Life After Graduation: Garden Design with Jane Ashley

Posted on 10th September 2025

- By Garden Design Diploma graduate, Jane Ashley

Becoming a garden designer was a logical step for me, combining my creative skills with my lifelong delight in plants and gardens. Attending KLC was the pathway which enabled me to make this move and launch my garden design career.

I’d previously enjoyed another career, different but also satisfying and creative, as a BBC producer making documentaries and other programmes for Radio 4. But for some time I’d been thinking about switching into garden design, talking to people in the industry and researching the opportunities. Eventually in 2014 I made the leap and studied at KLC School of Design, one of the top courses available and so an obvious choice.

I set up Jane Ashley Garden Design soon after graduating from KLC. I didn’t know what the future would bring, whether it would be flourishing a decade later. My first paid project was a small garden with a tiny budget, but I’m very grateful for it, as it set me on my way, with word of mouth recommendations following - and the projects got steadily bigger and bigger, and more and more exciting. It was in a road near where I live, and whenever I go past, I still feel a little warm glow inside.

Since then I’ve been lucky to run my own design company and work on a wide range of gardens, large and small, contemporary and traditional, domestic, commercial and public, mainly around different parts of west London. Every project is different, each has its own unique challenges and opportunities, and I like the variety of working across different styles and settings.

One of my career highlights was designing the gardens for a charming double cottage dating from the 1880s, which was built by the River Thames. The front garden is alongside the towpath with a frequent flow of walkers passing by.

The clients wanted a riot of colour and distinctive feel through the seasons in this very visible location, and it was lovely to be able to provide that. I often get reports from people I know who have been walking along the busy path about how the garden is thriving (and occasionally I go and look myself). It’s particularly rewarding to construct something which is almost a kind of public display, enhancing the vista of the towpath, as well as a constant pleasure to those who live there.

It's always exciting when clients welcome distinctive features, styles or concepts for their garden design, such as 18th century stone Indian Jali panels, swathes of naturalistic planting across an extensive front garden to replace a traditional lawn, brilliant blue Moroccan floor tiles, an impressive David Harber sculptural centrepiece, or a natural looking waterfall flowing into a pretty wildlife pond.

One of the nicest aspects of garden design is the way you are able to bring joy to people’s lives. I love it when out of the blue a client from two or three years ago suddenly gets in touch to express their gratitude again, spurred by some facet of their garden.

The client relationship has always been a very important side of the work to me. I give my all to produce the garden that will offer everything they hoped for and more. Garden design is a people business as well as a business combining design and natural life - understanding what clients are seeking, devising features they would appreciate that they had not yet realised themselves, and building confidence that you can deliver it for them.

More recently I’ve also been enjoying broadening my work from domestic gardens into public projects, from designing a memorial garden in a historic location for a church to a planting scheme for a large housing estate in central London.

Sustainability and environmental impact are aspects of garden design that also matter very much to me, and increasingly to clients, and I strive to keep them at the forefront of my designs. It’s been good to see the growing awareness within the wider landscaping industry in recent years of its the impact on the natural world and the planet’s resources.

Jane Ashley at Association of Professional Landscapers

It’s always nice to get industry recognition, such as two gardens I designed that were awarded medals by the Association of Professional Landscapers, and one that was shortlisted for the Society of Garden and Landscape Design awards.

For some time I’ve been a co-convenor of the West London cluster group of the Society of Garden and Landscape Designers, organising regular meetings and visits and sometimes social get-togethers. We have a wide range of external and internal speakers about design trends, sustainability, industry practices, developments in materials and equipment, the uses of artificial intelligence, and so on.

It’s a popular, well attended group, and it means we can all learn from each other and outsiders. Garden design can be an atomised industry, and I find the cluster group very valuable in countering that. The SGLD provides a great network, and designers should make full use of it and the advantages it brings.

My key advice to anyone entering the profession would be to never stop learning. I’ve attended numerous courses on all sorts of topics since completing my KLC diploma, and I frequently find new ideas and techniques that I adapt and put into practice in my own work.

Sometimes people don’t initially appreciate how much knowledge is required to be an excellent garden designer, someone who is able to confidently and successfully tackle disparate projects and settings, combine the overall vision with the practical detail, and bring different approaches that are suitable in each case.

It can also be a good idea immediately after graduating to work with established garden designers before setting up your own studio. That would ease the transition from study into independent work, running your own business and successfully obtaining projects.

If you do go into a garden design career, make sure you enjoy it - it can be immensely rewarding. Sometimes you are solving people’s problems for them, and that’s good, but you are also realising their dreams, and that’s even better. And to be honest, for someone like me it’s always good fun talking to people about their gardens. That’s one of the perks of the job!

Jane Ashley Garden Design Ltd

Garden Design Diploma