Our Founder, Lara is an RHS-trained garden consultant, creative plants-woman, and speaker on the topic of nature and wellness.

She and her gardening and landscaping team renovate, design, and maintain gardens.

She also runs the Botanic Shed School of Nature to help people self-prescribe themselves bigger doses of nature connection.

“I was brought up in an old farmhouse, gardening with my Dad and my Granny, when I stayed with her. I went on to work in our local garden centre in Bampton and after school, worked on a tropical flower farm in St. Vincent and played international rugby for St. Vincent and the Grenadines. In my mid-twenties, I worked with landscape designers while I also studied for the RHS Horticulture Diploma, and ran my own property business.

Now, I am the Head Gardener in 9 large, private gardens. I have recruited a team of 8 gardeners who help me work across these gardens and I consult and report on projects. I also support the gardening teams at some other beautiful properties.

I design and manage garden renovations and source all the plants and style floral displays (using natural materials like lichen, logs, and moss as much as possible).

My daughter, also a passionate gardener, turned twenty-one in 2021 and in the same year, we started working together on the gardening business and established an events community focussed on gardening and well-being. Together we are working on Botanic Shed’s mission to create a biophilic world that supports healthy minds and bodies.

We launched the Botanic Shed School of Nature supported by a group of like-minded people who share our vision, including Karuna Priya a former monk, inter-faith chaplain, and mindfulness coach; the award-winning GP Dr. Jas Gill, Niamh Kendall, a therapeutic horticulturalist at Thrive, Louisa Chapman-Andrews at Cook Folk and Alex Laird, one of the UK’s top medical herbalists and author of ‘Root to Stem’ who we were honoured to work with at one of our retreats.

We also run a series of YouTube interviews, which is aimed at sharing easy tips, gleaned from nature experts and nature-lovers, doctors, and monks, on how to relate to nature.”

During her childhood, Lara did her best to spend all her spare time outdoors in the garden and surrounding farms in Bampton, Oxfordshire. Lara also inherits her love for nature and horses from her maternal Grandparents, Desmond and Cherry O'Brien (along with a good dose of ancestral drama). She has also inherited the ancient hereditary title of Master Forester of Delamere. Her Grandfather was the Grandson of the 14th Baron of Inchiquin whose family home was Dromoland Castle in Ireland. Her mother's childhood home was the Arderne Estate which was the seat of the Utkinton Estate which had been passed down the centuries sometimes through the female line. Ardene was an expansive, forested estate in Tarpoley, Cheshire with five gatehouses, a dell, several follies, a wilderness, and avenues of trees like Rowan. Its simplicity and focus on landscape and shapes are an inspiration for Lara’s work. Much of the estate was lost in a tragic catalog of events.

For Lara, as is true for us all, gardening has the power to counteract negative feelings and bring balance into her life. Being in nature has a calming effect and it’s no surprise that it improves our gut biome and our mental health.

She loves her work and loves sharing her knowledge and skills with clients and friends.