Gardens Under Big Skies

Dr Noel Kingsbury is an acclaimed garden designer, best-selling author of numerous books and long-time collaborator of the renowned designer Piet Oudolf. With Annie Guilfoyle he runs the highly successful garden workshops, webinars and international study days at Garden Masterclass. In 2009, Noel earned a doctorate from the University of Sheffield for a thesis on the long-term performance of ornamental herbaceous vegetation and he continues to research in this area. Noel is a leading figure in naturalistic planting design and the New Perennial Movement and has written on gardening, plant sciences and related topics for The Daily Telegraph, Gardens Illustrated magazine and The Garden - the membership magazine of the Royal Horticultural Society. He has worked with Professor Nigel Dunnett, of the University of Sheffield on the first book in English on green roof and related 'green architecture' technologies, collaborated with Tim Richardson on Vista, the Culture and Politics of Gardens and co-chaired events at The Garden Museum in London.  Maayke de Ridder originally studied fashion design at the Arnhem Academy of Art and Minerva in Groningen, followed by graphic design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. After working as a fashion and interior stylist and picture editor for a wide range of Dutch magazines she started taking photographs. Her early career brings a new perspective to her work as a photographer and she is now an acclaimed garden and landscape photographer whose work has been published in many magazines and books.