My story of life with plants and landscape design

Beautiful naturalistic gardens with year-round interest, great both for wildlife and for their human owners. This is what I particularly like to design.

My passion for plants developed early and led me to gain a degree in horticultural science from The Warsaw University of Life Sciences, a prominent Polish university. I was going to be a Scientist but life had other plans and in the 1980s I found myself married to an Englishman and living in the UK.

My first job was with my local Borough Council, as a supervisor of a nursery, producing bedding plants for the seasonal street and park displays. Many thousands of plants each year, in four large greenhouses.

After a career break, with two young children happily settled at school, I went back to full-time employment as Head Gardener at Cobham Hall near Gravesend. This was a dream job: overseeing the maintenance of 150 acres of beautiful historic grounds, with an Elizabethan palace at its heart - these days a boarding school for girls. I had a small team but was hands-on, too: weeding, pruning, spraying, mowing and so on. But also designing and planting. The Garden Design Course I had completed when the children were little came in handy. I was asked to completely re-design and replant the large entrance border, which I did with great success.

In my seven years at Cobham Hall I became passionate about garden history and was heavily involved with the historic restoration of the grounds.

For the next ten years I worked for Maidstone Borough Council. A diploma in management helped me secure the position of Development Officer in the Parks Department. With a sizeable budget, I worked on improving the many green spaces in the county town of Kent, and secured Heritage Lottery funding for the restoration of Mote Park. Amongst all the projects, the most satisfying one was to design a set of walking routes in and around the town, known as Walk Maidstone. I tested all the routes, walking every inch, and it convinced me that the office was not my natural environment after all.

My contract as Development Officer came to an end - and I found myself back outside. This time amongst the trees and wild flowers of Cobtree Manor Park near Aylesford. As Head Ranger, I led the transformation of the park from a long-neglected ‘jungle’ with a bit of a bad reputation to a well-maintained, safe and popular visitor destination. I designed new planting schemes, developed meadow areas and created wildlife habitats. All to attract more human visitors, but also to support and protect the wildlife so that the two could co-exist.

30 years earlier Cobtree was planted up as an arboretum, with many types of ornamental trees and shrubs. I labeled the trees, created a database for them and led guided tree walks. It was a good grounding for designing with trees and shrubs, as I saw how many of them looked at maturity.

Sadly, I had to leave Cobtree for health reasons but took it as an opportunity to go back to an earlier idea - that I had put to one side - of being a Garden Designer, and to combine my plant knowledge with my interest in functional design.

I started off by transforming gardens with planted areas that were badly in need of attention. With additional training, I brought myself up to speed with new materials and design styles.

These days I spend a lot of time in my studio but still love to be hands-on whenever possible. For that reason I source all the plants for the gardens I design and plant them myself.

My own medium-sized garden in a chalky valley is something I have been creating over the past 25 years. First, it was a playground for my children, now a green retreat for my husband and myself. And to complement that, we grow our own fruit and veg on an allotment.

Since I started Gardenity in 2015, I have been involved as a designer, adviser or gardener with around 140 gardens, helping my Clients get the most out of their outdoor space. I hope I can do the same for you.

I look forward to working with you on creating a garden that will bring you joy for a long time to come.