Richard Sneesby FLI
Head Judge

Richard is a landscape architect, garden designer, author and until recently was course leader of the award winning degree course in Garden Design at University College Falmouth. He has presented a number of TV series, was co-author of The Garden; Maker’s Manual & wrote the ‘how to design’ sections of the RHS Encyclopaedia of Garden Design.

Richard runs a landscape & garden design practice, has won a number of design awards, delivers specialist workshops for the Society and has been an external examiner and assessor for many landscape and garden design courses at home and  abroad. Richard has been a Judge since 2012 when the Awards were first launched.

James Alexander-Sinclair FSGLD

James is a Writer of consumer magazines, national newspapers; occasional television broadcaster; lecturer and blogger. He is a RHS Ambassador and Vice-President: judge. And a Garden designer, including Planting. 

Dr Phil Askew CMLI

Dr Phil Askew is Director of Landscape & Placemaking at Peabody leading on Thamesmead, London’s New Town and one of London’s largest regeneration and development projects.  He has a background in Horticulture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design and leading on major regeneration and green infrastructure projects.  Prior to his current role he led the design and delivery of the London 2012 Olympic Park at the Olympic Delivery Authority and its transformation into the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the UKs largest new urban park in over a century. With Peabody he is leading a process to ensure the unique landscape assets of Thamesmead are integrated into the regeneration process and create the greatest opportunities for the current and future population through landscape led green infrastructure.

Sarah Eberle FSGLD

Sarah is an Internationally renowned Landscape Designer. She has designed exhibition gardens in the UK, Singapore, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, China and Italy. Her work at RHS Chelsea and RHS Hampton Court have netted Sarah 19 (or 20!) Gold Medals.

Sarahs work is naturalistic in style, innovative and forward looking and is broadly recognised as in a Fusion Style. Although Sarah’s work bears her signature style her work is always responsive to the Client Brief.

Sarah is passionate about her work, nature and the countryside. She grew up in Devon on a small holding and farming has always been an important part of her life.

Helen Elks-Smith FSGLD

Helen is known for her thoughtful approach to design and expertise in subtle, textural planting. Her work is informed by an intuitive understanding of the way gardens make us feel, creating timeless gardens that are sensitive to their location. With a background in mathematics, she went on to study garden design at Writtle College where her two interests were combined giving her the rare ability to think both creatively and technically, so that the gardens she creates are not only beautiful but practical too.

Helen joined Angela Scanlon for series one and two of BBC TV Series 'Your Garden Made Perfect' and has won numerous awards including two RHS gold medals, People’s Choice, three SGLD design awards and two Design Excellence Awards from the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI).

Jane Findlay

Jane is an acclaimed landscape architect and the founding director of Fira, a leading practice in Birmingham. As the Past President of the Landscape Institute and a trustee of the Earth Trust, she significantly influences landscape architecture at both national and local levels. Renowned for pioneering 'healing landscapes,' Jane integrates therapeutic design into healthcare environments, promoting psychological and physical well-being. Passionate about green infrastructure, she advocates for nature’s benefits in urban spaces, prioritising inclusive, health-focused place-making. Jane also specialises in symbolic and commemorative landscapes, notably advising the National Memorial Arboretum in South Staffordshire, which showcases her expertise in creating reflective spaces for collective memory.

Claire Foggett

Clare is currently editor of The English Garden magazine, the UK’s best-selling luxury gardening magazine. A qualified horticulturist, she trained at Pershore College of Horticulture, and has worked in gardening publishing for the past 20 years, spending time at the RHS on members’ magazine The Garden, and 12 years at Bauer’s weekly title, Garden News. She’s a voluntary postholder for the Hardy Plant Society for whom she edits the HPS’s biannual magazine Cornucopia and is a member of the RHS Herbaceous Plant Committee. She is also a former chair of the Garden Media Guild, the association that brings together gardening media professionals.

Advolly Richmond

Advolly is a plants, gardens and social historian based in Shropshire. A fellow of the Linnean Society, and a Champion for the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. She teaches A Social and Cultural History of Italian Renaissance Gardens and an Introduction to Garden History at Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford. Advolly’s new book ‘A Short History of Flowers: The stories that make our gardens,’ was published in March 2024. She presents garden history features on BBC`s Gardener’s World and is a Scribehound Gardening columnist.

