Robin Williams & Associates Landscape and Garden Designers

Robin Templar Williams Born in 1960, Robin Templar Williams has over 28 years experience in the garden design, landscaping and horticultural fields. He is now rightly regarded as one of Britain's leading, practising garden designers and in recent years has undertaken major projects in countries as diverse as the USA, Russia, the Ukraine and Japan. He is joint managing director of a successful UK private training college, Garden Design School, and lectures internationally on a wide range of topics. He has also appeared on British TV a number of times, most recently on Garden Makers, an ITV series presented by Joe Swift.
Robin is a former Vice Chairman and Fellow of the UK's Society of Garden Designers (SGD) and currently sits on the board of the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) as the Director responsible for Designer Membership. He has been a certified member of the USA's Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) for many years but, from January 2008, also assumes the position of board director for that organisation. Robin's gardens have won a clutch of medals (including gold) at the Royal Horticultural Society's (RHS) Chelsea and Hampton Court Flower Shows (click on Awards, left, for more details) and he has regularly been a judge at these prestigious events.
Robin Williams

Now semi-retired, Robin Williams has enjoyed a long and illustrious career in garden and landscape design industry, beginning in 1960 when he set up his own design and contracting company. He then became a director of Fonthill Nursery and chief designer at Jackman's Nursery at Woking in Surrey.

His teaching career took off in the early 1980's when he co-founded the College of Garden Design - an establishment which nurtured and developed the talents of some of the UK's top garden designers. Since then he has undertaken lecture tours across the US and Japan and speaks regularly to audiences of staff and members at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), Wisley.

Robin has written, co-written, edited and/or illustrated a dozen best-selling books on different aspects of gardening and garden design (click on Publications, left, for details of titles currently available). The most successful, The Garden Planner, published in 1990, is probably the most authoritative and widely used reference source of its type and has been reprinted six times! Robin also wrote regularly for 'Popular Gardening' magazine throughout the 1970's and 80's and was a contributor to several BBC television gardening programmes, including 'Gardeners' World' and 'Good Morning'.

Throughout the 1980's and 1990's Robin consistently won recognition for his gardens at the RHS's Chelsea and Hampton Court Flower Shows. Among the eleven medals he received at Chelsea were two Golds, for Help the Aged gardens. Since 1998 he has created several more stunning 'show gardens', notably at major exhibitions and festivals in Japan.

Robin is unquestionably one of the most respected figures on the international landscape and garden design scene. He was the first person ever to be made a Fellow of the APLD (in 2002). He is also a Founder Member, Fellow and former Chairman of the SGD and Fellow of the Institute of Horticulture. He was a show garden judge at the Chelsea Flower Show for 16 years and a member of the RHS's council for five years. In 2003, the RHS also awarded him the Veitch Memorial Medal in recognition of 'services given in the advancement of the science and practice of horticulture'.

Despite now being in semi-retirement, Robin still makes a valuable contribution to the business, lending his enormous expertise and experience whenever it is needed.