About Veronica


Garden Design

Veronica Mackinnon has designed gardens across England and abroad, large and small, working mainly in the country house market.  She specialises in creating sympathetic designs that complement the architecture of the house, and ensure the garden blends into the surrounding landscape. 

Veronica is always keen to bring new ideas to a project  but also ensures the client has full input into the design process and has plenty of opportunities to discuss ideas and concepts.  She will put as much energy and enthusiasm into revamping a border as she will into a large, new-build project.  Veronica has worked with a number of architects on a variety of properties, including Robert Adam Associates, Richard Springford, Graham Stevenson Architects, and many more. 

Veronica's garden design heros include Geoffrey Jellico, David Hicks, Arabella Lennox-Boyd, and Harold Peto.  She is as delighted by the architecture of Andrea Palladio and John Vanbrugh  as she is by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Sir Edwin Lutyens. 

She particularly admires the Italian 20th century architect Carlo Scarpa for his clean lines and enhancement and use of light – a crucial factor in the design of both houses and gardens.  Like those she admires, she believes in excellent quality, both in design and in the materials used.  Simplicity is also a facet that she feels often works to the greatest effect, especially within planting schemes.  

Veronica has gardened for much of her life on chalky soil but now has a clay garden with acid soil and a stream, more akin to the peaty land in Northumberland where she grew up. However, she has experience of all types of soil and carefully selects the appropriate planting to suit the soil with which she is working.  She employs many styles of planting, from traditional 'lavender-and-roses' to the 'new perennial planting' with grasses and prairie-style flowers.  She adores scent in the garden and is always keen to encourage wildlife (excluding rabbits and deer, of course!) into the garden.

View Garden Design Gallery