Clare will talk about her most recent book, Pastoral Gardens, which explores the ways that garden makers are responding to climate change. Containing 20 extraordinary nature-led gardens, the book brings each garden vividly to life in a series of incredible photographs, letting each garden tell its own story in a very visual way.  Clare will explore the shifting nature of garden design at this pivotal time and pick out several gardens in the book to describe how the designers or makers have achieved their ecological aims – and to show how beautiful these wild gardens can be. 

Sarah and I were lucky enough to have heard this wonderful talk at the Garden Museum Literary Festival and it truly is a visual treat!

Clare has been at House & Garden magazine since 2005.  As well as writing about plants and gardens, Clare has always gardened herself, first on an allotment in London, and now in her garden in West Berkshire. She is the author of six books including most recently Pastoral Gardens . She has filmed a Create Academy course on growing flowers from seed, and writes a weekly column on Substack.

Toby Buckland

Abundance – Food for the Eye and Table

Toby’s huge amount of gardening knowledge will be passed onto us through his great talent as a television presenter.  Toby will guide us through interesting edibles and flowers.  Prepare to be entertained!

Toby Buckland is a lifelong gardener who shares his practical tips and passion for plants on BBC2’s Gardeners’ World and his weekly Radio Show on BBC Sounds. He is a RHS Gold Medal winning garden designer and hosts an annual Garden festival at Powderham Castle in Devon.

Thursday, 16th April 2026

Anne and Vanessa will tell us about the family history and development of Kiftsgate by three generations of women over the last one hundred years. They will also take you through a year in the garden with methods and practical tips on how it is maintained and how the borders are enhanced, knowledge of which has been passed down over the generations. This wonderful talk will give a fascinating insight into how such a beautiful garden has been cared for by these incredible women.

Vanessa has worked in magazine publishing for over 25 years and during this time she edited Country Homes & Interiors and launched The English Garden Magazine in 1997. She currently writes on gardens and garden history and her books include Great British Gardeners and Kiftsgate Court Gardens: Three Generations of Women Gardeners which won the Garden Media Guild Garden Book of the Year in 2019

Vanessa took on the position of South West Regional Chair for the National Garden Scheme in Autumn 2025 and has opened her garden for the NGS for the last eight years

Anne was brought up at Kiftsgate but not made to garden! She lived in London until the late 1980’s when with her husband Johnny and their three children moved down full time to take over the garden from her mother. She learnt on the job with no horticultural training and she is still gardening after 40 years and gets immense pleasure from sharing it with visitors and the beauty of her surroundings.

Amidst the movement towards ecologically designed and re-wilding, designers must not forget that gardens are also places for people.  Gardens are a man-made (or woman-made) construct whose role is to give joy to their owners and inhabitants-both human and otherwise.  We believe strongly that with good design, all users can be happy-the key is how you do it.  Emma & Libby will be guiding us through this harmonious balance using illustrations of their stunning projects which have helped to make them one of the UK’s most influential garden design studio.

Emma Mazzullo and Libby Russell co-founded their design partnership in 2014 after working together for many years for Arabella Lenox-Boyd.  They design and manage a variety of projects including large private estates, commercial developments and public and private gardens across Europe.  They are recognised as being amongst the top British designers by House and Garden magazine.

Emma is a Chartered Landscape Architect and is a Fellow of the Society of Garden and Landscape Designers, where she is currently a mentor working with the organisation supporting members through accreditation.  Emma regularly speaks in industry panels about Professional Practice, running projects on site and building a fully financially viable landscape design business as well as landscape design more generally. 

Libby is a true plantswoman who runs her own gardens in Somerset, London and Greece. Her garden at Batcombe House, Somerset is open to the public and  and has featured on BBC Garden’s World.

Thursday, 7th May 2026

Charlie will be telling us about how rewilding a garden does not just simply mean ‘letting go’. Instead it requires thinking creatively, identifying ways in which disturbance can mimic and encourage natural processes. Given that a garden is rarely big enough for keystone species such as large herbivores, this is where we, as gardeners, can act as their proxy. Thinking like a beaver or a wild boar frees the mind from cultural constraints and can inject dynamism into even the smallest space. We can also maximise biodiversity by creating a mosaic of connected habitats within a garden. Using images and video clips of the Rewilded Walled Garden at Knepp Castle – a design collaboration between Tom Stuart-Smith and James Hitchmough – Charlie will explain the adventurous transformation of a croquet lawn into a dynamic and diverse landscape providing niches for wildlife and nearly 1000 different plant species.

