A lifelong love of growing.

Sue is a plantswoman with over three decades of professional experience in horticulture and garden design. Her love of gardening began in childhood, with a small plot in her father’s vicarage garden.

In the early 1990s, she studied horticulture, design and garden restoration at Kingston Maurward College, balancing her studies with raising three young children.

She went on to run a garden design partnership and a garden maintenance and development business. Working with a team of six female gardeners, she cared for spaces ranging from suburban gardens to country estates, helping their owners realise their potential.

At a family-owned nursery and garden centre in Dorset, Sue developed the herbaceous department over more than four years, choosing interesting plant varieties with a particular interest in plants for pollinators.

Putting down roots in Devon

Sue and her husband Matthew moved to Tiverton in late 2023 and established Borders and Blooms in spring 2024. Matthew carries out surveys and translates Sue’s designs into 2D and 3D drawings, with computer-aided visualisations also available.

Sue believes a garden starts with its structure, builds with carefully chosen shrubs and trees, and comes alive through flowering plants. Her approach is organic, with wildlife at its heart.