David Keegan is an acclaimed garden and landscape couturier with over 20 year of experience , bonk for his award - get ahead projects across the UK and internationally .
Having featured in the BBC Two programme Garden School in 2005 , Keegan has since garnered numerous award , including honor from International Landscape Design and the Northern Design Award for Best Landscape Designer .
Currently , he is actively working on various task in Manchester , Cheshire and across the Northwest of England .
Watch David ’s full audience with Mollie Brown on YouTube or interpret the transcript below .
can you explain a little bit about what first drew you to a career in garden design?
“ I never in reality made a conscious decision to become a garden designer , ” David shares .
“ I had actually propel to Manchester to examine furniture return of all things . In my former career , I was a professional lensman , so I had quite a hard visual sense anyway .
“ Whilst I was in Manchester studying , I created a garden , and multitude start wanting to add up in and see the garden , so from there , I was involve to do more . It was an entirely organic process .
“ I used to pledge to Gardeners ’ World and there was an advert in the magazine for a television set programme that was come up . I decide to make an app . There were 2,500 applications for it and I made it through ! ”
How did your appearance in that program, Garden School, change and influence your career?
“ I cerebrate at the time I was n’t really aware of the wallop that it would have , ” he says .
“ That show had a viewership of 2.5 million masses , so when the program begin to publicize , I find myself on train with people kind of stare at me . And I ’m thinking , ‘ why is that person staring at me ? ’ And then you recall , ‘ oh yeah , you ’re on TV ’ , so that ’s the foreign side of it !
“ The brilliant side of it was the opportunity to spend six calendar month with the RHS in Wisley . We were exposed to some of the best and most creative minds in horticulture , as well as garden design . There was also an chance to travel abroad and see some of the kind of fantastic , especially Italianate gardens in Italy .
“ The other affair following on from that is the believability it gift you and the confidence because you ’ve really made it through that process and you ’ve been successful . It gives you the confidence to believe that you actually have the power to become a interior designer or to actually follow up on it as a life history . ”
how do you approach designing a garden or landscape for a client?
“ The first thing I do with every project is arrange a situation visit – to have a interview with potential node and look at what ’s there and then talk through the possibleness with them .
“ Once I ’m commissioned , it ’s a very detailed process . foremost , I create an electronic mood book and we have a interview with the client where we seek to gain ground a big insight into what they like and what they ’re going to answer to .
“ From that , we go to conception design and we practice very potent visual imagery . We have videos of what the designed garden would potentially look like and that ’s really helpful because you ’ll find that most people that are commissioning a garden fashion designer are doing so because they really ca n’t get a sentience of how they need that outer space to look .
“ Finally , we go to final pattern , which obviously would be the full landscape painting and planting plans of that project . ”
Can you explain a time where you faced a challenge while working on a project and how it then turned out?
“ I cogitate one of the biggest challenges was during the pandemic because I had started work on a design of a very big project in Cheshire East , ” explains David .
“ We had a docket for the facility of the planting , and we had around £ 40,000 worth of plant that were deliver , but then we go into lockdown and it was impossible to build the garden and deploy the planting until the residue of the build had been finished .
“ The real challenge there was actually preserve all of those flora in good consideration and alive and we attain a three - calendar month stretchiness of nonstop sunshine – you could n’t could n’t make it up if you wanted to ! It was all hands on deck of cards with regard to watering .
“ The clients were perfectly wonderful . They literally spent hours and minute , taking concern of all these plants with the answer that at the end , we in reality lost very few plants when it came around to planting . ”
Do you have a particular favourite project that you’ve worked on?
“ I guess the honest answer to that would be the one that I ’m work on at the bit ! ” he jokes .
“ It completely varies on what I ’m doing as and when . There was a small tropical oasis garden that we finish the instalment on about a month ago and that will most likely be a favourite and remain so because it was very works - heavy .
“ We ’re also presently solve on a sensory garden for Rochdale Council at Hollingsworth Lake and that ’s decidedly going to be a foresighted - term favourite because it ’s a very dissimilar approach due to the fact it ’s a public garden .
“ I ’m really looking forth to watch that establish over the next few yr and also watching how people actually react to it . ”
How do you see the future of landscape and garden design kind of evolving in the next few years?
“ I imagine it ’s gon na be very thought-provoking , as there ’s no predictability anymore . All of the things that we ’re being told are literally going out the window year on yr .
“ There ’s also a real skills shortage in landscaping and I think that really comes down to the medium . I believe we believably need more sensitive photo on programs that look at the process of design and building garden .
“ The public face of landscaping and horticulture has n’t really caught up with the reality on the ground , which is a very dissimilar variety of world , and they do n’t seem to represent each other at the bit . ”
with all of that in mind, what advice would you give to budding garden and landscape designers?
“ Go and see as many garden as possible , ” suggest David .
“ The RHS Gardens are a wonderful place to actually engross yourself . I recollect one of my favourites would be Wisley . It ’s a wonderful garden because it has so many different trend of planting in it .
“ I would also suggest to anybody who want to become a garden clothes designer to go out and get a job with a landscaping business firm . I in reality started out building my own garden and I recall that was a with child experience .
“ Get a job with a landscape gardening firm and learn the staple . start out with construction gardens and then with planting gardens and then maybe go and do a course in garden excogitation or do an RHS track .
“ You ca n’t learn the practicality of pattern sitting at a computer . You ’ll only learn them by in reality aim part in that process . ”
Do you have any upcoming projects that you’re looking forward to and would like to share?
“ One of my favourite types of projection to be require to be involved inare slopes , ” he shares .
“ I do n’t know why , but I have this matter that if there is a slope in a garden , that ’s it – I ’m in ! I receive an query about four months ago from a couple who were considering buying a house on the fundament of the garden .
“ They booked me to do a reference and say that if I reckon we could do something with this plot , they would bribe the house . I ’ve never been enquire to help people make a determination on corrupt a house before , so I went out and looked at the project and verbalize it through with them .
“ It has views that actually go down onto a lake , so I speak through the potential of it and told them what we could really do with that space and on the basis of that they bought the family . We ’re just waiting for the surveys to be completed and then I will start oeuvre on the designs on that .
“ I consider that the main thing is I ’m always looking for unexampled challenge , whether that be climatic or the topography of the site that ’s involved . ”