Dan Riddleston

Dan joined Bowles & Wyer landscape construction arm in 2006. With a background in hard and soft landscape construction, Dan has been involved in a long line of medal-winning Chelsea gardens and award-winning commercial landscapes. Dan’s client portfolio includes private clients, government bodies and commercial organisations, and his broad expertise includes landscape restoration, town & country gardens and commercial projects.

James Scott FSGLD MBALI

James founded The Garden Company in 1991. As MD and Principal Designer, he oversees all projects and has led the company to win multiple national awards for both design and landscaping services. James is an Accreditor for the SGLD and serves on the judging panel for both SGLD and Pro Landscaper Awards. With a strong focus on sustainability, James is dedicated to crafting places that celebrate nature. His passion is designing gardens and public spaces where people love spending time and that contribute to their well-being.

Adrian Wickham

Adrian is the Managing Director for the East at Glendale. He has played a significant role in industry development, judging multiple awards, including the Green Flag Awards and Mayor of London's Green space Forum. He is a founding member of the National Contractors Forum, has been on the board of the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) for six years and was appointed National Chair in 2024. In 2003, Adrian was recognised as one of the top three most influential figures in the horticulture and landscaping industry by Pro Landscaper Magazine. He is also a founding member of Access All Areas, a charter group focused on diversity and inclusion, ensuring greater accessibility and representation in the industry.

Chris Young

Chris Young is a gardens consultant, landscape designer and Consultant Gardening Publisher for DK Books (Dorling Kindersley). Formerly Head of Editorial for the Royal Horticultural Society and Editor of RHS The Garden magazine, he left the RHS in 2021 and set up CY Gardens. This multi-disciplinary consultancy works with a range of clients for garden design, content creation, business mentoring and project development. He is Editor-in-Chief of the RHS Encyclopaedia of Garden Design, and author of Take Chelsea Home. Chris has also started publishing a weekly Substack newsletter (Why It Works), deconstructing and understanding garden design. He is based in Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire, but has projects across the country.

Sarah Morgan FSGLD

Sarah is an award-winning landscape designer working on projects home and abroad. She has spent over 35 years working with clients, architects, developers and contractors to develop a design ethic that produces landscapes that are visionary, stimulating, purposeful, and considerate of long-term management and maintenance requirements.  Sarah has recognised the importance of training landscape consultants and designers to have a firm knowledge and understanding of designing with plants within a sympathetic structural framework. Sarah was Programme Leader at University Kent at Canterbury for the PG Diploma in ‘Garden History, Management and Design’ (1994-1999); Head of faculty, Landscape Horticulture and Design, and Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Garden Design at Hadlow College (2009-2014), and lecturer in Planting Design at the University of Greenwich.

Tom Massey MSGLD

Since Tom Massey Studio was founded in 2015, Tom’s work has won multiple awards and widespread recognition. Tom’s first awards of note were the commercial and residential SGLD student design awards at the 2015 awards ceremony. Known for his bold, daring and thought-provoking show gardens, Tom enjoys pushing boundaries and searching for inspiration in unusual places such as a refugee camp in Norther Kurdish Iraq, which inspired his first garden the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for the Lemon Tree Trust. Tom’s second garden at the show, for Yeo Valley Organic, was awarded an RHS Gold Medal and the ‘BBC People’s Choice’ award.  Released in April 2023 is Tom’s first book, ’RHS Resilient Garden' is a future focused title on adapting the way we design and manage our gardens in response to climate change, grounded in the latest RHS scientific research. 

David Stevens FSGLD

David has been designing gardens worldwide for over fifty years. He has 26 RHS Chelsea medals, 14 of which have been Gold, and he has won three 'Best in Show' awards. He has written 21 books on garden design and is one of the leading educators.  David has had an immense influence on the growth and development of garden design both through his own work and as a teacher. He was there at the inception of the Society of Garden Designers and is now one of our many Society Fellows.