How I think about garden design
My approach has evolved since I began designing in 1997, but it comes back to the same few convictions. Here's how I think, and why it matters for your garden.
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Maintenance first. Always.
The most beautiful garden design in the world fails if the person who lives with it can't maintain it. This sounds obvious, but it's routinely ignored.
I've seen it happen. A client is shown something gorgeous. They say yes. Two years later they're overwhelmed, or they've had everything ripped out and started again. The design looked impressive. It just didn't account for real life.
So before I draw a single line, I ask you about time. Not aspirational time. Actual time. How many hours a week do you realistically want to spend in the garden? The answer might be four. It might be one. It doesn't matter. What matters is that I design around the truth, not around an image.
This is the question that shapes everything else: the depth of borders, the choice of ground cover, the species I'll recommend, the surfaces I'll specify.
I wrote about this in 2015, in my book The Garden Equation. It sets out three steps: decide what you want to have or do in your garden, work with the conditions your site already gives you, and size the maintenance to the time you actually have while the plan is still on paper. In my experience it is the third step that gets skipped, and it is the one this page keeps coming back to.
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The soil is not an afterthought
Every garden I design starts with an honest look at what's actually in the ground. Yorkshire soils vary enormously, from the heavy clay of the Vale of York to the thin, free-draining soils of the Wolds, the acid peats of the Moors, and the alkaline limestone belt running through the Dales.
Working with your soil rather than against it isn't just good practice. It's the difference between a garden that thrives and one that constantly disappoints. Plants chosen for your actual conditions establish faster, need less intervention, and look better for longer.
I'll always assess the soil before I make planting recommendations. Where it helps to know more, I'll test the pH and discuss what the results mean for your choices.
Ecological thinking works best when it's woven in from the start, not treated as a box to tick once the design is otherwise complete.
Sally Tierney
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Wildlife belongs in the design, not added at the end
This doesn't mean turning every garden into a nature reserve. It means choosing plants that happen to support pollinators. It means considering where a small pond might sit. It means leaving one edge slightly rougher, or letting a climber do double duty as a nesting site. Small decisions, made early, that accumulate into something that matters over time.
My years as a Trustee of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust shaped how I see gardens. Every space is part of a wider landscape. Every design choice has an ecological consequence, and that can be a good thing.
Structure gives freedom
A garden without a clear structure is a garden that's always slightly out of control, regardless of how much time you spend in it. Good bones (clear paths, considered levels, defined boundaries, a logical layout) are what allow everything else to relax.
This is counterintuitive to some clients. They think structure means formality, rigidity, rows. It doesn't. Some of the most naturalistic and informal gardens I've designed have the clearest structural logic underneath them. The planting can be as loose and flowing as you like, because the framework holds it.
Getting this right is what the design process is for.
A garden is never finished
One of the things I try to help clients understand early is that a garden is a living thing. It'll change with the seasons, with the years, with the inevitable surprises that every garden produces.
This isn't a problem to be solved. It's the nature of the medium. A good design anticipates change, builds in room to evolve, and doesn't depend on perfect conditions to function.
My job is to give you a strong foundation and a clear plan, and to design something that improves with time rather than fights against it.
What clients say on Google
5 from 31 Google reviews
Independent reviews from people whose gardens I have designed.
Competent, conscientious and creative! An RHS employee advised us to use a member of the Society of Garden Designers…because anyone can call themselves a garden designer! Sally has a robust combination of qualifications, experience…and medals, which underpin delivery of a professional yet personal garden design service. Sally has written a book called The Garden Equation, which really resonated with me. Three foundation steps are needed to balance the equation! 1. Experience of the garden - what you want to have, or do, in your garden. 2. Physical conditions - work with nature! 3. Maintenance - tailor the plan to your timeframe! Working through these steps helped us work through our priorities and communicate our preferences. Sally’s objectivity provided us with invaluable insight and a new perspective. Sally’s knowledge and skills have enabled us to transform our space. The gardens were a space we worked in and walked through. Now our two front gardens feel connected, even though they are separated by a road. We feel that our home extends into two beautiful garden rooms, where design underpins purpose and effort is rewarded with enjoyment.
Sally's work was recommended to me initially by a 2 new neighbours, but then we also saw a totally different garden she has designed and really loved the blend of plant knowledge with varied hard landscaping and creativity. Each garden with which she was involved was unique. Our patch was a real challenge for any gardener, having poor drainage, heavy clay, two mature trees just over our fence, and nothing but rough grass. Sally was encouraging, enthusiastic and also realistic. She showed flexibility in her approach, amended the planting as necessary and always communicating clearly and in a timely way. She listens carefully to her clients' needs, hopes and fantasies, and is pragmatic in her approach. She makes clear the various options available, right at the start, so you can commit financially to the level of her input you want with confidence. She's incredibly hardworking when actually creating the garden physically, preparing beds, laying turf sourcing, planting, and she's also very generous with her time and effort. We are thrilled with the transformation achieved in a relatively short time, and cannot recommend her highly enough.
Excellent garden transformation - highly recommend! We're absolutely delighted with the work Sally has done for us. After extending our house, we lost part of our garden and wanted to make the most of the remaining space, but lacked both the time and knowledge to do it ourselves. Sally was recommended to us and she's been wonderful from start to finish. She presented us with thoughtful ideas and options, then took care of arranging all the work, making the whole process stress-free. The result is fantastic - the garden looks beautiful even now in winter, and we're excitedly looking forward to seeing it come alive in spring and summer. We couldn't be happier and would highly recommend Sally to anyone looking for a skilled and reliable garden designer.
Would you like to talk through how this applies to your garden?
Every garden is different. A consultation is where we work out what these principles mean in practice for your specific space.
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