Sarah Eberle
Chelsea gold medal winner, Sarah Eberle shares her passion for garden design and her love of the landscape.
Since I qualified as a landscape architect in 1980.
Sarah's Bradstone garden at Chelsea 2007 I'm most proud of just sticking with it! I've been through good and bad times and a few recessions. I'm at the stage where I'm really enjoying the fruits of learning, of being a little more confident to stick my neck out, but realising that my journey is in many ways just starting. The honorary doctorate I was awarded in 2007 from Greenwich University blew me away.
My first love was the 'art room' at school and from there I became very interested in architecture and the Modernist movement. Combined with my love of the landscape I trained as a landscape architect at Thames Poly. Sadly I soon became disillusioned and managed to 'fall into' garden design. At the time it seemed like a real step back as it wasn't considered a true profession or even a very desirable one! Happily I became completely enamoured with it and have continued to develop a very rewarding lifelong relationship with the profession.
No. Sadly I'm not a gardener, I'm a farmer! I dream of a lovely garden but know that I'd need to constantly adapt and change what I have and that I would never get any fee-earning work done. I have an addictive personality and I don't dare to go there! I like the big picture and looking after rural land and the animals that go with it: I also own and manage a small pony stud that breeds potential international level sports ponies. Jumping onto a tractor keeps me in touch with nature.
Euphorbia wulfenii , cow parsley, hawthorn, beech trees in autumn, whatever is my latest muse!
Earthy, organic, natural. Steel, concrete and glass. I move from material to material and investigate all its possibilities and then look for something new. I love finding new uses from timeworn and accepted materials. Visiting scrap yards comes close to the top of my list for desirable trips out.
A smaller budget than I'd like. I have to use my design skills to counteract it!
I have made many small ones and perhaps a couple of whoppers! I try at all times to learn by them. Hopefully I make less now. Never be too proud to admit you've made a mistake; people admire honesty and people who can adjust as a consequence. Never ever hide behind your mistakes.
(External) Stourhead and (External) Dartington Hall . The former as I just love the English picturesque style - the gentle manipulation of the natural landscape and making it your own. I recently got married there and it was a fairytale come true. The latter because I went to school there and it has influenced me ever since.
Any scheme that I'm doing currently as I become totally absorbed until it's time to move on.
You tell me. Chameleon probably. I'm a changeling and take on the mantra of the site and the client and make it my own.
Stop, think, assimilate, evaluate, analyse and be prepared to discuss and brainstorm. Don't rush and make academic decisions ... allow your emotions to kick in ... the right answer is often very simple.
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