Garden Designer Interview: Helen Billetop

Helen Billetop is a garden designer we here at Notcutts are delighted to have had the chance to catch up with. She is one of the UK’s top garden designers who has built a gleaming reputation for herself in the industry over the past twenty years. Helen believes that a garden should be sustainable, serve the local ecology and minimise environmental impacts yet still be stylish, beautiful and practical. 

You are now working with Sally Court and your new company is called cgd landscape design. How did this partnership come about and where did the idea for cgd landscape design come from?

Sally and I have been friends and fellow garden designers for many years.  We had worked on some projects together and it came as a natural evolution that we should make the partnership official and set up a new company together. We also had some big projects in the pipeline, and since setting up cgd landscape design our business has gone from strength to strength, despite starting in the early days of the recession!

You’ve designed gardens in Jersey, South of France and Moscow. I can only imagine their attitudes towards design and garden life is different to that of our in the UK. Would you agree, and what have you found to be the differences?

Climate, soil and in

digenous plants are the essence of the garden designer’s palette, so we immerse ourselves in the local materials and culture to ensure we create gardens that are as sustainable and successful.  Moscow is challenging, with long winters often with 6 metres of snow cover and temperatures down to -30°C.  The summers are very hot and herbaceous planting flourishes, though it is not necessarily popular.  Our client wanted an ‘English Garden’ for her weekend retreat and so we had permission to create herbaceous borders, rose gardens, parterres, orchards and meadows, all quite unusual but a challenge we rose to.   Conversely our work in Morocco and the South of France demand more drought tolerant species. 
What to you makes a successful garden design other than receiving a client’s seal of approval?

Successful garden designs are difficult to generalise about.  They should in the first instance have a sense of place, to be at one with the local landscape.  Whether formal or informal designs, the elements of the garden should flow naturally from one space to another without discord or jarring.  Less is more -simplicity and the clever use of space is always impressive. Having a balance between mass and void is another measure that professional designers can bring to the party.  At the end of the day though, understanding the client’s lifestyle, how they want to use the garden and interpreting their wish list to develop a creative solution is the most rewarding part of the job, as well as problem solving - another big part of the job.

You seem to be an extremely busy being on the editorial panel of the Garden Designers Journal, an adjudicator for the Society of Garden Designers and being active in the professional development of garden designers. You’ve even found time to be a judge for the Association of Professional Landscapers (APLD) in the USA. How do you manage to juggle all of this and when you do have a free moment how do you like to spend your time?

I love being busy.  Putting something back into the profession is rewarding too! Free time is spent with friends and family, enjoying good food and wine, theater and the arts, and traveling to far flung, hard to reach places. 

You believe in creating landscapes that serve the local ecology and minimise environmental impact. What would be your advice to those who wish to create such a garden?

Observe what works well in your local landscape – research and imaginative solutions can help bring wildlife and birds to your garden.  Whether you want to grow your own food or have a wildflower meadow, talking to a garden designer can help you get it right first time round.  Choice of hard landscaping materials, stone, brick, timber and architectural styles of the house and other buildings are all important considerations in making sure the garden sits comfortably in its locality.  Drainage, water conservation, creating water features, soil improvement and many more skills are all part of a garden designers expertise. 

What does the magic of gardening mean to you?

My ideal garden should be a haven and retreat from the pressures of daily life and provide space to entertain, space to relax and for those that love to work with nature their very own space to get down to work the soil and garden.

You can find more information about Helen’s work at http://www.cgd-landscape-design.com