About Me



Basically, I'm a horticulturist. I've been involved with both plants and gardens for many years. Back in my early twenties, what started out as a hobby - simply putting plants in pots - turned into a much greater passion: a passion that has seen me work in horticulture for many years now.


Primarily, I am now a self-employed gardener, maintaining many borders in and around West Kent: the beautiful garden of England. I spent over 5 years working at Hadlow College as a Horticultural Technician and lecturer delivering many vocational and leisure courses, delivering to a wide range of students, both young and old.


I also write about horticulture quite a bit and have written articles for popular national magazines as well as the blogs for the London-based charities, the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association and the London Gardens Network.

I hold many horticultural qualifications. I'm also a member of The Gardeners Guild, as well as having a Masters' degree in Garden History from London University.


I remain constantly interested in plants and gardens: plant combinations, the design of borders and the use of naturalistic plants such as perennials and grasses. I believe these two groups of plants can offer the gardening novice a realistic route into creating simple and effective borders. Great stuff..!  


Marc Owen
le jardinier


email: marcsgardens@yahoo.com


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In praise of the skilled gardener.

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Well, you know me by now. I’m not the greatest believer in the work of garden design, or garden designers for that matter. On many occasions I’ve stated an opinion believing that all the best gardens are created through evolution and development: the garden owner cherishing their outdoor space with experimentation, creativity, nurture, love and a desire to create something of beauty.  Now, I can’t imagine many professional garden designers have those same sentiments in their heart. Well, not for your garden anyway! Yes, they may harbour a desire to create, but in the scheme of things, professional garden design will always be something of a quick fix. Perhaps more a reflection of our affluence and our ‘want-something-nice’ and ‘want-it-now’ culture. Many analogies spring to mind. So let’s just take one. To me, having your garden designed – by a garden designer – is a bit like commissioning an artist to paint you picture. I understand this. You yourself coul...
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The not-so-new 'New' Perennial Movement.

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  The Not so New, ‘New’ Perennial Movement.   Piet Oudolf at the start of his fame The last ten years has seen an explosion of naturalistic plantings in our gardens. It feels like a decade of this style of gardening has gone by pretty quickly, and therefore it still seems (to some at least) quite a new and fashionable way to design gardens.   Of course, ‘there’s nothing new under an old sun’ as they say, and even though Piet Oudolf may be the person famed for much of what we see in gardens today, it’s worth remembering that even he had his influences: e,g. Karl Foerster - the German plantsman, nurseryman and writer, who (as far back as 1903) was combining a love of sturdy perennials with grasses to create a remarkably similar effect to what we see today. Piet cites Foerster as his main influence, as well as his personal idol.   Now, one could argue, that pushing aside the now somewhat-ageing perennial wave, there is in fact very little movement in mo...
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Me and My BIG Work...!!!

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  Hello Folks, As you probably know, over the years, I haven't tended to use my blog posts for any kind of self promotion. I tend to write up the odd post, generally on subjects that interest me, and send them out and on to the WebSphere, mainly to the many people I know within horticulture: friends, head gardeners and designers etc. Anyway, for this post, I thought I would showcase a little of the kind of work I do.  In recent years I have 'sort of' fallen into quite a niche category with regards my gardening work. Primarily I am still a maintenance gardener; maintaining and working skilfully in borders is still very much what I do. However, in recent years, I have been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to design and develop many gardens (often aged and neglected), turning tired borders into something more colourful, abundant, luxuriant and naturalistic.  To a certain extent, it's much harder working with existing plantings than it is when designing a new bord...
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