About Joanne
I am principal designer and owner of Gerbera Designs (Garden Design). I qualified as a garden designer in 2009 with an HNC Garden Design with distinction from Scottish Agricultural College in Aberdeen. To complement this I also studied at Aberdeen College for the RHS 2 Certificate in Horticulture which I gained in 2007. I am also a regular garden design columnist for Scotland Grows.
I am also a gardening tutor at Gardening4Kids and a qualified Forest School Leader (Level 3 Practitioner).
In a former life I worked for the BBC for nearly 20 years. I retrained as a garden designer in 2011. I am interested in the benefits of gardening for health and wellbeing and I am a field worker for Trellis, Scotland’s therapeutic gardening charity.
Gerbera Designs is an accredited garden designer member of the Association of Professional Landscapers (APL). We are also a pre-registered of the Society of Garden Designers working through the adjudication process to become fully registered.
I live in rural Aberdeenshire with my husband and ginger cat, Fudge. I enjoy doing yoga, pilates and barre (that’s ballet barre not going to the bar!). I love pottering around in my own garden and reading crime novels in my spare time. Visiting interesting gardens both at home and abroad is one of my all-time passions.
Why Gerbera Designs? A red gerbera was one of the flowers in my wedding bouquet!