Sarah Rivett-Carnac, Charlton Farm

I began the garden at Charlton Farm in 2011 and have been able to experiment with different moods and environments within the garden using Beth Chatto’s ethos of “Right Plant Right Place”. I have always had a love of plants, nature and gardening, learning from my mother, whose extensive horticultural knowledge was easily absorbed as we visited gardens together from an early age.

I am greatly influenced by the Arts and Crafts gardens of Gertrude Jekyll and Christopher Lloyd and by the contemporary planting of the New Perennial Movement. My planting style makes use of colour and texture while having a romantic influence with many self-seeding plants freely spreading themselves around.

I also have a studio in the garden for ceramics, painting and flower pressing. Art and gardening both have proven therapeutic benefits and are complementary thus giving me the opportunity to express myself whilst using my horticultural knowledge.

Sarah Biddulph, Rodmarton Manor

I have always been greatly interested in the visual arts and studied History of Art at Newcastle University. I then worked at Christie’s auction house in London before moving to Gloucestershire where my passion for gardening grew and led me to enroll in a garden design course with the Sue Gibson School of Gardening.

This has been put into practice as myself and my husband John took on the Biddulph family home of Rodmarton Manor in 2017 with its 8 acre Arts and Crafts garden. It is a garden that was originally designed and laid out by Ernest Barnsley during the first quarter of the 20th Century and his vision of a series of rooms divided by walls and yew hedges is still in existence today.

I am thoroughly enjoying developing the garden whilst maintaining its original ethos and features. Hosting The Generous Gardener Lecture Days at Rodmarton only goes to enhance the Arts and Crafts vision of group workshops and teaching.