Process

Jennifer Gay Landscapes is a landscape design and gardening practice that creates bespoke landscapes, gardens and ecological habitats.

Jennifer’s aim is to create beautiful, functional spaces where people feel close to and uplifted by the natural world. Her planting style is naturalistic, and while artisanship and the beauty of planting composition is integral to her designs, habitat creation is also part and parcel of the creative process. Multi-canopied layers of planting in informal drifts, akin to a natural community of plants is a key element.

Careful observation and response to ‘sense of place’ and to the character of a site and its surroundings guide her design process.  Listening and responding to the wishes of her clients, she works to weave a connection between nature, people and place.

Wherever possible Jennifer works with local soils, and natural materials appropriate to the vernacular.  A climate-appropriate approach and sustainability ethic underpins all her work.  She strives to minimize water use and over-enrichment of soil, focusing instead on utilizing well drained local soils, thus encouraging plants to survive as they would in nature.

She is primarily interested in the use of native plants from Mediterranean climate zones, wherever possible enhancing local biodiversity.  However, responding to climate change, she is increasingly incorporating succulents from desert regions into her schemes as architectural or accent plants.