The essential role of garden design in landscape practice

Garden design is essential for connecting people, place and nature, and creating a healthier, happier living environment for all.

Whether for individual private gardens, or large-scale public realm projects, garden designers ensure that these green spaces are beautiful, biodiverse, climate resilient, and assets to human health and wellbeing.

We’re proud to support our garden design members with advocacy programmes, networking events, policy engagement, as well as through our CPD platform, Campus.

We also recognise the best garden design projects every year at the LI Awards, through categories including Excellence in Landscape Design, Excellence in Public Health and Wellbeing, and Excellence in Small Landscape and Garden Design.

Our new President-Elect, Carolin Göhler FLI, has over 35 years of experience as a Chartered Landscape Architect and Horticulturalist, and is a specialist in horticultural innovation in heritage gardens and parklands, having trained at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, and an herbaceous perennial nursery in Germany.

She is a Gardens and Parks Consultant for the National Trust, and has a particular interest in hardy perennials, green roofs, rain gardens and sustainable drainage.

Through work including Coton Country Reserve in Cambridgeshire, and Fiveways Corner on the A1, as well as countless other gardens spanning public and private sectors, Carolin has learnt that gardens at every scale have the potential for impact.

Her vision for the presidency is to build relationships across industry, government, and the public, promote the skills and knowledge of landscape practitioners, and champion their role across sectors to create inclusive, healthy, sustainable places – in both built and natural environments.

Whether its spaces that foster inclusivity and wellbeing, or planting schemes that mitigate the effects of pollution and climate change, innovative garden design is key for the future health of both people and nature, and a vital part of the landscape industry.