At Gardens Illustrated we work with a range of experts, from gardeners, to flower farmers to designers. We're making our back-catalogue of masterclasses available to watch at any time to suit you.
Masterclasses available with the GI Academy
Growing with nature with Joshua Sparkes
Joshua Sparkes is head gardener at Birch Farm in Devon, part of The Collective at Woolsery. In this exclusive video masterclass recorded with Josh, he explains how to grow food in balance with biodiversity, in our ever-changing climate, by creating resilient growing systems.
How can we support and help our ever-dwindling wildlife while still being able to grow food and flowers, without the need for barriers and deterrents and with minimal inputs? Take a tour of Birch Farm with Josh to see all his experiments and learn about his pioneering ideas - a mix of old-school agroforestry and natural farming knowledge and his own trial and error.
Discover the biodiversity and bounty of layered food forests filled with nuts, fruit and berries, and how Josh uses polycultures in the veg patch to grow beautiful, healthy food crops, all together with weeds.
Find out about how he 'farms' beetles for slug control, and manages other typical garden 'pests' without chemicals or netting. Watch how he grows plants to chop and drop where they are for mulch, and creates and maintains soil fertility without outside inputs like compost - even making his own home made potting mix with some help from worms.
Learn about some interesting perennial vegetables you may already be growing in your garden without realising it, and access extra materials on efficient growing methods in agroforestry, syncotropic growing and making inoculants, fermentations and tinctures for the garden.
Piet Oudolf: Planting a Masterwork
Horticulturist Rebecca McMackin presents Piet Oudolf’s layout and installation of the Calder Gardens project in Philadelphia, which opened in September 2025, having documented its creation at Piet’s behest.
Discover real insights into the famous designer’s creative process - how he works step by step, why this process is integral to his complex designs, and what gardeners and designers can take from his methods.
Although known for his generosity in openly sharing his designs and philosophy, we usually only see Piet’s gardens when they are established. This is a unique opportunity to see how his planting schemes are planned, constructed, laid out and planted, in an intricate process developed over decades and executed by him and his team, who are all accomplished garden designers in their own right.
We were delighted that Piet and his team joined the audience for the event and helped answer some of the most asked questions.
Creating atmosphere with Tom Massey
Tom Massey is an award-winning landscape and garden designer based in London. In this talk he reveals what brings a garden to life and makes it somewhere you want to be.
Discover how to create that magical feeling and a unique sense of place in a garden through immersive planting and clever use of materials.
From small private gardens to public realm projects, Tom shows the different ways atmosphere can be created and harnessed in a space through the choice, design and placement of elements including trees and hardscape.
Interested in creating sustainable and biodiverse spaces, Tom’s studio prioritises low-impact methods and local and reclaimed materials in his gardens. Here he shares the secrets of his success and offers insights into his working process and way of thinking.
Planting design insights with Tom Stuart-Smith
Tom Stuart-Smith is a world-renowned landscape architect and garden designer whose work combines naturalism with modernity, and built forms with romantic planting, based on close observation of nature. He has designed gardens, parks and landscapes across the globe.
Learn about Tom’s process and approach to different types of planting, drawing on a range of recent projects, and benefit from his hard-won learnings.
“When I approach a planting project, I always start by thinking about character and the kind of ecological niche that the planting is going to occupy,” he says.
“Part of this process is going to be to do with ground preparation, drainage and soil improvement. I think that most of the time we should accentuate the existing condition so you actually narrow the range of plants that might thrive in a given area.
“In this talk I explain how to apply this idea to a claggy woodland clearing in the Peak District and a parched hillside in the Balearics. I talk successes and failures and how there is never just one solution.”
Rose sculpting and training with Jenny ‘Niff’ Barnes
Jenny Barnes has become well known for her unique style of rose training, dubbed ‘niffing’, creating astonishing swirling wall-grown rose structures and freestanding 3D style sculptural shapes.
In this exclusive GI video tutorial, recorded at Cottesbrooke Hall in winter and summer, she shows how to create amazing shapes with roses. Get her expert advice on exactly how to prune and artistically sculpt climbers and ramblers in this unique step-by-step guide.
Learn how to create structure in the garden in winter with wall-trained roses and how to manipulate stems to make free-standing, sculpture-like ‘cages’. Learn Jenny’s tricks with twine, why she removes the leaves and which roses are best for this sort of training.
Discover her top tips for rose care through the year, and see the results of her work in the summer segment, showing how floriferous her pruning makes these plants.
These techniques can be used on many other summer-flowering climbers and shrubs as well as climbing and rambling roses.
Maximising small spaces with Stefano Marinaz
Designer Stefano Marianz has shot to prominence in recent years with his stylish, eco-conscious gardens in the UK and abroad. In this talk, discover his simple but innovative solutions to make the most of small gardens, with advice on design details and planting for year-round interest.
“Drawing from a diverse array of projects, I demonstrate how principles effective in compact urban and residential settings can also be applied to more expansive landscapes,” he says. “Practical advice and actionable tips are also provided to help you develop strategies for your own garden.”
His talk emphasises both planting strategies and hardscape design, offering a comprehensive guide to transforming limited spaces into vibrant, functional outdoor sanctuaries.
Stefano’s expertise in blending naturalistic planting with contemporary design principles aims to inspire those watching to discover new possibilities and embrace creativity in their own design endeavours.
