Sue’s extensive horticultural career spans over 40 years, starting with training and a decade in the garden centre and nursery trade before developing into an accomplished gardening writer, designer and speaker.
Much of her time in the trade was as a plant buyer for the Frosts group of garden centres and landscape company, winner of many top industry awards, which gave her a superb in-depth knowledge to the world of garden plants. But promotion brought with it distance from the plants that she loved, so in 1990 Sue struck out on her own as a garden writer and designer.
The BBC spotted Sue’s passion and knowledge of her subject and commissioned her first book within a year, and her features won her the coveted Garden Writers Guild trade press writer of the year. She now writes for many publications, regularly appearing in BBC Gardeners’ World magazine where her work includes a wide range of projects and trials. She has published ten solo books to date, the latest of which is Growing up the Wall, on how to grow all kinds of edibles in small spaces. Sue has also co-authored books with top gardeners including Carol Klein, the Ground Force team and the late Geoff Hamilton, and contributed to a number of others.
Sue has appeared in a number of radio and TV programmes, and given talks to a wide range of audiences from garden clubs and societies to tour groups and garden cruises. Her designs have transformed numerous private gardens of all sizes, from courtyard to clifftop. In her spare time she loves gardening where she lives in the Tamar Valley and exploring the beautiful coast and country of Devon and Cornwall on foot, by boat and by bike.