Her work has been widely published and she strives to incorporate elements of gracious living with ecological responsibility in every project.
Susan is a hands-on designer whose attention to detail and dedication to fine craftsmanship results in beautiful landscapes that feel as if they have always belonged to the environment they inhabit.
Read on to find out more about Susans incredible career path, personal garden inspiration and advice for emerging designers.
About You:
You have had an incredible career, with such a diversity of work – tell us a little bit more about how you got established in the gardening industry?
Although I’ve always been involved in design in one industry or another garden and landscape design ticked all of the boxes in terms of what interested me. This is my third design career and the one that stuck.
What are the main things you keep in mind before starting a new project?
We take a broad point of view first and then edit, edit, edit until we are able to make sense of the client’s wish list, the functional needs of a project, local government restrictions and then the plants and materials.
What first drew you to landscape design, and how has your design philosophy evolved over the years?
Landscape design incorporates all of my interests – the natural world and its inate beauty, architecture, history, as well as plants and people’s responsibility to their land. Out philosophy hasn’t changed, just the availability of the plants we want to use is greater. We’ve always been about creating structure and planting with abandon.
If you could design any space in the world—historic, urban, or natural—what would it be and why?
Definitely a historic site. I’d like to honour the past while simultaneously creating space for the future.
Your Career and Work:
How do you balance aesthetic goals with environmental sustainability, especially when clients may have differing expectations?
Most clients really don’t have a preference or a deep understanding of what it means to be sustainable in their gardens. The biggest hurdles we have is decreasing lawn and invasive plants—many are attached to those—especially lawns.
In 2021, you were named Designer of the Year by the Association of Professional Landscape Designers. How did that recognition shape or affirm your work?
That particular project had the broadest brief and the worst halfway built situation when I signed on. Every decision we made dealt with issues a previous contractor had created. It was challenging and thrilling to design and see to fruition.
Looking back, what project or moment in your career feels most defining for you?
The success of having my first large-scale design built. And that someone would pay me to do this!
Gardening Advice:
What advice would you give to emerging designers who aspire to balance artistry with ecological integrity?
Listen to the land and what’s already there. Know the soil. They will guide you in ways you never thought possible. Human wants and needs are always able to be a part of that vision once you know.
What gardening advice would you give to any gardener this season?
Take stock of what was a success and base you next move on that. Keep good records.
Who is your gardening (or non-gardening!) heroes?
Dead? Russell Page, Dan Kiley, Martha Brookes Hutcheson, Ellen Biddle Shipman. Alive? Sarah Price’s work is sublime. Non-gardening? Joni Mitchell and Michelle Obama.
