Be inspired
What happens when you make a total change in direction and try something new? These four women did exactly that – and couldn’t be happier since pushing themselves out of their comfort zones
Some of my earliest memories are centred around being outdoors. I remember pottering about in my granny’s garden. The plants seemed much bigger when I was so little and I’d happily get lost among them. I loved seeing bright peonies bloom. Still to this day, they’re my favourite flower.
As an adult, I enjoyed gardening, but I was at a loss as to how to make the most of my own large garden. I enrolled on a 10-week garden design course at The Cotswold Gardening School in February 2018, in the hope that I’d gain the confidence to transform it.
At the time, I’d recently left my job as a special educational needs co-ordinator in a primary school and I was taking a six-month break. My career had involved working individually with special needs children. Seeing them develop brought me a lot of joy, but over time, changes to the system meant the job wasn’t what it used to be. I’d begun feeling dispirited, so I’d decided to retrain as a children’s play therapist.
But a few days into the garden design course, I felt like I’d found a new calling. The course was co-ordinated by Caroline Tatham, who encouraged us to draw inspiration from things we loved, such as artwork. I’ve always admired modernist painter Ben Nicholson’s abstract artwork, so I used that as a starting point to guide my colour choices and textures when I designed my first garden. I’d never thought of myself as creative, but I found that I was good at it.
I used what I’d learned to design a classic English garden for myself, with lots of beautiful roses, delphiniums and lupins. I also created a vegetable garden and grew fresh tomatoes, peppers, beans and cucamelons for gin and tonic.
It was then that I thought to myself, ‘Maybe this is actually what I’d like to do.’ It dawned on me that if I was going to move out of the world of children and into the adult world, this would be a lovely way to do it.
Feeling inspired, I signed up to a year-long course in professional garden design. It took a lot of courage to leave my career behind, but fortunately, my husband and I had financial security. I was ready for change.
The course involved gaining an in-depth knowledge of garden design – from working on live projects to learning how to draw 3D designs and market a business. I graduated with a distinction and my first client was the sister of a friend, who liked my mindful approach to gardening and had faith in me. She had a small town garden and wanted something low-mai
