Growing Up

With a decade of gardening journalism and a host of award-winning landscape designs to his name, Dan Pearson’s latest book is chock full of insights gained from a successful career at the forefront of global horticulture, which began at the sprawling RHS Wisley.

- Jake Taylor

DAN Pearson’s horticultural career has seen him tend to gardens across the globe, from Jerusalem to Japan, but when it comes to picking a favourite country in which to pursue his passion for planting, there’s nowhere quite like the green, green grass of home.

“Not many countries are lucky like we are in Britain,” the 52-year-old explains. “We have a very benign climate ultimately, despite the fact that it is a cloudy climate. We’re able to garden nearly every week of the year if we want to in this country. There are very few weeks that are locked down badly with freeze or they are so wet that we actually can’t get onto the ground. If you go somewhere in the Mediterranean, it is often too hot in the summer and things dry out to the point where they are not growing. In North America you have whole months of the winter closed down because it is too cold and it freezes, but in Britain there is not one period of inactivity or inertia.”

Indeed, Pearson’s career as both a landscape designer and a journalist has seen him forge strong links with some of Britain’s oldest and most prestigious institutions, such as Kew Gardens, The Guardian and the Chelsea Flower Show. But his journey began when, at the tender age of 17, Pearson got his parents’ blessing to drop out of school and take up an apprenticeship at the Royal Horticultural Society Garden in Wisley.