Melanie Wand
My blogs
| Occupation | Garden Designer |
|---|---|
| Location | North London |
| Introduction | I am a garden designer living and working in North London, although I have been known to take work as far afield as Wales! I am also currently editor of the north London magazine Garden Confidential. I specialise in designing gardens to reflect the period of your house. My portfolio includes: a large restoration of a walled garden in a Regency villa in Wales; an Arts and Crafts cottage in Hampstead Garden suburb; an informal 1930s garden in East Finchley; a 19th century parterre in Highbury; a large Edwardian estate in Highgate;and recently a 1920s estate in Bushey incorporating the classic style of Peto and Russell Page. Often formal I like to soften these gardens by employing a contemporary feel to the plantings - 'New Perennial'planting schemes scaled down to the proportions of the garden.A signature scheme of mine is Old-fashioned roses,for their beautiful palate and scent, grasses for structure and winter interest and perennial geraniums for long lasting flowering ground cover. I am a great fan of Piet Oudolf and Tom Stuart Smith. |
| Interests | Melanie Wand took a degree in History at London University and then took a graphic design at course at the LCP. After extensive travelling she started her own graphic design company which ran successfully for 15 years. Concurrently after acquiring a large garden in Highgate she began venturing into the garden world. She took a 4 day inspirational course at the Chelsea Physic garden and followed it with the Landscape and Garden Design Diploma course at Capel Manor where she gained a Distinction. Her interest in history never flagged and to combine both interests she took a 4 year degree course in Garden History at London University’s Birkbeck college finishing off with a thesis on Percy Cane. This culminated in an invitation to visit the garden that Cane designed for Haile Sellassie in Ethiopia. Melanie’s thesis now resides in the Presidents palace in Addis Ababa. Through out all this Melanie continued to design and implement gardens all over north London.Her reputation grew so that Garden Confidential contacted her to write and become editor of the magazine."I have to do a lot of research for the magazine which keeps me up to date on the gardening world - this in turn benefits my garden designs and plantings." Melanie Wand |
| Favorite movies | The Draughtsman's Contract |
| Favorite music | Too eclectic for one only |