APPROACH
My previous experience has had a lasting influence on the way I design gardens.
I have always been interested in the relationship between people and the spaces they inhabit. For me, good design isn't simply about how something looks. It's about creating an environment that feels right for the people using it.
When I meet a client, I want to understand not only who they are, but also the place they have chosen to live. I look at the architecture, its proportions and materials, the surrounding landscape, the views, orientation and how the house connects to its garden.
I see the garden as an extension of that wider environment, something that can complement and enhance the architecture rather than compete with it.
Sometimes that means creating continuity between the house and garden. Sometimes it means introducing contrast.
The important thing is that the relationship feels considered and intentional.
‘But architecture is only part of the story. The people who live there are just as important’.
I think of each client as having their own identity, personality, tastes, habits and way of living. My role is to understand those qualities and express them through planting, materials, structure, colour and atmosphere.
I don't have a signature style that I try to impose on every garden. Instead, I want each landscape to feel like a natural expression of its owners and its setting, individual to the people who live there and the place they call home.
Alongside private gardens, I have a particular interest in planting design and the relationship between gardens and the wider landscape. I believe a garden can be beautiful and highly usable while also responding sensitively to its surroundings and supporting wildlife.
‘My approach to garden design is shaped by my background in brand experience and my love of architecture and landscapes’.
- LUCY MITCHELL
I began my design education with an Art Foundation at Central Saint Martins, before studying Interior Architecture and going on to spend over 15 years working in brand experience. I created physical environments that brought brands to life, taking an existing identity and translating it into spaces that people could experience, connect with and remember.
In 2013 I set up my own creative business Seven Sisters Create and began working with the Duke of Richmond at the Goodwood Estate, creating nature based installations. It was through this work that I became increasingly interested in the relationship between people, nature and the spaces we inhabit, and a career in garden and landscape design began to feel like a natural next step.
During lockdown, I took the opportunity to retrain and enrolled at Capel Manor College, where I studied Garden, Landscape and Planting Design for three years, winning the Bali Chalk Fund Student of the Year and a competition to design a garden for a landmark Brutalist water tower.
I graduated in 2023 and established La La Landscapes, with a focus on private and public landscape design. A year later, I was awarded a Gold Medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for the Changing Tides Garden.
