Eileen Wood – Garden Designer

Before settling in Cardiff, Eileen spent her formative years in Kent, the garden of England, living in close proximity to the many beautiful historic gardens and homes of the southeast. Regular weekend visits were made to the family farm located on the North Downs, where the surrounding native woodlands and kitchen garden provided particular interest.

The designer, Eileen Wood, has lived in Dinas Powys, Cardiff, Vale of Glamorgan since 1994. The proximity of Cardiff to the water provides exciting influences and Eileen likes to incorporate these influences into her design work.

Prior to Cardiff, Eileen moved from Manchester where she commenced her design career. She successfully completed the City and Guilds floral design course at Reaseheath Agricultural College and attained excellent grades. Eileen was awarded the Society of Floristry silver rose bowl for the City and Guilds part one examination. Two floristry design positions followed the first with a Manchester floral design business and the second in Chicago, USA, Alice’s Garden, 1 Michigan Avenue, a prime location floral design business.

Eileen’s initial time in Dinas Powys included a small design career break as she developed her administration skills and keen interest in gardens. At the request of a local school Eileen designed a nature garden which went on to be successfully built in collaboration with the school and Clwb Garddio. This was screened by S4C as a full half hour programme in 2003.

Eileen went on to successfully complete the University Wales Institute Cardiff HNC Garden Design Course attaining a distinction in the final garden design module.

From experience Eileen finds that although gardens can be placed into generic garden styles, each client has personal preferences which provide very individual influences to the final design of their garden. Eileen encourages these preferences and believes that a good designer can draw on the many influences throughout history and personal experience to create individual and eclectic gardens, whilst ensuring that each design remains cohesive and stylish.