MATT NICHOL
GARDEN DESIGN
Recent BALI award winner Matt BALI National Landscape Award In particular the clients wanted two
Nichol is a garden designer based in for Design Excellence 2018 for his distinct family entertaining areas;
Adlington, Cheshire. ‘Tranquil Cheshire Garden’. Matt and one for relaxing and one for dining,
his colleague Sarah Heyes are hoping and a separate barbecue area. They
to create a show garden at next year’s envisaged a feature courtyard space,
RHS Tatton Park Flower Show. which would be viewed internally from
Matt studied Garden Design at
Pershore Horticultural College
and after cutting his teeth and
gaining invaluable experience in the
design and build world at Notcutt’s
Landscapes, went on to set up his
own joint design and build company
in 2006, employing a large team of
landscapers. Matt now focuses purely
on designing gardens, but still relies
on his extensive experience of the
construction process when working on
his schemes.
Matt was the Northern Design Awards’
‘Garden Designer of the Year’ in 2012
and has recently won the prestigious
42
Landscape & Urban Design Issue 35 2019
The Brief
The owners of this newly renovated
farmhouse in the village of Rushton
Spencer in the Cheshire/Staffordshire
the large picture window of the new
extension. They also needed a new
driveway and gates.
Agreeing the Design
borders were a couple with young Matt and Sarah had a number of
children who wanted to create interactive meetings with the clients
a practical yet beautiful family in the early stages of the project. In
garden with a focus on relaxing and order to completely understand the
entertaining. needs and vision for the garden, they
The garden also needed to make the
most of its idyllic rural setting and
stunning views of the surrounding
countryside.
always start the design process with
dynamic, loose pencil sketches. This
always opens up valuable discussion
about the practicalities of the design