Independent horticultural consultancy for significant gardens, estates and heritage landscapes.
Biosecurity & Diagnostics • Heritage Rejuvenation • Plantsmanship
Knowing plants. Reading ground.
As an MCIHort horticultural consultant, I provide independent advice to significant gardens, estates and heritage landscapes across Scotland and the UK. Nearly two decades of experience across the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Monet’s garden at Giverny, the Royal Parks, Mount Stuart and Kinross House, together with statutory plant-health inspection, inform three areas of work: Biosecurity & Diagnostics, Heritage Rejuvenation and Plantsmanship.
Explore
Field Notes
Writing on plant health, survey work, and what a site gives up when you read it closely.
Services
Three strands: plantsmanship and planting design, site diagnostics and drone survey, and biosecurity.
About
Where I've come from.
Nineteen years across RBGE, Giverny, Mount Stuart, and plant health inspection.
Frequently Asked Questions
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I advise on plants and the ground they grow in. That might mean designing a planting scheme, identifying why something is failing, surveying an historic landscape to establish what it was, or assessing a disease risk before it spreads. Some of it is fieldwork and some of it is archival, but it comes from the same place: nineteen years of growing things, and a specialism in plant health.
I don't sell plants, machinery or maintenance contracts, so the advice is independent.
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I work with historic estates, country houses, walled gardens and significant private gardens, often through the land agents and trusts who manage them. The common thread is complex ground that needs specialist input — whether that's a planting scheme, a plant health problem, or understanding what an historic landscape once was and what remains of it.
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I'm based in Sutherland and work across the Highlands and central Scotland. For specialist work — plant health assessment, heritage landscape survey, planting design — I travel throughout Scotland and into northern England.
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Plant health diagnostics means working out what's actually wrong with the plants on a site, and what's likely to go wrong next. Many serious threats fungal pathogens, pest pressure, structural decline in trees aren't visible until real damage has been done. Early diagnosis protects the landscape and avoids the costs that come with statutory plant health notices or emergency felling. Prevention is almost always cheaper than cure.
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I work either on a day rate for site visits and diagnostics, or a fixed project fee for larger assessments and longer-term planning. Which suits depends on the scope, and costs are agreed before any work begins.
I don't sell plants, materials or machinery, so there's no commission built into what I recommend.
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All client information, site assessments and project details are treated with complete discretion. I do not discuss, share or reference client work without explicit permission. Reports and correspondence remain strictly confidential. Where requested, I'm happy to sign a non-disclosure agreement prior to any site visit or consultation.