and vegetables for the kitchen.
Private Garden, Wennington, Lancashire: Design and build a large country garden on a previously undeveloped site. The garden includes an orchard of top fruit (including native Lancashire apple varieties), 6 varieties of soft fruit, grapevines, mulberry tree, and edible hedgerow; a rose garden and lavender walk; a kitchen garden and winter tropical greenhouse; and an ornamental lawn with rainbow borders of flowering shrubs and herbaceous perennials, and a flower meadow. The garden was opened to the public in July, 2009.
Skerton Community Centre, Lancaster: Commissioned by Lancaster County Council’s Environmental Services, to design a food, flower and wildlife garden for this Lancaster community centre. The design has been completed and the garden built, under the direction of Carpe Diem Gardens.
Lancashire County Council Community Design Scheme: Contributing author to Plants for Play booklet about playscapes for children and edible landscaping, September 2008.
Butterfly House, Williamson Park, Lancaster: 6-month project designing and planting outdoor and indoor borders for butterflies, birds and other wildlife.
Lancashire County Developments Ltd (owned by Lancashire County Council): Landscape audit and maintenance report, White Cross Industrial Estate, Lancaster.
Four Seasons Healthcare, Morecambe: 2 courtyard sensory wildlife gardens designed & built at Morecambe Bay Care Homes.
LESS climate change advice centre, Lancaster: Funded by Local Strategic Partnership, research and delivery of directory of local food producers, farmers and outlets in Lancaster & District.
Amnesty International Bookshop, Bristol: Designed and built Garden of Hope.
Flow Therapies Complementary Health Practice, Lancaster: Design of therapeutic aromatherapy garden. The fee for this project has been donated pro bono to Stepping Stones Nigeria, a Lancaster Charity working with local organisations in the Niger Delta to support and educate abandoned street children.
Lancaster Chamber of Commerce: Consultancy to raise awareness to develop a climate change and peak oil strategy, and to support member businesses developing their own strategies.
Lancaster City Council Local Strategic Partnership: Delivery of business start-up leading to the creation of LESS climate change advice company; and Alian Ltd, renewable energy micro-generation company.
RSPB Leighton Moss Nature Reserve, Lancashire:
- Research study of information and accessibility needs of visitors to the reserve.
- Leadership of two teams of volunteers to create two new reed bed habitats.
St Peter’s RC High School, Manchester: Design and build of memorial and horticultural therapy garden in memory of the late head of governors.
Growability Garden Works, Northumberland: Community consultation with service users and design of show garden ‘Northumberland: from Mountains to the Sea’ for submission to RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Barking & Dagenham PCT, Essex: Design of two therapeutic gardens:
- Sensory adventure play garden for children with developmental disabilities
- Rainbow flower garden of reminiscence for elderly mentally infirm adults
St George’s Hospital, Havering PCT, Essex: Design for therapeutic sensory/wildlife garden for long-stay patients with enduring mental health problems.
Wynne Gardens, Old Colwyn, Conwy Borough Council: Design of sensory/wildlife garden which won First Prize in the Best Wildlife Garden in Snowdonia competition, 2005.
Penhurst School, Chipping Norton, Oxon: Sensory/wildlife courtyard garden: designed, fund-raised, project management and construction.
Designed and built a show garden demonstrating how fruit, vegetables and flowers can be grown in the yard of a terraced house for Lancaster’s One Planet Festival 2008. The project was constructed by LESS Climate Change advice charity directors Simon Gershon and City and County Councillor Chris Coates. Plants and help were supplied by students and staff of Piccadilly Gardens, a horticulture project working with adults with learning disabilities in Lancaster.
Training workshops and other public events
2 training courses for Princess Royal Trust carers centre for Bristol & South Gloucestershire supporting careers who want to start their own businesses.
Offshoots Permaculture Project, Townley Hall, Burnley: A workshop on designing Permaculture gardens for people with special needs
Allotment judging for Fairfield Community Allotments, Lancaster. The categories for prizes included: most productive, best water management, best compost, best Brassica bed, most bee & butterfly friendly, best for children, best tool & shed management and ‘most beautiful’ flower garden
Lancaster & Morecambe Branch, Osteoporosis Society: A talk about designing a patio garden with herbs to help manage osteoporosis.
For the Society of Garden Designers, providing an introduction to Permaculture design for the urban garden.
For the Biennial Permaculture Convergence in Great Britain, Ilkley, Yorkshire, a workshop on designing for people with disabilities, sensory impairment, and mental health problems.
Thrive (Social & Therapeutic Horticulture charity): Former associated trainer delivering workshops to horticulture and garden projects on designing sensory/wildlife gardens using a Permaculture design approach.
Cultivations (a national charity for Social & Therapeutic Horticulture): Associated trainer delivering conference seminars and day workshops on designing for Horticultural Therapy projects.
