Heather Dale

I have always been involved with plants and gardens for as long as I can remember, helping in my parents greenhouse or tending my own plot of garden. As a teenager I redesigned my part of the garden with a pond and rockery and showed plants at our local alpine shows. Saturday and summer jobs were working in plant nurseries such as Blooms of Bressingham, private gardens and landscape contractors. At University I studied Plant Science and Ecology, right through to a PhD in Plant Ecophysiology. Throughout I have developed the various gardens that came with the rented accommodation, keeping an allotment when no garden was available. I have always gardened organically, encouraging insects and wildlife whilst making beautiful spaces. Eventually I accepted that my passion is for gardens and plants and I retrained as a Garden Designer in evening classes, passing the HND Garden Design Unit with Merit.

I set up my design studio over ten years ago and have been working towards accreditation with the Society of Garden Designers which I achieved in 2024. My guiding principal throughout has been to leave each garden space more beautiful, with greater biodiversity and better for wildlife than it started. It is also important to me to make wildlife friendly gardening methods easily understandable and achievable for clients.

I have been involved in some fantastic projects, solving complicated problems and creating beautiful gardens.