Looking for some luxury after lockdown? Today’s the day that our wonderful clients at family-run Sopwell House Hotel finally reopen their doors again to their guests. For the first time in months, visitors will be able to enjoy the hospitality of their brasserie, cocktail lounge, conservatory, bedrooms and the ample grounds we designed there. [...]
This is the exact spot where I stood as a student in 1997 when I arrived to help the wonderful Lady Xa Tollemache of Helmingham Hall Gardens on her RHS Chelsea garden for The Evening Standard way back in 1997. I was signed up to stay for a day as an extra pair of [...]
Try as I might, I cannot get the RHS Chelsea Flower Show out of my head and I am so grateful to this show for the wealth of memories. The Chelsea Flower Show is many things to many people, but for many designers, it’s a place where you can flex your creativity, and if you’ve [...]
This Sunday my mind returns to a life-changing moment back in 2010, when my dear friend Jane Owen telephoned to ask if I'd consider doing a show garden at RHS Chelsea with her. She'd recently stayed with a community of Baka hunter-gatherers for a few days in a remote part of southern Cameroon a few [...]
At AMPG we are passionate about how the role our gardens can play in helping to fight against climate change, but we know it is often difficult to know where to start. This month we have been inspired and enthused by the Woodland Trust’s Big Climate Fightback. We would like to ask you to start [...]
It’s a busy and important time of the year for garden forward planning with the added pressure that many of these tasks are time-sensitive too; at AMPG, there’s no doubt that we entering prime planting season. But whilst you’re considering plugging border gaps with herbaceous, trees or shrubs, don’t forget about that group of plants [...]
Ian Jakeway, AMPG's newest team member. As practice principal, I'm delighted to introduce our newest team member, Ian Jakeway, who brings a host of experience and talent to Ann-Marie Powell Gardens. Here, in his own words, he describes what makes him tick. Ian, welcome to AMPG. "I have always loved being outside and [...]
Finally, the days are getting brighter and ever so slightly longer, and as adventurous stems begin to unfurl from long slumbering soil, the optimism of the new garden season reaches from the border into our studio. March is the time that farmers to begin planting spring crops and us gardeners to prise open sheds and [...]
Having just returned to the studio after maternity leave, whilst at home with my new baby, I heard the phrase: 'Remember to look after yourself and take time off as a couple once you have had the baby' countless times. ''Yes yes, of course, I will'', I *might* have dared to think, assuming I'd master [...]
Last week saw one of our industry's most hotly anticipated events, as the great and the good of the garden design world gathered together for the Society of Garden Designer's 2019 awards. Here at AMPG we love any opportunity to put our glad rags on, and so we were all delighted to receive lovely invitations [...]
