Alaster has had a passion for gardens and garden design since he was a teenager, and every day he is still excited about the projects he conceives and executes. Over the last 30 years he has worked in partnership with some of the UK’s leading garden designers, property developers and architects to design, create, install and maintain some of London and the South’s finest gardens. He lives happily in Winchester with his wife Imogen, his co-garden designer.

What is your role?

My most obvious roles are leading on design along with Imogen, and showing our clients the fantastic opportunities we can create for their outdoor spaces. This is founded on how trusted we are as a company because of our incredibly high standards of work and our ethical values.

Clients love my vision and my passion, and the fact that all our staff share a similar ethos. This leads on to the behind-the-scenes but critical role I play in being an inspiring leader so my colleagues share my energy and excitement. This is very important to me and I am always working on my personal self-improvement so that as a company we become better and better.

It is hugely rewarding to be able to encourage, motivate, mentor and treat our staff with compassion. It’s about doing business the right way with a holistic approach that makes our company such a success.

Is there a garden that has inspired you?  

I appreciate really good design not just in gardens but in landscaping and around the built environment more widely. I am very influenced by the contemporary approach to design. I love simplicity, clean lines and using materials in innovative ways. I love brilliant plant selection and excellent execution.

Gardens that excite me have done this in a profound way, not by using gimmicks but by bringing these elements of good design together in a considered landscape. I look for, and try to create myself, gardens that stretch ideas as to what is possible.

What is your favourite plant and why?  

I am a plantsman to my very core and I find all plants so gorgeous. Each specimen brings me joy and every month there is something new just hitting perfection. At the moment (April) I love to see the wonderful Polygonatum × hybridum, Solomon's Seal in woodlands, verges and gardens. I love their elegance, their grace as well as the way they move in the wind.

What is your favourite project?

The scope and scale of the garden we created at Totteridge was outstanding, we have created and looked after something incredibly beautiful there. In our latest project in Brompton Square, Knightsbridge, we have built something very different to a typical London garden. I love how much it is like an oasis in this respect, with a very elegant, woodland feel. We had a generous budget that has allowed us to plant it instantly with stunning specimens that make it an absolute delight.

What is the most interesting thing you’ve learned? 

Managing our people, caring for them and nurturing them so they have the opportunity to grow. It is hugely rewarding to see the energy and joy this brings, and the result is such a strong, dedicated team that go “above and beyond” time and again for our clients.

What do you love about your job?

The excitement of every new opportunity, the different challenges that every garden brings. So often our clients have had a bad experience after receiving the wrong advice and wasting their money on a disappointing garden. When I meet them they understand immediately that my vast experience means we can create not only an exceptional garden for them, but guide them as to how best invest their money in their space so that when we have finished they have something truly exciting.

I love building a high-quality garden that is well conceived and beautifully executed so it just looks gorgeous. I take such pride in being understanding and responsive, and at the end of so many projects we receive wonderful emails such as: “I cannot tell you how much we love our garden and how it goes beyond everything we had imagined.”

You can reach us on 0207 305 7183 or email at enquire@alasteranderson.com