A B O U T

P R O F I L E

Since graduating in 1989 as a Landscape Architect, Phil Brown has been a Garden and Landscape Designer based in Somerset - designing and project managing a diverse range of prestigious private garden, estate and commercial landscape projects throughout Somerset and the UK

Based in Somerset his inspirational and sometimes unusual garden designs have won international acclaim for the way they use light, colour and space to create living and engaging places.

Phil has both designed and built gardens at the RHS flower shows at Chelsea and Hampton Court Palace and in 2000, Phil successfully submitted a garden design entry to the 9^th International festival of Gardens at Chaumont sur Loire in France, currently the most important festival for contemporary landscape design of its kind. In 2002 a further garden design entry was submitted to the UK's equivalent festival of landscape design based at Westonbirt

Once built, the winning design entries at both festivals were uniquely open to the public for several months allowing people to fully experience them as gardens. These garden designs both aimed to collect and condense natural phenomena in a theatre like space, encouraging observation - provoking a connection with nature and the user's emotional response to it

 

His garden design and landscape design work continues to demonstrate his continued interest in seasonal and daily cycles and the atmospheres they create within the landscape

Phil's wider experience in landscape management, conservation and a farming background have allowed him to spend more time in recent years working with clients on an ongoing basis in the development and diversification of estates and farms in Somerset and the South West.

Projects have involved larger scale landscape planning with restoration of native woodland, creation of new woodland and lakes with links to the more intimately designed landscape of the gardens and orchards around the house

Phil's interest in organic produce, rare breeds and bee keeping are evident in his designs for orchards, kitchen and woodland gardens. He is accomplished at hedge laying and dry-stone walling and has restored dew ponds and coppice within ancient woodland.

   

These practical skills give Phil an important insight into the landscape and this understanding of local materials and love of traditional rural crafts now makes a valuable contribution to his garden design and landscape design work in Somerset and the South West of England

P U B L I C A T I O N S

His design work has regularly been published in; BBC Gardeners' World Magazine,' The English Garden', 'Gardens Illustrated', Horticulture week and in 'Les Jardins du Futur' by Jean-Paul Pigeat and 'Climbing Gardens' by Joan Clifton

M Y   D E S I G N   P H I L O S O P H Y

I have been a garden designer, creating gardens and landscape for over 20 years. This is grounded in a passion for the landscape that surrounds us, its diversity and the theatre that is played out throughout the daily and seasonal cycles. 

I love to absorb and abstract what I experience in the landscape and bring this to my garden and landscape design work often using the garden as a theatre with the production changing throughout the daily and seasonal cycles.

 

I combine my design skills with my practical understanding of materials, rural crafts, construction techniques, farming and landscape management and this has given me a freedom - to look creatively at the challenge of the brief and provide design solutions for a diverse range of garden and landscape projects.

For me designing gardens is about developing a sense of the place and using design to form the basis of an ongoing 'discussion' with the client. I use a flexible range of drawings and design techniques to suite the project and to allow the client to enjoy the process.

I am equally happy to design gardens with the most contemporary or traditional palettes of materials. I use 'hard' products and plants equally as 'materials' in a specific combination and balance that fits with the clients brief and the unique sense of place that a site has to offer.

  

T H E   E N V I R O N M E N T

Gardens play an increasingly important role in providing habitat for our wildlife. I sometimes design gardens and ponds for clients that are specifically intended for wildlife but whatever the style or primary purpose of a garden might be I aim to make all my garden design work as beneficial to wildlife as possible - even the most contemporary.

This approach of encouraging wildlife into the garden transforms it into a living, changing place, increasing the gardens interest and the potential for the client to engage with the garden on a daily basis

I design features that use a mixture of traditional crafts and materials along with modern techniques, working with clients to create, restore and manage gardens and landscapes that are as sustainable as possible. Projects are always considered in a sensitive way and the sourcing of sustainable materials is a key consideration.

 

'HabitatAid'

'HabitatAid' is a company that has carefully researched a wide range of suppliers that provide high quality wildlife and conservation seeds, plants and products. It has established a number of charity partners in the wildlife and conservation field and donates a percentage of its profits from its sales to them

The site is informative and full of interest and highly recommended www.habitataid.co.uk

   

 

 

 

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