Successful Garden Design

I did Rachel's Small Garden Design course almost three years ago, as our garden was completely destroyed by the builders who constructed our extension; I saw it as an opportunity! Rachel Mathew's course was absolutely brilliant. My weirdly shaped wrap-around garden is still a work in progress, as we are doing it ourselves, but this year it was quite lush as well as productive. It is already much admired for its beauty (in the right season), eyebrows have also been raised because of its curving paths and circular beds, in an area where dominant rectangular lawns are the norm, and it actually looks so spacious! I follow Rachel's blogs eagerly, and continue to learn. I will probably do her course on planting, as I am very much a beginning gardener, and have only managed to plant two summer gardens so far. I'm not sure Rachel would like my interconnected circles and no lawn, but I am very very grateful to her for helping me to restrain my exuberant creativity but at the same time giving me the courage to tackle the small and inconvenient garden shape our house came with when we bought it over four years ago.

The concept plan Rachel produced was innovative and created the wow factor I was after. Concept plans are a great way to get ideas about how the garden can look without the expense of detail drawings. I was surprised how well the design supports the surrounding area despite Rachel designing the concept remotely. Having commissioned several designs that lacked that wow factor, I finally stumbled across Rachel on line and I am so glad I did.

I bought the Great Garden Design Formula course V 3.0 a few years ago and have enjoyed the course and contact with Rachel and the team at SGD ever since. I finally have a garden and recently made use of Rachel's plan review service. Her supportive advice and improvements on my design exceeded my expectations and I found the service very good value for money. I highly recommend the courses and services offered by Rachel and SGD.

I highly recommend the plan review if you have completed your own design and want some professional feedback. The review really boosted my confidence. Of course she will point out areas for improvement but she doesn't just rip up your design and start again but instead she shows you the ways in which YOUR design and YOUR ideas could be adapted to make them work better and I think this is such a great way of working. Rachel is a very talented designer and I highly recommend the various courses on offer via her website. They really are some of the best garden design resources out there. Utterly practical and very well explained yet also somehow weaving the theory and artistic concepts into the material in a way that is very palatable and easy to digest.

Rachel 's course was so helpful and interesting and got me started on having a go at designing my own garden although I am not at all creative or artistic. I sent the plan to Rachel for review and she was extremely constructive and helpful really adding value using her experience. I now have a design for what promises to be a great little garden, thank you Rachel

We had contacted Rachel and Ali in order to get to a design. Our gardens are, as Ali once said, like a park and therefor challenging. We had our reservations about working from a distance because how could this work without one of them being in our garden to see, feel and experience it? Now that the plans have been finalized we can truly say that this cooperation from distance was just perfect. The truly professional and personal approach works well. Feedback and communication is excellent and also very quick. And of course we got the design we were looking for. We can recommend this to everyone just provide enough information and if you dont they will ask. They have been super friendly, open and honest and the advise given was very good.

I was very nervous when we instructed Rachel and Ali to go ahead with the design on a remote basis, I shouldn't have been. They were both excellent to deal with, responding promptly to all my communications and giving real thought to the problems that existed within our design. We couldn't be more pleased with the final design and am really looking forward to seeing the completed works. If you are looking at using these incredibly talented individuals, and are worried that the process will not be face to face, don't be. The attention to detail, communication and nothing is too much attitude, leaves you feeling far more satisfied than many companies I have used face to face. Thank you so much to you both and we will definitely keep you updated with our progress.

We cannot speak highly enough of both Rachel and Ali and their professionalism in dealing with our garden design. We wanted to update our garden but did not want to make any costly mistakes, so after looking at their website and the various garden designs we decided that we would like a personal design. When Ali was working on our plan she kept us informed every step of the way. She asked us our opinion on various choices, and the end result is a very professional design which reflects exactly what we wanted to achieve. The plans arrived timeously by post and are very detailed including a really useful planting guide and after care for each plant. We are now looking forward to getting started on the plan, and cannot wait to see it all taking shape. We highly recommend this company.

I hired this excellent company after purchasing their very easy and professional video courses. These video courses demonstrated a high degree of professional garden knowledge and garden design excellence. Although I had started the construction phase they were still able to supply an imaginative planting design complete with a detailed planting list together with plant photographs. An inspired use of design tracing overlay allows what-if ideas to be tried before work comenses. I have now easily been able to convince my family the benefits of using and paying for real professionals. Alanbooter UK

Very professional service. Helpful throughout and provided plans on time and to budget. Designed out patio area and garden. Also provided a planting plan. Highly recommended.

We had our garden landscaped on a new build three years ago, it was ok but after living with it we knew it could be better but just didn't know how. I explained this to Rachel and she offered to take a look and see if she could tweak it. She promptly came up with some ideas, added them in scale to the original plan and it is everything we had hoped for. Her courses, videos and newsletter contain excellent information and do-able projects - I am so glad we found her site.

After watching several Successful Garden Design videos, and reading the online articles, I began to put together a design for my garden using the tips and techniques I was learning. Many drafts and photo shoots later, I purchased the design review service. How cool was that? Rachael answered my emails right off and provided easy to follow feedback in her online video, just for me!. Her input added the touch I needed to put real design pizzazz in my plan. I am excited to begin the next phase of installation!