Catriona Rowbotham has been teaching on the Essential Garden Design Diploma for 7 years, and became Course Director last year.

After over 20 years in architecture, half of which she spent running her own practice, Catriona trained at the English Gardening School herself. Being invited back to teach at the EGS, and winning a competition to design a public courtyard were then catalysts for a full pivot to garden design.

Today, she brings her years of design and construction knowledge to create uplifting outdoor escapes filled with soft and abundant planting, and enjoys sharing that knowledge with others.

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 is an experienced architect turned competition-winning garden designer, bringing 30+ years of design experience to her teaching.  After working for renowned architectural practices, she set up her own architectural practice in 2007, where she concentrated on domestic work.  Since training as a Garden Designer she has worked on a variety of domestic, public and commercial gardens and now concentrates fully on garden design projects in her practice.