​Hello.  I'm Jo Dyer - I help people transform their lives through gardening with love.

I believe that when you nurture a garden, you nourish yourself.

I believe that gardening is an expression of love and is one of the best ways to connect with your creativity and what is truly important to you.

Our gardens are places where we can have a real and positive impact on our well-being and the well-being of the planet.  

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At the heart of what I do is the belief that having a garden gives you a wonderful, not-to-be-missed opportunity to create a place that is really special and so very, very, important.  
You see, you can create a place that nurtures you and your family, feeds you, provides a sanctuary that nourishes you and connects you with nature and with your creative self.​
You can create a home for wildlife and you can just have a really great time, playing, experimenting, learning, discovering and relaxing.
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Your garden is a place where you can be YOU. It's a place where you can make a real difference to your own life, to the lives of those around you and those you care about, and to the planet and all the creatures you share it with.
​​A garden that can do all these things, I call a  ​Really Useful Garden .
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My Story:
I've always loved flowers and gardens.  As a small child I would force my Nan to take me around her garden answering all my questions.
I spent hours learning the botanical names of the flowers from my precious Observer's Book of Garden Flowers.  I grew salads and sweet peas in my own patch of garden at home when I was 9.  On the way home from school I would lie in the fields, hidden in the long grass, listening to the buzz of bees, the breath of the breeze and the birds singing all around me.  It was heaven!

I always wanted a garden of my own and when I was 29 I bought a lovely cottage with one third of an acre of field high on the hills in Calderdale. I dreamed of the beautiful organic garden I would create but I was overwhelmed by the enormity of the task, I lacked knowledge, time and money and every day I looked at my field and felt frustrated and a failure.

When I was 38 it all changed. I had the chance to start again.  I left my job as a lecturer (my subject was organisational analysis) and moved house.  I acquired my first garden and I began to learn. I was like a sponge, just soaking up all the information I could find on soil types, my favourite plants and growing vegetables.  I decided to train in professional organic gardening and garden design and within four years I had become a professional gardener.  A few years later I became a Head Gardener looking after 14 acres of organic gardens and grounds.

It didn’t take long for all the headaches, face pain that had plagued me for years to stop.   As I connected with the life in the garden, I connected with the life within myself.  I was able to express the deep love I have of nature, wildlife and flowers and I was surrounded by beauty and the rhythm of life. As I connected, I relaxed and I healed. Through gardening, I was able to live the grounded, creative life I yearned for.

This is what I want for you - for you to connect with what is deeply meaningful to you through that very special connection that comes from gardening.  

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When I'm not gardening, running a workshop, drawing planting plans or just 'being' in the garden, I love to walk on the hills and in woodlands.  I love to watch wildlife and I also love singing and cooking using flowers from the garden and I'm a budding florist and chocolatier.  ​

You can find out more about why I think gardening is so important by reading my blog: 'Gardening A Noble and Heroic Art'

What People Say about Jo 

"Gardening with love Jo said, and this is true.  She gave me the confidence to actually begin growing vegetables and now I realise I actually can!  
I had the great good fortune to attend one of Jo's workshops, she set me on the right path. Many Many thanks Jo! 

Sally Phillipson - Belper