Nourish & Sow

Brighter days and the luxury of time mean gardens have become a lifeline diversion. Horticulture expert Alistair Baldwin offers some timely advice – and reveals exciting plans ahead

- Kathryn Armstrong

A listair Baldwin has something of a track record in the design of dazzling gardens.

Walled gardens, rose gardens, wild natural gardens, roof gardens. Definitely a horticultural hero, a garden go-to.

He is blessed with a pretty spectacular workspace for the garden design and landscape architecture practice he runs; the notable grounds of lovely Newby Hall near Ripon, at a time when gardens under his care, Yorkshire and beyond, take no heed of self-isolation advice and just keep on growing.

But life’s different pace is giving him a period of reflection, as with us all.

‘I think one consequence of people being at home is that they are getting into the garden to do all the things they’ve wanted to do’, he says.

‘With this weather coaxing people outside, it’s good for the health of the nation. Sunshine is uplifting, so it’s a well-timed boost. People can accept that if we stop working for a bit the sun keeps coming up, and it will encourage people to get a life/ work balance.’

With an enforced break in peoples’ lives and energies turned to their gardens and outside space, Alistair hopes there will be an interest nurtured in his own new ‘project’ – a garden design school based at Newby Hall in a very grand space.

Newby School of Design will open up later this year offering courses for garden enthusiasts of all levels – from one-day tasters up to a one-year course leading to a garden diploma qualification and a springboard to a career in garden design.

The design school base will be in the restored orangery at Newby Hall, which is famed for its gardens and was named Historic Houses Garden of the Year in 2019.