“The more gardens the better” - those were the closing lines of garden designer Lottie Delamain when we met at her dreamy studio on an indecisive Autumnal morning. Having just spent almost two glorious hours chatting all things garden, those words could not have been any clearer to me. Beyond the environmental benefits, gardens teach us and tell stories. Gardens help us catch the bug to do better, to change our ways and to see things differently. We all need a bit of that, and perhaps that’s just it. Gardens can be the tonic, the secret sauce, the vehicle to positive change.

A background in textiles, interiors and product design and several years living as an expat in Ho Chi Minh proved to be the seedbed for Lottie’s desire to explore garden design. “When you are living outside of your own culture, you crave those decidedly British things. I missed the changing seasons and the great outdoors.” A return to London should have signalled knuckling down and saving for a deposit, but the desire lingered and ignoring her husband’s grumbles Lottie enrolled in prestigious London design school, Inchbold. “It was a bit of a leap of faith, but it’s fair to say I have found my calling.”

There’s no denying this as we talk about Lottie’s garden at The Chelsea Flower Show in 2022, secured no-less than 2 years after graduating. She quickly puts it down to a bit of a lucky break, but I can’t help thinking that you make your own luck in life. OK, the timing of Covid may not have been Lottie’s doing and there was certainly a bit of luck in the colliding of lockdown and her recently launched online garden consultancy sessions. “It was such a good way to gain some solid grounding; to understand the types of challenges clients faced and for me to give advice at a level I felt comfortable with.”  

Intrigued by career changers, I quizzed Lottie on how you compete with the vast number of experts out there when you are new to a subject. A year long course at a well regarded institution obviously gives you a solid grounding, but can’t possibly cover all the bases. “I will never stop learning in this career. You can’t know it all and that’s one of the reasons why I love it. You draw on others, you bring specialists in for the areas you need. It’s a very collaborative process and you’re setting yourself up to fail if you try to do it all.” Wise words indeed for any career changers out there wondering if it’s too late. It’s not, so long as you embrace this mindset.  In fact, I learned from Lottie that garden design is actually full of second careerists. Who knew that the famed Monty Don was actually a jewellery designer before picking up the spade?

This leads us on to another topical point - the desire for a low maintenance garden; unsurprisingly high on almost everyone’s list. No doubt about it, this generation is time-strapped and we discuss if the notion of ‘pottering in the garden’ is a thing of the past. Lottie’s mantra is little and often. Staying on top of the work is important and one way she believes you can do this is to find an area “hopefully with a view from the kitchen window” that you can really focus on and get right. Getting “daily pleasures” from your garden is important and this can take the form of a cutting garden or a simple herb trough. “There’s no meal that isn’t vastly enhanced by the addition of freshly picked herbs.”  I couldn’t agree more.

Gardens are powerful storytellers and memory makers. Planting flowers that remind one of their grandparents' garden or flowers from a wedding bouquet are simple ways to make a mark on a space and to foster positive emotions. Of course it goes without saying that green space, whether it be a vast sweeping lawn, a window box or a community garden are all powerful vehicles to positive wellbeing. The opportunity for a sense of ownership combined with seeing productivity and results is powerful for the mind. “I actually find deadheading extremely therapeutic - I’m outside and it’s my thinking time.”

Lottie believes that gardens are often misunderstood. It’s true, for the average person, it might be hard to decipher the obvious monetary value attached to a garden. When looking at houses, you can see the tangible aspects of why a home costs the amount it does - the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, floor size for example, but the garden just sort of ‘comes with it’. Value comes in many forms when thinking about gardens, and interestingly, Lottie is currently writing a book which explores this. Looking beyond the environmental value to topics such as solving food poverty, to helping reshape mental health, to regeneration, gardens in prisons, health care settings and war zones. Out in spring 2026, the book will serve as a positive reminder that “there are people out there quietly doing amazing things using gardens as a tool.” Pipped to be a useful text with an extensive glossary, but also highly visual, aspirational and hopeful in its delivery. We certainly can’t wait.

We’re running out of time and I realise that we haven’t really chatted much about the sustainable aspect of garden design. It seems there’s a reason for this. Lottie certainly believes that sustainable design is par for the course now. “It’s no longer an option in my eyes. A client might not ask me for a pollinator friendly garden, but they’ll get one. It’s table stakes.” This again reinforces the tremendous value of gardens. Yes, it’s about supporting the bees, but yet it’s so much more than that. It feels like we’re constantly garnering new strands of positivity from our gardens that we perhaps had not previously celebrated. This is exciting and it feels like this is just the beginning.   

How to Get More Joy Out of Your Garden

Make it manageable
Whatever size your garden is, be realistic about what you manage without it becoming a chore (it’s probably half what you think you can). This might mean just
focussing on a small but visible part outside the kitchen window, or perhaps around where you sit in the summer. Concentrate energies on making that slither of the
garden gorgeous and give yourself some slack on the rest.

What makes your heart sing?
If you love cooking, go big on herbs (there’s no meal that can’t be improved by herbs). If colour is your thing, make that the focus. Perhaps all you want to be able to do is pick posies for the house – if so, think about cut and come again varieties that you can pick for weeks. It sounds obvious but I think we all get wrapped up in what we should have, or what others are doing, and forget that our gardens are for us –
tuning into what brings you joy will mean a garden full of personality and charm.

Relax about mess
We live in a very visual age, where immaculate manicured lawns, leafless terraces flood our screens and bindweed doesn’t exist. It’s just not the reality. Nature is messy, change is the point, let’s embrace it. If that feels hard, when you’re starting a garden or redesigning a layout, think about introducing some crisp edges – a clipped
hedge, or sharp gravel path, which will make the mess and muddle feel more designed. (Caveat – plastic garden toys are not such a good mess– plan for garden storage the way you would with your interiors storage).

Plant a tree
All gardens can and should have a tree, no matter the size, you just need to choose the right one. They offer scale, seasons, structure and often lots of interest for insects and birds too. And once established they don’t need much looking after.
Encourage wildlife Seeing other animals and insects enjoy your garden is guaranteed cheer. And it’s so easy to do - choose native trees which will offer fruit for birds and insects that are well adapted to, focus your planting on pollinator-friendly planting, and introduce
simple additions like a bird feeder or bee box. Tuning in to what’s in your garden, making small adjustments to invite more life in, and seeing the rewards is deeply gratifying – knowing that your little slice of green is contributing to the wider
ecosystem – what is more joyful than that?