Our featured partner this month is Steve Williams of Steve Williams Landscapes (www.stevewilliamslandscapes.com). Originally from Derby, but now residing in Bristol, Steve originally studied Photographic Art at degree level before moving into horticulture and landscaping.
Drawing on his creative arts studies, Steve has developed a successful horticultural design style that integrates his passion for form, the abstract and the innovative with an over-riding interest in ecology and biodiversity.
Steve describes his style as “versatile and contemporary, using innovative techniques and soft, natural plantings with the aim of breaking down the divide between the natural environment and the human landscape.”
Steve completed a one-year garden design diploma course at the Cotswold Gardening School, Gossington, and was shortlisted for two prestigious garden design awards within months of graduating.
Competing against a record 64 other entries in the annual competition run by the Society of Garden Designers (SGD), Steve is now a finalist in both the commercial and domestic student categories, with the winners to be announced in February 2018.
One of Steve’s competition entries was for a new area at Slimbridge Wetland Centre – see below.
While the other was for the garden of a highly contemporary, energy-efficient ‘passive’ house.
Steve has commented, “Planting is a major element to my designs and creating a range of habitat layers to boost the biodiversity of an area is something I pay special attention to. Wildflowers are a major player in this process as they can be the most colourful and vibrant aspect to a planting scheme but are also essential for many pollinators and vastly boost the biodiversity of a space.”
Inspired by a lecture on wildflowers during his studies, Steve delved further into the benefits and opportunities presented by this particular landscaping solution. Thanks to an introduction to the Wildflower Turf product through the Cotswold Gardening School, Steve went on to utilise Wildflower Turf in his own designs, and became an accredited partner of Wildflower Turf in 2016.
“Wildflower Turf is a great product and very easy to work with. The product goes down easily with very minimal ground preparation, and is fantastic for problematic areas. A recent project, with very poor soil, has been transformed after laying Wildflower Turf. The Accreditation Programme has also been invaluable, and it’s a great opportunity to learn from the experts.”
We wish Steve every success at the SGD awards and are delighted to be able to share an example of one of Steve’s projects using Wildflower Turf.
