Catriona Rowbotham has taught on the Essential Garden Design Diploma for seven years, and became Course Director in 2025.

Before moving into garden design, she spent more than 20 years in architecture, including running her own practice. She later trained at the English Gardening School, where an invitation to return as a tutor together with winning a competition to design a public courtyard helped prompt her transition into full time garden design work.

Catriona now works across private, public and commercial gardens, drawing on more than 30 years of design and construction experience. Her gardens combine strong spatial structure with soft, abundant planting to create uplifting and restorative outdoor spaces.

She believes that gardens are vital to human wellbeing; offering beauty, connection with nature, and the chance to leave our patch of earth better than we found it. She brings this conviction alongside her architectural expertise and practical design experience to her teaching.