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SGD Awards 2026 - Judges Award Winner: Adolfo Harrison MSGLD, Westbourne Park. Photograph © Mischa Haller
A panel of independent and respected experts, including designers, academics, journalists and horticultural professionals, will be selecting the shortlisted and winning designs.
James Scott FSGLD MBALI
Head Judge
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.
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.
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.
Adrian Wickham
Adrian is the National Chair of the British Association of Landscape Industries. 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 seven 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. He is based in Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire, but has projects across the country.
Rae Wilkinson MSGLD
Rae Wilkinson is an award winning Garden and Landscape designer with nearly 30 years’ experience in creating gardens. Originally from an artistic background, Rae then worked in both hard and soft landscaping for some esteemed designers for over ten years, before gaining a garden design diploma and moving into design herself nearly 20 years ago. An RHS Gold medallist, Rae provides sophisticated naturalistic and modern design with sustainability, creativity and informed planting design at its core. Currently Rae is based at Knepp in Sussex and designs private residential projects and public spaces throughout the Southeast, London and beyond.
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.
Dan Lobb MSGLD
Dan is an award-winning landscape designer and sculptor. He is also a member of the RHS Show Judging Team, and a long-standing member of the SGLD Accreditation Panel. His design work has received numerous awards, including RHS Gold Medal and ‘Best Conceptual Garden’. Dan runs a successful design studio, creating innovative, imaginative environmentally-responsible domestic and public spaces. He also regularly lectures in art and garden design at numerous institutions including KLC School of Design, The Arts University Bournemouth and West Dean College of Arts and Conservation. Dan is a trustee of a local tree planting charity, supporting the development of and care for new woodlands planted by children.
Tom Hoblyn FSGLD
Tom is a British landscape designer, horticulturist and gardener who set up his practice shortly after graduating from The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. His work is underpinned by his innate understanding and knowledge as a plantsman and horticultural master, and an appreciation and awareness of place in the landscape. From his home in Suffolk, where he runs his practice, he and his team use the walled garden to trial and experience new ideas and designs. An established figure at both RHS Chelsea and RHS Hampton Court, he has won three gold and four silver gilt and two silver medals, as well as the coveted People’s Choice Award for his Arthritis UK sponsored garden and a nomination for The People’s Choice of The Decade Award in 2020.
Anne Jennings
Anne is a Chartered Landscape Architect, a Fellow of the Landscape Institute and a Chartered Member of the Institute of Horticulture. She is an Associate Director at the multi-disciplinary Lanpro Group working with a team of 15 landscape architects. Anne is a long-standing judge for RHS flower shows at Chelsea and Hampton Court and also judges the Landscape Institute Awards. In addition to designing private gardens, her commercial portfolio includes public realm regeneration, country park development and outdoor play and wildlife areas at SEN schools. She works closely with ecologists and arboriculturalists to ensure the highest possible environmental outcomes on new developments. Anne is an experienced Project and Contract Manager and is a published gardener writer.