Advice For Crafting Harmonious Gardens With Distinguished Designer Lottie Delamain

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Lottie Delamain, a distinguished English Garden Designer, has dedicated several years to crafting breathtaking gardens that perfectly harmonise wild and refined aesthetics.

With unorthodox beginnings in textile design, Lottie has transferred her love of colour and pattern to her design practice – and is now celebrated for her lush, romantic outdoor spaces that engage all of the senses.

She is also a Trustee of Grow, an organisation that centres around getting young people involved in food production.

Please note that the imagery in this article is provided courtesy of Dave Watts and Billy Bolton.

What is your earliest memory of gardening?

“My earliest gardening memory is of my mother pulling up new potatoes and getting very excited about how delicious they were, but I didn’t really get the excitement!” shares Lottie.

“I distinctly remember her saying ‘you’ll get it when you’re older’ – and she was right. Although the idea of gardening didn’t immediately grab me, I was always really interested in the natural world as a child.

“We lived in the countryside and I had a pony and I’d go out with my notebooks and collect leaves and flowers to press.”

How did your background in textiles inform your approach to garden design, especially when you were just starting out in this new field?

“The move from textiles to gardens was much less intimidating than I anticipated,” she reflects.

“There is actually a lot of cross-over in form, pattern, colour and texture. The same could probably be said of lots of design disciplines. I think having some design experience gave me the confidence to experiment and explore, and have faith that something would materialise out of the process.

“I wasn’t so worried about getting it right and didn’t find a blank piece of paper completely overwhelming.”

Can you discuss the process of conceptualising and creating your first show garden at RHS Chelsea?

“The idea for my garden for Chelsea had been percolating in my mind for years, ever since I went trekking in Northern Vietnam in 2013 and came across a very rudimentary dye garden where women were growing indigo and hemp to make their clothes.

“It wasn’t until I came across Project Giving Back in 2021 that I began to develop it and think it could actually come to life as a show garden. There are so many elements to a garden at Chelsea, but at the heart of it, it’s about telling a story.

“I contacted Fashion Revolution early on in the application process, as I knew they would be fantastic partners to help bring this particular story to life. The application process is very thorough – as you’d expect of RHS Chelsea – but it’s good because you’re testing your concept all the way through to make sure it really works.

“Design-wise I knew what I wanted to do: create a garden that looked like a textile with a woven tapestry of plants that could be used to make dye or fiber.

“However, the biggest challenge was finding enough dye and fiber plants that fitted this brief and would be in flower for the end of May and deliver enough ornamental value for a show garden.

“Lots of them I had never grown before or worked with, so it felt like flying blind at times. However, I was lucky to work with a very experienced nursery, Kelways, who rose to the challenge and guided me through the process.”

As a trustee of Grow, how do you integrate sustainability and community engagement in your design projects?

“Grow is a fantastic charity – [they] illustrate in a beautifully simple way how having access to green space and growing some veg can have such a broad range of benefits,” says Lottie.

“Being a trustee has reinforced my belief that everyone should have access to green spaces, irrespective of background or postcode, as it is fundamental to us as individuals and as a society.

“In terms of how I work: I work hard to ensure that clients feel connected to their gardens and that the garden feels like theirs and somewhere they can engage with nature, not feel intimidated by it.

“Feeling connected to the natural world is crucial if we are asking people to protect it for future generations.”

What advice would you give to novice gardeners who are looking to develop a personal style or theme for their garden?

“My advice would be [to] start with what you love,” she advises.

“Find a starting point that inspires joy, be it a plant that reminds you of someone, a colour in a painting you love or a material you like. Use this as the anchor and make a mood board to help you visualise the look and feel you’re aiming for.

“Refer back to this as you design and develop your garden. Don’t worry about it all being perfect. Experiment and learn by doing. A bit like trying to learn to cook only from looking at cookbooks, you can only really learn to garden by gardening and getting your hands dirty.”

How do you stay inspired? What motivates you?

“I live in Somerset and walk a lot – preferably first thing while the chaos of breakfast is going on. I am trying to make room for a few days every other month or so in London to soak up art. 

“It’s so easy not to allow this time but I find it beneficial for gathering thoughts for the ideas bank, which sometimes take years to find a home, but they always do.

“In terms of motivation, I really believe in gardens as a force for good, as it’s such a pleasure to give people the opportunity to enjoy them and engage with plants and the natural world.”

How do you see the landscape of garden design changing in the future, and how do you plan to adapt your practice to these changes?

“It goes without saying that designing with the climate in mind is a top priority,” states Lottie.

“It’s built into how I think about gardens from the start – whether clients ask for it or not. This applies to sustainable materials choices and climate-resistant planting, but also thinking about long-term use of the garden and how it will evolve as children grow up or adults move into different stages of their lives.

“I hope we’ll see more innovations in materials for the mass market. For example. clever use of recycled materials and new bio-materials, which at the moment are quite limited and prohibitively expensive for most.”

What are your future plans or upcoming projects that you are excited about?

“I have lots of great projects on at the moment. These include a steep ‘jungly’ garden by the sea, a lovely big country garden in Somerset and a couple of smaller London projects which are like little jewels and always a joy to design.

“I’ve also got a few commercial projects on which is a great muscle to be stretching and a different skill-set entirely.

“I’m doing more writing which is a great excuse to research a topic and meet fascinating people, and I’d love to work more with brands who want to use gardens and plants to tell their story.

And, of course, lots more pottering in my own garden, which always seems to fall to the bottom of the list…”