Charlie Harpur is a plantsman and landscape designer. Having trained as an architect, he worked for Tom Stuart-Smith for several years. Charlie then went on to gain practical experience in horticulture and ecology at gardens including the Chelsea Physic Garden and Kew, graduating with a Kew Diploma in Horticulture before returning to Tom’s studio in a more horticultural role.  Charlie is now Head Gardener at the Knepp Castle Estate where he oversees the rewilding of the Victorian walled garden.  He has also been involved in the establishment of a regenerative market garden and the design of a new public landscape at Knepp’s restaurant and shop.

Ann-Marie Powell’s passion for plants bursts forth like a garden in full bloom! With a deep reverence for the natural world, she sees plants not just as elements of design, but as living beings with stories to tell. For Ann-Marie, every plant has its own personality, its own place, and its own purpose – leading to her studio’s mantra of Plants, People, Place.  During this inspirational talk Ann-Marie will be taking us through her incredible projects which have led her to become one of this country’s leading garden designers.  She will be giving us a fascinating insight into the plants she has used and the combinations that make up the rich tapestry of colour and texture resulting in harmonious compositions that include a wide range of species.  This is a must for those of you who are always searching for new ideas of how to enhance your gardens.

Ann-Marie Powell is a leading British garden designer, author, TV presenter, and journalist. After graduating with distinction from Capel Manor’s Horticultural Landscape Studies programme in 1997, she founded her innovative garden design practice the following year. Based near the South Downs, her studio creates sustainable, ecologically focused gardens for private clients, public spaces, and commercial projects, emphasising bold colours, textural contrasts, and wildlife-friendly habitats.

Current significant projects include redesigning the Great Fountain Garden at Hampton Court Palace and participating in the British Library’s ‘Gardens of the Future’ exhibition launching in 2025. Her influence extends to social media, where she won the Garden Media Guild’s Social Media Influencer of the Year in 2021, and she serves as a judge for prestigious institutions including the RHS Flower Shows and the Society of Garden Designer Awards.

This is a first for The Generous Gardener!  Instead of our using our projector Rosy will be bringing in plants to demonstrate how to use early summer herbaceous perennials to attract beneficial insects, with reference to specific garden situations such as shade or sun.  Rosy’s talk will allow you to see plants in their natural form giving us great insight into how they can be used in our gardens.

Rosy Hardy is one of the UK’s most celebrated horticulturists, renowned for her expertise in herbaceous perennials and her pioneering work in sustainable gardening. In 2020, she was appointed an Honorary Vice President of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in recognition of her outstanding contributions to horticulture.  Rosy co-founded Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants in 1988 with her husband, Rob. Starting from humble beginnings—selling plants from their back garden at local car boot sales—the nursery has grown into one of the UK’s leading independent nurseries, specialising in herbaceous perennials.  Rosy is the most decorated female exhibitor at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, having won 24 Gold Medals. She has also received two Tudor Rose awards at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. In 2021, she was honoured with the RHS Master Grower Award, further cementing her status as a leading figure in horticulture. Beyond her nursery work, Rosy is an RHS Judge and serves on the RHS Herbaceous Committee and the RHS Geum Trials Forum. In 2017, she authored her first book, “25 Years of Chelsea,” which chronicles her experiences at the Chelsea Flower Show and offers insights into plant combinations and colour schemes.  

Rachel Golding Barrett – The Tetbury Flower Company

The Dahlia Diaries: Everything you need to know about growing and cutting these show-stopping flowers

Renowned for her down-to-earth advice and her generosity in sharing every secret, Rachel reveals how to grow, cut and care for truly wow factor dahlias. In this inspiring and practical talk, she shares her favourite varieties, expert tips and stories from years of growing and breeding these late season wonders. Packed with encouragement, humour and hands-on know-how, this session will leave you full of ideas and confidence to grow your own dazzling display.  This is a must for all of us dahlia lovers everywhere!

Rachel Golding Barrett is the founder of The Tetbury Flower Company, a thriving flower farm in the South Cotswolds known for its outstanding British-grown dahlias and seasonal cut flowers. In 2025, Rachel and her team became the first UK flower farm ever to exhibit in a RHS Floral Marquee as a specialist dahlia nursery, earning a coveted Silver Gilt Medal for their display at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival. Her work and expertise have been featured on BBC Gardeners’ World and BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today, where she has shared her passion for sustainable British flowers and the revival of the dahlia. Inspired by the questions and enthusiasm of visitors to her Cut Your Own Flowers Day, Farm Tours and RHS Shows, Rachel began writing The Dahlia Diaries — a much-loved weekly ‘grow-a-long’ newsletter for fellow dahlia lovers, which now attracts a global readership.