Gardens I've designed
From courtyards to larger Yorkshire plots, each one shaped entirely around the people who live in it.
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Every garden starts with a conversation
No two gardens here are the same, because no two clients are the same. Each project began with listening: to what the homeowner wanted, what the site needed, and what would actually work in the long term. The result is a collection of gardens that are beautiful, manageable, and quietly full of life.
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A large country garden
Yorkshire village Straightforward maintenance. SilverLarge country garden designed so that the owners can enjoy various aspects within their garden and the view beyond it.
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A tiny urban garden packed with interest throughout the year.
York Wildlife GoldSmall urban oasis garden designed for the benefit of wildlife and the enjoyment of humans.
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A contemporary take on a traditional country garden
A Yorkshire village Contemporary SilverA converted Yorkshire barn with a contemporary take on a traditional garden. This has been realised through the use of clean straight lines, softened by the planting.
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Deep herbaceous borders
Harrogate Manageable Maintenance SilverGenerous borders planted for colour from spring to the first frosts, designed so a couple of hours a month keeps them at their best.
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Elizabethan inspired garden.
York Show Garden adjacent to the Shakespeare Rose Theatre. GoldThis is a 'pop up' Elizabethan garden which showcased popular plants known by Shakespeare, many of which are mentioned in his plays. It was located next to the Shakespeare Rose Theatre, a full sized reproduction of the Globe Theatre London, which 'popped up' next to Clifford's Tower in the summers of 2018 and 2019 to delight the people of York with 8 of Shakespeare's most popular plays.
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A wildflower meadow garden
Knaresborough Wildlife GoldA lawn given over to meadow, cut twice a year and alive with insects all summer. One of the simplest changes a garden can make, and one of the best.
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Stone terrace and mixed borders
Leeds Manageable Maintenance BronzeA crisp stone terrace with planting chosen to look after itself. Somewhere to sit with a coffee that doesn't add jobs to the weekend.
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A country garden with views
Ripon Traditional SilverA garden that borrows its view. The design keeps the foreground quiet so the countryside beyond does the talking.
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A kitchen garden and perennial borders
Wetherby Kitchen Garden SilverRaised oak beds sized so nothing's out of reach, with perennial borders keeping the productive end of the garden as pretty as the rest.
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A town garden, room by room
York City Garden GoldA long, narrow plot behind a period terrace, divided into rooms for dining, growing and sitting in the sun. Seen from above, you can read the whole design at once.
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A wildlife pond and dry stone wall
Skipton Wildlife SilverA curving dry stone wall shelters a pond edged with cobbles and marginal planting. Built from local stone, and adopted by dragonflies almost immediately.
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A walled garden for eating outside
Leeds Traditional SilverA sun-trap terrace held inside old brick walls, with borders that reach their peak just as the table gets the most use in high summer.
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A beautiful garden should fit your life. And if it can quietly give something back to the world around it, all the better.
Sally Tierney
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.
Like what you see?
Every one of these gardens started with a conversation. If you're thinking about yours, I'd love to hear about it.
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