Born Hastings and raised in Battle, I’ve spent my whole life around East Sussex gardens. I started labouring for a gardener at 18, went full-time at 24, and by 26 had started my own business. I studied Horticulture at Hadlow College and have kept learning ever since through courses and a library of well-thumbed books.

Today, with over 10 years’ experience, I look after more than forty regular clients across the Hastings area, helping them to create gardens that are resilient, low-maintenance and beautiful in every season. I’m fully insured, and my work covers lawn care, hedge trimming, weeding and pruning of ornamental trees; always with biodiversity and soil health in mind.

How i garden

I’m a keen advocate of the no-dig method and I love cottage-style planting: it gives year-round colour, copes well with our conditions, and provides habitat for all manner of beneficial creatures. I’m always honing my craft, and open to new ideas. Every garden and client is different: my job is to fit the garden to you, not the other way round.

Gardening in a changing climate

Over the past decade, I’ve watched gardens struggle with conditions we didn’t used to see: long droughts, sudden arctic snaps, months of relentless rain, and new pests and diseases taking hold. I’ve lost plants to almost all of it but through the losses, I’ve also paid close attention to which plants and which management techniques came through. That experience now shapes everything I plant: gardens built to survive and thrive in the weather we actually get. I hold a Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Climate Change and Environmental Awareness, and it informs my work daily.

My Tools

I use professional Honda and Sithl machines. They are high-performance, low-emission models: they run on Aspen alkylate fuel, which contains significantly fewer harmful hydrocarbons than pump petrol. It costs more, but I think it’s worth it.