Join Gardens Illustrated and special guests for an evening discussing the evolution of garden design and practice.
An evening of conversation to celebrate the launch of Gardens Illustrated’s first book, The New Beautiful: Inspiring gardens for a resilient future. Our special guests Fergus Garrett of Great Dixter, designer Miria Harris and Charlie Harpur of Knepp will be joining Editor Stephanie Mahon to talk about how garden making has evolved over the past decade, from heritage and country gardens to city courtyards and public spaces.
Discover insights from the best of contemporary garden design and practice, and boundary-pushing ideas with the next generation of innovators, who are changing the way we think about gardens and gardening for the future.
Speakers
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Fergus Garrett
Fergus Garrett
Appointed in 1993 as Head Gardener of Great Dixter by Christopher Lloyd, Fergus continues to keep the garden constantly changing throughout the season by trying out new plants and plant-combinations. Fergus believes in passing on his knowledge through national and international student- and volunteer programmes at Dixter and through worldwide lectures he gives every year. Fergus is keen on plant communities in the wild and especially plants native to Turkey. Among other honours, Fergus was given the Royal Horticultural Society Associate of Honour in 2008 and in 2015, the Veitch Memorial Medal for outstanding contribution to the practise of horticulture as well as the Victoria Medal of Honour in 2019.
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Charlie Harpur
Charlie Harpur
Charlie Harpur is Head Gardener at Knepp, a trailblazing 3,500-acre rewilding project that has changed the way we think about nature and how we can heal our planet. Charlie comes from a farming family but trained as an architect. It was whilst working for landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith (who masterminded the design of Knepp’s walled garden) that he rekindled his love of plants and the natural world. Charlie then trained at gardens such as the Chelsea Physic Garden, before studying for the Kew Diploma. Returning to Tom’s design studio with a more horticultural focus, he worked on the planting of Knepp’s walled garden and was so inspired by the tying together of both design and ecology that he moved to Knepp.
When not gardening and thinking about habitats, Charlie is occasionally found running. He has been both British 100km running champion and a UK trail running champion. He likes running in hilly places.
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Miria Harris
Miria Harris
Miria Harris is a critically-acclaimed, award-winning landscape designer. Her studio is based in London where it undertakes a wide range of public and residential projects across the UK and internationally.
She describes her style as ‘soft, romantic and rhythmical, with a structure that is just robust and rigorous enough to allow a bit of mess, to celebrate the beauty in nature’s perfect imperfection.’
She was featured in House & Garden’s emerging designers list in 2023 and in 2024 presented her first show garden on main avenue at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in support of the Stroke Association.
She was named by Garden’s Illustrated as one of their 25 Horticultural Heroes of 2024 and in 2025 she joined the ranks of House & Garden’s top 50 landscape and garden designers in the uk and Country Life’s Top 100 architects, interior designers, garden designers, landscape designers and country house specialists in Britain. She is a professional member of The Society of Garden Designers.
Her work ranges from contemporary reimagining of historical gardens for listed buildings, to family and wildlife friendly gardens in urban and rural settings and large-scale public planting schemes. Her client base includes celebrated fashion designers, film directors, actors, chefs, musicians along with public institutions and organisations and she has worked with a number architects and interior designers including Ilse Crawford, Julian Harrap, Tom Morris, Sergison Bates and De Rosee Sa. The studio is currently working on a rural retreat in Jersey and the estate of a Grade II manor house in Oxfordshire alongside gardens in London and Suffolk.
With collaboration at the heart of Miria's creative process, she works closely with her clients, architects, artisans, fabricators and suppliers to seek out new and inventive ways to bring her designs to life. Ever conscious of making new things in a world where we produce and consume so much, she advocates for organic principles and looks to integrate and implement a circular ethos into her designs - often favouring moving or reusing materials and plants with integrity and character. Miria prioritises making sensitive low environmental impact choices, ensuring that the design infrastructure is sturdy enough to future-proof the gardens and landscapes that she sets out to make.
Before training as a landscape designer, Miria worked as a contemporary art curator and producer and was responsible for delivering large scale installations and exhibitions for organisations including Modern Art Oxford, Artangel and Milton Keynes Gallery.She lives in north east London with her family and can be found on Instagram @miriaharris, online via www.miriaharris.com
