‘Gardens can be used to talk about difficult subjects’

Garden designer Juliet Sargeant was the first Black woman to win gold at the Chelsea Flower Show and she’s helping to make gardening enjoyable for everyone.

Iwas fortunate to grow up in the grounds of a boarding school in Surrey, surrounded by fields and woodlands. Then, when I turned five, my mum gave me my own little corner of the garden and said, ‘This is for you.’ It was on a slope, so I tried to create a waterfall, and would spend hours running to the top with a bucket of water, then running back to watch it trickle down – it kept me very occupied!

At school, I was encouraged to get a ‘dependable job’, rather than do something creative, so I decided I would become a doctor. I qualified from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, where I also met my husband, Chris. Then, just as I was about to specialise in psychiatry, I ran out of steam and found myself craving to do something more creative.

Just by chance one weekend, while I was moaning to Chris about it, he was reading an article about garden design courses that were starting, so he said, ‘Why don’t you try one of these?’ So, I applied and got accepted to study garden design at Capel Manor College.

Like a lot of people, I thought garden design was simply gardening, but it’s all about creating rooms in a garden, like an architect. After my degree, I designed my mum’s garden, where I put in a summer house, wildlife pond and a meadow. I picked up other small projects to help build up my portfolio and, after three years, I’d managed to create a strong list of clients and earn a sensible living.

IT TAKES A TEAM

Showing more successful role models is key

The key to creating a beautiful garden is teamwork; it requires the skills of many specialist people. I always try to picture myself in a garden that I’m designing, because it helps you create something that not only looks nice, but feels lovely, too. I also try to put trees in every garden

I work in; they’re so important for the environment and, as a nation, it’s something we’re really behind on.

Winning gold for my Modern Slavery Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2016 was a very special moment. I’d been working on it for 18 months and it took nine days to build, on very little sleep. It also won a People’s Choice Award, which was wonderful because it affirmed that people were okay with the idea of using gardens to talk about difficult subjects.

Positive steps definitely need to be taken to encourage more people of colour into the gardening industry. I’m the first Black woman to win gold at Chelsea and I can count all the Black gardeners and garden designers on just two hands. Showing more successful role models is key because when you see people who look like you, you feel more welcomed.

Due to the pandemic, we’ve rediscovered the positive benefits of our own gardens. But I think a lot of people become alienated from their gardens because they worry that they might kill off everything in them. That’s why I set up the Sussex Garden School four years ago, where I give people a nice day out and help demystify gardening by teaching them basic but effective skills.

My garden isn’t very ornamental, it’s more like a plant laboratory. I use it to experiment with growing different plants in various conditions. I love getting big pots and stuffing them full of different spring and summer bulbs, but my all-time favourite flower is the lily – I’m just obsessed with the smell.

• For more information, visit sussexgardenschool.com and julietsargeant.com