I am a garden design honours graduate of KLC School of Design, Chelsea. Here I studied with the Open Learning College whilst working full time for my father’s company ‘PWR Surfacing and Landscaping’.

After several years and hundreds of projects working with a multitude of hard-landscaping systems and techniques, I feel I have gained the experience and knowledge that enables me to reach further into the realm of landscape creation.

Dan Rodgers Garden Design is a new venture with which I wish to combine this knowledge, this experience and with my deep creative aspirations to melt together our houses and our gardens and our countryside into one beautiful entity.

This aim is firmly grounded by my desire for continuous learning and self-development, alongside a strong conscientious workmanship ethic that had been instilled in me by my father.

I can provide any garden and landscape design service; from the consultancy for a miniature window box garden, to a multi-acre park landscaping design and build project. I am willing to work anywhere.

My design ethics sprout from the same roots that underpin all true forms of artistic and functional creation; to me, these are:

The principles of design are no secret, understanding them is no unreachable skill for any of us; however, it is in the application of these principles where the skill lies – it must be masterfully done, or not done at all. And I feel that the people I work with and myself have the skill to execute the principles of design with a high level of innovation, feel and technique.

It is important for all designers to open themselves up to the entire spectrum of design; but in order to become established as known sculptors of the land, as recognised artists, they must funnel this spectrum through a signature style of approach and then filter it with their character:

My signature style embraces native plant species and native materials, often softening together, to create a sculptural body of house, garden and immediate environment with an enduring sense of place.

My character filters three main elements into everything I do: composure, panache and humour; sprinkled about for those who look for it, or those who just happen to see it.

I could tear through names of designers, artists, people who have inspired me throughout my life, but I would not know where to stop, and wouldn’t want to. What I believe to be the common denominator of them all is that - what they did became themselves, because they became what they did – they had a sense of purpose and a sense of place within their self.

I believe that no person, nor any place, can influence you as much as the surroundings from which you first develop thoughts about the world. I was fortunate enough to grow up on the Cornwall/Devon border, immediately encircled by Bodmin Moor, the North Cornish coast and Dartmoor (to prefix these with common adjectives would be to insult them); and I am certain that the freedom, the freshness, and the gentle balance of beauty and space will forever resonate throughout my character and therefore also my designs and the symbolic undertones which they convey.

Throughout my time in landscape construction I developed a love for the art of building with stone. I actually feel quite proud to be able to consider this a speciality. I have personally built an extensive collection of stonework creations; masonry walls, Cornish hedges, dry-stone walls, custom-built features and sculpture pieces. I have happily and truly bonded with the essence of stonework I wish this collection to continue expanding without end.

Do not be alarmed if at any point during a project you see a small fluffy existence bounding and frolicking about the place like the Sun has risen for its final performance; we may be (fortunate?) enough to have the company of my little dog Tess.