How I enjoyed the Short Course at Barton Manor last week! It was a triumph.
Her interesting material was meticulously prepared and her style friendly, inclusive, encouraging and helpful. I left with so much to think about! Thank you, Wendy.
Imogen Baden-Powell
Isle of Wight.
October 2024
A huge thank you to Wendy for the marvellous Course on Garden Design which I attended last week at Barton Manor. It was a resounding success. Wendy engaged the room and had the respect of everybody there; the information was beautifully communicated, beautifully shared and showed clearly her passion for design.
I wholeheartedly recommend Wendy’s courses on Garden Design to anyone with a garden, old or new. Not only does she provide a very solid introduction to the principles of garden design but also invaluable information sourcing and caring for plants.
Wendy brings decades of experience to her work and she communicates with clear and open professionalism. The size of the class was perfect and we were all given the chance to contribute and ask questions which in retrospect helped us learn rather a lot in a relatively short time.
For me, Wendy’s Course was real eye opener and my appreciation of gardens, large and small, has been greatly improved. Thank you, Wendy!
Joel O’Connor
Dorset.
October 2024
Wendy has designed three gardens for me over the years, which include those in California and Northumberland. All of them continue to give me pleasure. She creates a most wonderful sense of peace and tranquility in her gardens.
To have a Wendy Wright garden is to make an investment, not only in one’s property, but more importantly in one’s well-being which goes on giving year after year - a rare gift indeed!
Sheila Longo
Sivrasco, Piedmont, Italy.
2024
I first met Wendy over 30 years ago when attending one of her short courses on Garden Design in Scotland. She was truly inspirational and indeed it prompted me to follow in her profession. Wendy is a motivational teacher who makes an extensive subject understandable and she illustrates her lectures with beautiful slides.
What I love about Wendy is her inspirational knowledge, her confidence with proportion and her ability to listen to her clients. She is also an exceptional Garden Architect and this is at the forefront of her mind when landscaping. Wendy is no “make-over in a day” Garden Designer. She teaches patience and detail, resulting in long-term gardens that work and give huge pleasure.
After the Course I asked Wendy to help me link my cottage, which had no obvious entrance, with the garden. She suggested, and then designed, a practical porch with perfect proportions which gave credence and charm to this otherwise unsatisfactory space. She continued to help me, with drawings and on a Consultancy basis, with the design of that garden -many quite separate and distinctive areas - and was my Mentor for over 20 years. We became lasting friends.
I still to this day refer to my notes from her design course!
Jenny Harper
East Lothian
2024
Some years ago, I invited Wendy to visit the small ugly space at the back of my Fulham house. The dingy side passage viewed from the dining room became a luxuriant entrance to the sunny rear courtyard and scented plants captivated in such a tiny space. Clematis Armandii , ribbons of Lily of the Valley and the later flowering swags of Rose Zepherine Drouhin were entrancing. I spent many happy hours in the courtyard, relaxing in the oasis of calm and tranquillity Wendy created.
Some years later I was intrigued to hear Wendy speak and have now attended many of her lectures, which are packed with creative ideas and inspirational slides.
I have engaged Wendy on a Consultative basis over the past 2 years to transform my country garden where the principal feature is a large natural pond. This continues to evolve and I am delighted with the results.
I would highly recommend Wendy as a Designer, Consultant and Lecturer.
P.A. Pereira
Suffolk 2024
"Capability Brown would have had a lot in common with Wendy Wright – ability, a sense of perspective denied the majority of people, a love of the landscape, and total professionalism" David Overend, Yorkshire Post
"Many thanks indeed for a wonderful evening last night with beautiful slides and a great presentation. I know you made quite an impression on the audience and thank you for coming all this way from Wiltshire to talk to us …"
Heather Scott, King's Society, Canterbury.
“I love this garden Wendy created. It gives such a sense of peace and tranquility. So often I come home after being in the City or just racing around my life. I come out into the garden and I feel my soul exhale, “Yes”.
As I write in March, we are having magnificent sunny and warm weather. The scent of the daphne at the bottom of the stairs is spell-binding. Walking from car to front stairs the other day, I was stopped in my tracks, unable to proceed until I had filled my lungs with the delicious, intoxicating scent from these and the viburnums. What an exhilarating sensation after the long wet winter? (Ah, not entirely true…. in winter you gave us hamamelis and other plants). Glorious. Gives hope for “la buona stagione” when there is little else during the dark days of winter.
Wendy is a creative genius. Unlike anyone I know she can take what is, in garden terms, “a sow’s ear” and transform it into “a silk purse”. In American jargon, what was the very unpromising “back yard” became a beautiful, lush, even magical, sanctuary. It is indeed a “sanctuary” for one, but it is also “party central” for many others. Over the years our garden in Mill Valley has hosted weddings, funeral receptions and innumerable garden lunches, often for more than 100.
Although an artist, a creative genius, Wendy also listens to what her clients want. I remember when she first came to California we talked and talked before anything else. I realise in hindsight that she was not only getting to know us and what we wanted, but also getting to know the area in order that everything would eventually seem perfectly natural, “organic” as we say – the redwood deck, the old railroad ties. The “hardscape” seemed to emerge naturally from the environs. The garden Wendy created in California is distinctly different from another she created in England, because we both wanted different things from our gardens.
Small changes made a huge difference – “That window should be the door and the door , the window.”….. “Is this the ONLY entrance from the house into the garden”?... then we’ll just have to make the utilitarian stairs more gracious and welcoming.”
Time and time again over the years I have marveled how Wendy creates not only a beautiful space but also a functional one. Wheelbarrows can manoeuver on all paths and cars in front have ample space to turn before leaving. There are none of the ‘weirdnesses’ that one sometimes encountered in architect designed spaces.”
Barbara Josephine Rolph,
256, Sycamore Avenue,
Mill Valley,
California 94941
"I commissioned Wendy in 2011 to re-design my garden and work commenced in February 2012. This is now an extensive project which continues to evolve. The design is truly magnificent. Wendy has transformed the space into a garden packed with imagination, interesting plants and beautiful planting associations. It has charm and tranquillity and it gives me huge pleasure.
Lou Hutton, Food of Course Cookery School, Somerset