Sharing a vision

Garden designers Sarah Jarman and Anna Murphy met at college eight years ago. Since then they have launched a garden design business specialising in creating open spaces with a personal touch

When Sarah Jarman and Anna Murphy met at college eight years ago, little did they know that their new friendship combined with a love of plants and design would see them set up their own garden design company as they completed their course and diplomas.

That first summer they won a gold medal at the RHS Tatton Flower Show for their first show garden A Quiet Corner − quite an impressive start for new designers. Step forward five years and after many successful projects, their partnership, jarmanmurphy, has developed a great reputation for its ability to create beautiful gardens for a broad range of clients.

Their design ethic maintains a subtle balance between planting and hard landscaping, so the gardens they create have immersive, emotional planting and any paving or built features sit in harmony with the site.

Based close to the Essex/ Hertfordshire border, Anna and Sarah currently run projects across the south of the UK.

Sarah explains: ‘Anna and I work extremely hard to foster friendly, professional relationships with our clients. This allows us to listen to their interests and needs, and for us to share and develop our designs effectively with plans, drawings, and discussions. Clients often stay in touch after the build work is completed and we pride ourselves on the service and approachability we offer, as well as the gardens we create for them of course.’

Sarah and Anna produce hand-drawn plans and sketches with photographic mood boards to present their ideas to clients and to bring alive the vision of how each garden can be transformed.

‘Drawing our vision for a space by hand captures the mood and atmosphere of the design and is a vital element of the process with clients,’ Sarah continues.