Matthew Wilson has almost 30 years of experience in the horticulture and garden design industry, with a decade spent in senior roles at the Royal Horticultural Society. He is a regular panellist on 'BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time.
Established in 2016 and based in rural Rutland, Matthew Wilson Gardens (MWG) designs and project manages landscape and garden schemes across the UK and Europe, working with domestic and corporate clients. He has master-planned National Trust and English Heritage gardens and provides landscape design consultancy for entities such as Portman Estates in London.
Recent work includes a 1.5-acre walled garden in Northumberland, an exotic courtyard garden for Bettys & Taylors Group in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and a 'country garden in the city' in Highbury, North London.
Matthew’s ethos is simple: every project is unique and requires an individual response, to ensure that client needs are met, but also to fulfil the full potential of a site. This encompasses aspects such as the practical needs of the client, maximising the potential of the garden setting, respecting the local vernacular and utilising innovative approaches to outdoor living to ensure the finished garden delivers not just useability but also the maximum amount of pleasure. Matthew and his team believe that gardens should always be joyful.
Environmental considerations are at the heart of Matthew's business, from the re-use or ‘upcycling’ of materials and waste reduction to following the credo of 'right plant for the right place' to reduce the need for interventions such as irrigation. For all the joy gardens can bring humans, they believe they can and should always benefit biodiversity and the planet.
Matthew’s 2016 Garden for Yorkshire won the prestigious 'People’s Choice Award' at Chelsea Flower Show, and in March 2022 his garden ‘Home’ won the Gold Award at Shenzhen Flower Show.
Garden & Landscape Design
"The key to any great garden design is that it must respond to the needs of the client and the character of the space and surroundings. With that knowledge foremost we create gardens that are timeless, beautiful, easy to live with and made to last."
"Our walled garden project in Acomb, Northumberland has received a lot of attention since completion in autumn 2020. Set in 1.5acres it includes a potager kitchen garden, formal lawns and borders, with the pièce de resistance being the ‘Monet Garden’. This half-acre part of the garden is set across a series of terraces, with a rectangular formal pool at its heart. From the pool a water rill tumbles down the terraces, flanked by large beech ‘beehives’. The beds formed by the terraces are awash with colour from perennials, grasses and bulbs. The stone used to build the terrace walls was all repurposed from the site, and hundreds of plants were rescued, lifted, divided and replanted. No chemical weedkillers were used in the making of the garden or subsequently, and the entire plot is managed with a low irrigation regime."
Banner and Image 1: Richard Bloom; 2-4 and 6-7: Rachel Warne; Image 5: Sean Knott; Image 8: Lynn Keddie
