The Creative Gardener

Celebrate Britain and Ireland’s most imaginative gardens – and the remarkable people who created them. Stephanie Mahon, editor of Gardens Illustrated, and award-winning landscape photographer John Campbell step inside the private worlds of artists, writers, designers and makers whose gardens are as distinctive as their work. Among the featured tastemakers are: Nigel Slater, whose layered Highbury garden offers woodland calm in the heart of London. Matthew Rice, the artist who carved a moat around his medieval Oxfordshire home and grows vegetables with theatrical flair. Sarah Price, the celebrated designer whose Welsh garden is both experimental and deeply personal. Pioneering professionals pushing boundaries in design and ecology, from Charlie Harpur at Knepp to Jonny Bruce at Prospect Cottage. From city courtyards to wild country plots, formal spaces to naturalistic retreats, each garden reflects a unique vision shaped by its creator’s passions. Discover how these outdoor sanctuaries feed creativity, and how artistry and horticulture combine to produce spaces of extraordinary beauty. The Creative Gardener is a journey through gardens that marry imagination with nature – a book for anyone who loves gardens, artistry and the stories that connect them.