AN award-winning garden designer based in Ilkley is celebrating her busiest year yet after completing the highest number of projects to date.

Helen Taylor, of Helen Taylor Landscape and Garden Design, has over 25 years’ experience landscape and garden design and creates high-quality gardens for homeowners and country estates in the Ilkley and Burley-in-Wharfedale area.

Helen worked on planting seven garden projects earlier this summer - the busiest period of planting since moving to Yorkshire over 18 years ago. She is also celebrating the first anniversary working with her husband Ian Campbell, a landscape designer who joined the business in June 2015 as the number of garden design enquiries increased.

In recent months, the couple have worked on a number of varied projects, from small town houses, to contemporary courtyards and large country gardens.

Helen works closely with Johnsons of Whixley near Harrogate to select plants for her projects. Helen said: “2016 has been a great year for the business and we’ve been lucky to work with both traditional and contemporary garden styles, which enables us to specify a wide variety of plants from local nursery, Johnsons of Whixley.

“We experienced a particularly wet spring which meant that we couldn’t plant for many weeks because the soil was far too wet. Once conditions for planting improved, we had a back-log of gardens ready and clients very keen to get plants in the ground! It was challenging to plant seven gardens over a short time period but Johnsons worked closely with us to source the plants we needed.”

She explained: “Whilst Johnsons of Whixley are a local family firm, they are a large, professional nursery and able to supply a wide range of plants and sizes for us using both their own suppliers and own grown hardy stock. We find the Cash and Carry team very helpful and they work closely with us to obtain the plants we require. At the end of the summer, we were able to invite the Cash and Carry staff to visit some of the gardens we had planted.”

Rob Richardson, plant centre manager at Johnsons of Whixley said: “As a regular customer at the nursery, we are thrilled for Helen. We don’t always have the chance to see where our plants end up so we were delighted to be invited to view the finished gardens earlier in the year.”

Helen Taylor Landscape and Garden Design is a member of the Society of Garden Designers (SGD) – the UK’s professional body dedicated to maintaining and promoting high standards of professionalism in garden design. In 2010, Helen achieved ‘The Garden of Creation’ award at the 2010 SGD Design Review of the Year Awards.