How to create long-season planting schemes with Nigel Dunnett
Nigel Dunnett is Professor of Planting Design and Urban Horticulture at the University of Sheffield and Director. One of the world’s leading voices on planting design, he is a pioneer of the new ecological approach to gardens and landscapes.
In this exclusive talk for Gardens Illustrated, Nigel explores planting design methods to achieve very long-season, naturalistic planting schemes. It draws upon examples from Nigel's projects and his own garden, with an emphasis on how these principles can work on a smaller scale.
Find out about the principles of successional planting, layering and ecological compatibility as well as the painterly approach to planting design: creating ‘impressionistic’ colour combinations and a naturalistic look. Finally you will learn the practical aspects of design, installation and maintenance.
Secrets of small garden design with Jo Thompson
Jo Thompson is an award-winning designer who has established a worldwide reputation as a trusted and sensitive garden designer. This masterclass explores some of Jo’s real-life small garden designs, from rooftops to terraces and boltholes, as well as ideas from her own garden. She draws on her passion for colour and extensive knowledge and love of flowers, especially roses.
Small garden spaces are how Jo started off in garden design more than 25 years ago, creating the tiniest and therefore trickiest of gardens, and this continues to be something she loves to do today. She is often asked how to transform a smaller space into a beautiful, atmospheric outdoor room and in this talk will offer plenty of tips and advice from her own experience.
In this masterclass, you will discover how to choose plants and create successful combinations for small spaces; use containers and pots for impact and atmosphere; introduce colour that works in a small space and increase biodiversity - even the smallest space can be wildlife friendly.
Cut flowers from your garden with Rachel Siegfried
Rachel Siegfried runs Green and Gorgeous, a flower farm and floral design studio near Oxfordshire. In this talk, she shows how you can create interesting cut-flower arrangements from the flowers and foliage in your garden, even if you don’t have space for a separate cut-flower patch.
Rachel explains how you can look to the perennial plants and shrubs already existing in, or easy to introduce to, your plot to provide material for a variety of floral designs throughout the season, without leaving big gaps in your borders; the special blooms that are worth making the effort to grow in your garden; and beautiful ways to display what you’ve grown.
How to use old roses in a modern garden with Troy Scott Smith
Troy Scott Smith is one of the country’s leading head gardeners, learning his craft over 35 years working in some of the best gardens. Troy has led the renaissance at both Bodnant and Sissinghurst, where, with Dan Pearson, he has brought back a garden rich in emotion and intimacy with a focus on old roses.
In this talk, he explains the different types of old roses and their use within the garden as well as pruning and caring for old roses including climbers, ramblers and bush roses. You'll also find tips for growing roses in meadows, through trees, arbours and supports and techniques for replanting established rose gardens.
Troy also covers combining once-flowering roses with other plants, the practicalities of feeding, spraying and watering and how to achieve a year-round flower garden with old roses. Finally he discusses taking roses as our cue, how do we approach managing historic flower gardens, giving them new life and relevance.
Dynamic border displays with Fergus Garrett
In this talk, respected head gardener Fergus Garrett explains how the team at Great Dixter garden in Kent create the stunning planting schemes across the garden and in the garden's famous pot displays.
Discover how to make your borders and beds pop and how to keep the interest and colour going through the year with successional planting. Find out which plants Fergus rates and inside tips and tricks for creating visual impact.
How to design a sustainable garden with Juliet Sargeant
Garden designer Juliet Sargeant is known for gardens that create a connection with nature. In this Gardens Illustrated masterclass, she explains what a sustainable garden looks like, why it matters and how you can take the steps to achieve it.
By discussing what you put into your garden and what you take out of it, Juliet de-mystifies that thorny issue of how to ‘garden greener’ and make it easy for everyone.
In this masterclass, you will discover the problems with hard landscaping materials, plants, water, soils and composts and opportunities to re-cycle. Juliet also covers damage limitation in terms of hard landscaping, plants, compost and water.
The talk also includes positive choices to support wildlife, plants, lawns, water and ponds and design choices to protect the environment.
How to grow a year-round, productive garden with Benjamin Pope
Benjamin Pope is head gardener of a private estate in West Sussex, where he leads a team maintaining and developing the garden, whilst growing fruit, vegetables and cut flowers for the house.
Here he shares his many years of experience working in a productive kitchen garden, illustrating how to get the best from each season while explaining what you can do to get the most from your growing space, whether you’re growing veg, herbs or cut flowers.
Benjamin goes through the seasons, describing key jobs, relating them to both container growing and smaller gardens. He includes tips on propagation, planting, cultural and organic pest control, plus preferred varieties and methods of harvesting and storage.
Discover tips and tasks for every season. Ben covers spring, including final preparations, sowing and early pickings of vegetables and cut flowers. Summer, including pruning, harvesting, collecting seeds and great plants for cutting. Autumn, including preparing crops for winter production, using autumnal flowers and planting bulbs. Winter, including what to cut for the festive period, organisation and getting a head start with early sowings.
How to make a year-round flower garden with Katy Merrington
Katy Merrington is cultural gardener at The Hepworth Wakefield gallery garden in Yorkshire. The garden, which was designed by Tom Stuart-Smith, is a public garden which is accessible to all 24 hours a day, with intricate, layered planting schemes that offer interest through every season.
Katy has nurtured the garden from the construction phase onwards, working closely with Tom to build a flourishing oasis rich in successional colour and character.
In this talk, discover how to plan and plant your garden so it shines from spring to autumn with clever combinations of trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs and grasses.
