CAROLYN R HARDERN - Garden Designer - Personal Profile

At ’50 something’ I have lived in a small village community close to the Cheshire/Shropshire border all my life.  Both Grandparents were farmers, so I received a good grounding in horticulture from family members and by watching, at an early age, Percy Thrower presenting Gardeners World.

After a long established career in Finance, I seized the opportunity to follow my lifelong passion for plants and gardening by enrolling onto a two year Diploma course in Garden Design at Reaseheath College, Nantwich.  Having successfully completed this Diploma, I launched my career in Garden Design at The Royal Horticultural Society’s Show Tatton Park where I designed and built the ‘Circle of Life’ show garden.

Towards the end of 2009, I volunteered my services to the mental health charity ‘Making Space’ in order to stage ‘from darkness to light’ show garden at RHS Tatton July 2010.  This medal winning garden, created to raise awareness for the charity, attracted much acclaim from both the public and media.

Encouraged by my volunteers from 2010, I returned to the RHS Tatton Show in 2011 with the same team to build Perspective.  The design highlights the beauty of wood and the use of native flowers in a contemporary setting.

“I would like to see a greater use of wildflower planting by the side of our roads and motorways, something that Dame Miriam Rothschild pioneered.  Also the provision for wildlife can be achieved in a modern space without the garden looking untidy”.

July 2012 will see a different, bigger (9m circle) and more challenging show garden.  The Modern Romantic, inspired by the Pre-Raphaelites.