An Italian In West Sussex

Ciao!

I’m Alessandro and I just started working for this brilliant team as a landscaper. To begin with, I’ll talk a little about myself so you lovely readers can get to know me better.

I was born in the UK but moved to a beautiful part of Northern Italy, Settimo Vittone on the foothills of the Alps, and was really fortunate to grow up in a family where gardening was a fundamental part of everyday life. At an early age I started to fall in love with what would become my actual profession; also being surrounded by mountains, lakes and stunning woods, forests and natural fields did help a little! In the photograph you can see one of my first encounters with autumnal leaves.

Mind you this did not happen overnight: when asked to help with gardening, specifically by my grandfather (my biggest mentor), my attention span lasted about five minutes and preferred to play with whatever I could get my hands on. Never in a million years would I have thought of absolutely loving it later on in life. To this day I still remember one late afternoon I had a brilliant idea to fill up my grandads wellingtons with water, what a hilarious joke I thought! I’m sure you can guess to what happened next, and the trouble I was in…..!

Growing up I enjoyed more and more being in the garden and found myself admiring everything from established Italian parks to ordinary back gardens. These experiences influenced me in selecting the schools which gave me the opportunity to translate, through garden design, my love of plants to others. I feel so satisfied transforming tired and often abandoned sites into beautiful and peaceful gardens, which will be remembered and loved by many for years to come. Another subject that makes this profession ever more rewarding and meaningful is that we create safe havens for a wide range of animals and insects.

Please stay tuned for more insights into the gardens of Italy and England, design ideas and more!