A profile of garden designer Christine Fowler

WHEN Christine Fowler planned her move from Wimbledon to Arundel in 2018 pre-pandemic, she was looking forward to establishing her thriving garden design business in West Sussex. Despite the pandemic, she has still managed to achieve a great deal both in her business life and socially.

Born in Henley her family lived in a house in Wokingham designed and built by her architect father. She was by her own admission, ‘Horse mad and spent most of my time riding at the Pony Club, for the Prince Philip Cup team and for friends. Later at Exeter University she studied Zoology but like many left with little idea of what she wanted to do. She spent some time in advertising sales and a media agency before joining Hewlett Packard as a trainee sales executive based in their City office. It was the right choice and she stayed nearly twenty years filling a variety of roles the last being Manager of their insurance sector accounts. This brought her to the attention of consulting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers who in 2001 successfully headhunted her to work in Business Development for their insurance clients. The two firms had very different cultures, but Christine adapted and enjoyed success. However, in 2003 IBM bought PWC and this time the changes were very unwelcome.

Four years later and unhappy in her role, Christine had decided to leave the corporate world and make the leap into garden design. She was living in her house in Wimbledon and needed to get the garden revamped so approached a garden designer. Watching the designer work was the catalyst for Christine realising not only that she would love to do that sort of work but also that she could do it. She enrolled at the Garden Design School based in Painshill Park in Surrey where she completed an intensive, yearlong Diploma in Garden design. She loved her time there and graduated with Distinction in 2008.

She set up her business in Wimbledon where the gardens she worked on were mostly mid-sized gardens – from courtyard gardens to one acre plots. ‘I get a great sense of fulfilment when people like the gardens I have created.’ Her early account management experience of listening to clients’ business problems, understanding their requirements and budget and then proposing a solution has proved very useful in developing her business. Most people ring for an initial no obligation chat on the phone. Once she has listened carefully to what people want, and just as importantly what they don’t want, explained a bit about how she works and has a clear understanding of their budget she then arranges a visit to walk round the garden together. The next step is to produce a written report outlining their discussion and her costed proposal for the design work. She charges a small fee for this initial consultation- refundable when the work goes ahead.

By 2018 the business was settled and doing well but London had ‘started to lose its appeal after thirty years – the noise, the dirt and the fact that many of her friends had moved out all persuaded her it might be a good idea to move. What really made the decision for her though was when they announced that Crossrail’s southern hub was going to be Wimbledon and that it would involve ten years of building work.’ She started the process of finding the place and, having rejected Chichester, decided on Arundel which she knew and liked from previous visits. Her second viewing in town was at her current cottage in Mount Pleasant, which she saw and immediately thought ‘This is it!’ She finally moved here in March 2019.

The pandemic and lockdown of course have had an impact on the work Christine could do since she has moved here but she has still completed three big projects as well as several smaller ones. Contractors are less expensive in Sussex than London, but plants costs are the same because they mostly come from Europe into trade nurseries – ‘it is still a significant investment. However, what people don’t necessarily realise is that a well designed and planted garden will not only help you to sell your house, but it will also add significantly to its value.’

Christine has got stuck into Arundel life. She is now a committee member of the Arundel Gardens Association and will be organising their talks in future. She attends Lyminster Church (where an old school friend was the Minister), plays a lot of golf at Worthing Golf Club, and is a regular at the Tuesday Bridge Club at the St Mary’s Gate. She also has an allotment on Ford Road which she acquired just before the first lockdown. ‘It was fantastic because I was on the allotment in beautiful sunny weather every day for just about three months at the beginning of lockdown!’ She also volunteers on Friday mornings at Denmans Gardens.

She has given talks on Garden Design both in the Arundel Festival last year and at AKIN, Arundel’s creative collective. Last summer Christine put forward a design for one of her gardens to the Society of Garden Designers for adjudication, which is a necessary stage to becoming a Registered Member. There are very few full members of the Society – to become one you must have three gardens pass adjudication and her submission passed! She is now working on her second garden application to be submitted.

Christine is certainly a gardener who doesn’t let the grass grow under her feet!