Inside Andy Sturgeon\u2019s modern coastal garden in Brighton<\/a><\/p>\n But as soon as our interview starts, phone calls are put on hold and I get his full and undivided attention \u2013 and experience first hand what it must feel like to be a privileged Andy Sturgeon client. It\u2019s not just his charm and enthusiasm that make you warm to him: he\u2019s fascinated by what makes people tick and believes that understanding people is an essential attribute of being a good garden or landscape designer.<\/p>\n Andy\u2019s career path to RHS Chelsea Flower Show<\/a> success (Andy has won nine RHS Gold medals at Chelsea Flower Show in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2019 and 2022 and was awarded the coveted \u2018Best in Show\u2019 award in 2010, 2016 and 2019) and leading light of modern design involved, in the early years, a series of unplanned moves.<\/p>\n He left school in Surrey with poor A levels, a love of being out of doors and no job prospects. He fell into landscape gardening, he explains, when he joined his brother, who was a contractor. \u201cWe made gardens for established designers too,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I quickly discovered that I wanted to make the decisions about where things should go.\u201d<\/p>\n Three books<\/a> steered him through: The Small Garden<\/em> by John Brookes, The Water Garden<\/em> by Anthony Paul and Yvonne Rees and a book on Japanese gardens. Then he heard about a sandwich course at the Welsh College of Horticulture \u2013 a bizarre hybrid that covered pot plant production, landscaping, roof garden<\/a> design and tropical indoor plants<\/a> \u2013 and signed up. The now defunct course has been surprisingly relevant, he says, except, perhaps, for time spent propagating hundreds of poinsettias<\/a>.<\/p>\n A year working with garden designer David Stevens gave him the confidence to set up his own garden maintenance firm back in Surrey. It was a commercial success but he tired of what was essentially \u201ccleaning gardens\u201d, and became frustrated that he couldn\u2019t make a living from garden design. \u201cIt was a time when everyone wanted pergolas<\/a>, a patio, a pond<\/a> and a sundial,\u201d he says. He was interested in modernism, in the outdoor room and in large-scale sculptures<\/a>. In 1994 he packed up, bought a ticket to Africa and got the travelling bug. Over the next three years he roamed southeast Asia \u2013 in Hong Kong he earned his keep as an overseer on a suspension bridge \u2013 and made massive detours in search of particular trees or shrubs.<\/p>\n On his return to the UK, recharged by all his travel experiences and the visual memories \u2013 the big skies of Africa, the colour of rocks, the architectural shapes of the plants \u2013 he dived back into garden design and his career took off.<\/p>\n Within a year he had made an English tropical garden for RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and in 2001 he was sponsored to make his first Chelsea garden, a masculine design that bristled with ultra-modern materials and furniture. By 2005, when he won his first Chelsea Gold, he realised that he had found his feet as a designer. Timber and stone replaced crushed concrete<\/a> and shiny metals, and the planting, anchored by trees<\/a> and shrubs<\/a> with an infill of perennials<\/a>, had a timeless quality.<\/p>\n Friends and colleagues all speak of Andy\u2019s phenomenal drive, which is presumably what has carried him through since the sudden and tragic death of wife Sarah in 2009, and of his devotion to his three sons. Is he ever worried about burning out? \u201cI look at people such as Frank Gehry, John Brookes<\/a> and Renzo Piano still designing and that fills me with hope that you can keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n Landscape designer Andy Sturgeon has won multiple awards and is one of the UK’s top garden designers. Annie Gatti finds out what makes him tick. Image by Charlie Hopkinson <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":21750,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/04\/designer-andy-sturgeon-reflects-on-his-career-and-drive-scaled.jpg",1704,2560,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/04\/designer-andy-sturgeon-reflects-on-his-career-and-drive-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/04\/designer-andy-sturgeon-reflects-on-his-career-and-drive-200x300.jpg",200,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/04\/designer-andy-sturgeon-reflects-on-his-career-and-drive-768x1154.jpg",768,1154,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/04\/designer-andy-sturgeon-reflects-on-his-career-and-drive-681x1024.jpg",681,1024,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/04\/designer-andy-sturgeon-reflects-on-his-career-and-drive-1022x1536.jpg",1022,1536,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/04\/designer-andy-sturgeon-reflects-on-his-career-and-drive-1363x2048.jpg",1363,2048,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Landscape designer Andy Sturgeon has won multiple awards and is one of the UK's top garden designers. Annie Gatti finds out what makes him tick. 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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/18\/2021\/06\/JI_020620_AndySturgeon_009-817763f.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C349"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Find out more about Andy Sturgeon\u2019s work at www.andysturgeon.com<\/a><\/h3> <\/body><\/html>\n
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