An Accredited Organic Land Care Professional (NOFA) educated in land care, soil health, site analysis, compost, lawns and lawn alternatives, planting, pest and disease management, rain gardens and storm water infiltration, water conservation, and management of invasive plants and others weeds, Ann brings her expertise to her landscape design projects. Her design interests include
organic gardening, the historical backgrounds of her gardens
and plantings, the structure of the winter garden, and
the making of mazes.
Currently working as Assistant Landscape Curator of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts since January of 2007, Ann has been practicing in
Brookline, Newton, Cambridge, and the North Shore since
1990 as a landscape designer and horticulturist.
Born in Wales, she is a graduate of the landscape design
program of the Radcliffe Seminars and was awarded the
Faculty Prize for design excellence and innovation for
her reflections on the restoration of a ruin that was
sited for both the beauty of the drawings and the practical
plans - The Ruin and the Garden: The Interstices of Stone
and Leaf. She wrote on the history of ruins and designed
a series of gardens around a ruined elizabethan manor
house in her home village of Llantwit Major in Wales.
Ann works with her clients
to assure that they realize their vision and needs for
their landscape space. After a thorough review of the
client property, she provides a historical perspective
and blends the client’s desires into the design,
selecting appropriate plants and addresses future maintenance
plans. As Ann walks the client's property, she addresses
the structure of the plantings through drawings and photographs
to help visualize the new planting suggestions. By collaborating
with the client, she is able to provide a complete evaluation
of plants, maintenance requirements, and estimates of
associated costs. Should a client want complete design
and construction services, Ann can create plans for new
gardens and implement them with reliable contractors and
skilled gardeners.
In addition to her Radcliffe
studies, Ann is an active Board member of NELDHA. As part of her responsibilities through NELDHA, she organizes
a series of lectures and events called "History Networking"
for members of NELDHA, and students of the Landscape Institute.
She has been devising and leading Garden Tours of Wales
and the Border Counties for Landscape Designers, exploring
the picturesque, medieval and contemporary gardens since
2002. She also collaborated with Todd Richardson, a landscape
architect based in Maine, working on text for the Charles
Loring War Memorial, Portland, Maine. In February 2000,
Ann was both lecturer and critic for Cornell University's
Narrative Landscape design course. She also provides public
presentations including such topics as "The Narrative
of the Garden" for the first annual "Charles
Sprague Sargent Lecture" in Gloucester, Massachusetts
in April of 2004.
Some of her work includes
the beautification of public ways, including median strips
and rotary circles in Massachusetts for both Boston and
Brookline. Her work with private gardens is extensive
and includes residences and properties throughout Massachusetts.
Recognized for her wide range of abilities, Ann has been
appointed trustee for the preservation of the Little Sparta
garden and has been curator for an exhibition called "Stones
and Leaves" of Ian Hamilton Finlay's work at the
Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. She
has been managing since 2003 "Polly's Garden"
in West Newbury - approximately 7 acres, that includes
a moon garden, fruit trees and shrubs, herbs, shade gardens,
and a large perennial border.
