Garden Design Students Success Stories

Graduate Success

Here's a selection of past students and what they have gone on to achieve.

Graduate Steve Williams talk at The Newt Inn, Somerset for their Head Gardener Conference 2023 with business partner Jon Davies

RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023

One Year Professional Garden Design graduate and lecturer Steve Williams along with Jon Davies (both of @Wildcitystudio) were awarded a Silver Medal for the 'Centre for Mental Health's The Balance Garden' which they designed in collaboration with @centreformh at RHS Chelsea in 2023.

This garden celebrates the potential for genuine nature connection within the urban canvas, reimagining our public parks and often neglected spaces. The urban community garden will celebrate the relationship between nature and our social and mental health, creating new communities to come together and steward our urban futures.

Steve told us: "It was at Hampton Court 2017 where myself and Jon Davies met. Jon won 'Best garden for a changing world' that year for his urban food forest and I was helping Martyn Wilson on his garden 'Brownfield metamorphosis'. Martyn was also a graduate from The Cotswold Gardening School and was very generous to let me be so involved with the build process. It was a great experience which opened loads of doors for me, this all stemmed from my time at The Cotswold Gardening School who I am always grateful to".

Images with thanks to @spencercollection

RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023 preview in the May issue of the Garden Design Journal, featuring One Year Professional Garden Design Graduates Steve Williams and Martyn Wilson

RHS Malvern Spring Show 2023

Congratulations to One Year Professional Garden Design graduate Emily Crowley-Wroe on her Silver-Gilt Medal winning show garden at the RHS Malvern Spring Show 2023. This is Emily's second time showcasing her design skills at the Spring Show. Emily's 'HomeAway garden' was inspired by holidays to North- West Brittany and reimagined a neglected garden nestled amongst stone cottages and barns.

Images with thanks to @spencercollection

Belvoir Castle Flower Show 2023

Congratulations to One Year Professional Garden Design graduates Helena Whall and Heather Sowter, whose planting designs have been selected to feature at the Belvoir Castle Flower Show 2023. Helena's design 'Ceredigion Coastal Garden - Capturing the Spirit of the Place' (below left) and Hannah's design 'The country of my heart' (below right) will be at the show in July.

We wish Helena and Heather all the best for the show!

Rebecca Ketley graduated from our One Year Professional Garden Design Diploma course in 2019 and has gone on to establish her own garden design business, Margarita Garden Design. Read about Rebecca's journey in the August 2022 edition of Good Housekeeping and find out more at margaritagardendesign.com

Emily Crowley-Wroe. One Year Professional Garden Design Graduate

Emily was awarded a Silver-Gilt medal and Best In Show at the RHS Malvern Spring Show 2022 for her design 'The Hide Garden'. The garden is inspired by Greystones Nature Reserve in Bourton-on-the-Water and is a personal sanctuary for work and rest.

Rhodri Wilson. One Year Professional Garden Design Graduate

Rhodri was awarded a RHS Bronze medal for his first show garden at the RHS Malvern Spring Show 2022. 'Home and Garden' was designed for a couple returning from their travels to their home sanctuary

Photos by @fionawalshlandscapes www.fionawalshlandscapes.com

Steve Williams- Tutor and Graduate of The Cotswold Gardening School

BBC's 'Your Garden Made Perfect'

Steve Williams-

"When I was approached to be on the recent series of Your garden Made Perfect I had to think hard about whether it was the right move for what I've been aiming to do with my business but as soon as I signed up the whole experience was really enjoyable, although very intense at times! It was great to see behind the scenes of TV garden shows, there is a lot that goes into them and takes an enormous amount of passion and drive from everyone involved to get the results. This was an amazing opportunity to get my ethos to a massive audience and the response has been beyond what I imagined and has been fantastic to hear from so many people who were inspired and have started to look at their gardens differently not only for environmental reasons but also our connection to nature. The design process for this program is incredibly pressured and you need to come up with two great designs in a relatively short amount of time. It is absolutely down to my training at the Cotswold gardening school and the fantastic design process they teach that allowed me to achieve this with results I was really proud to showcase on primetime TV!"