Alan Mason began his career as head gardener to Mr and Mrs George Lane Fox at Bramham Park, one of the finest examples of a French-style garden in England
He then spent nine years as gardens manager to the Earl and Countess of Harewood, at Harewood House, near Leeds. He improved and rejuvenated the gardens within the Capability Brown landscape to a level where they became one of the top ten most visited gardens in Britain
In 1988 he bought a 14th century manor house with eight and a half acres of garden, streams and woodland, at Port de Roche near Langon in Brittany, France. Here he created a showpiece "English" garden, using the Best of British in horticulture to take the great British art of gardening into Europe
1992 saw the transmission on Channel 4 of ten, half hour programmes, 'Gardens without Borders' in which Alan took a group of amateur gardeners around some of the private gardens of France on a quest to discover whether the horticultural borders of the EU were disappearing along with the economic ones.
In 1994/95 a follow up series took place looking at the gardens of Italy, and for 1995/96 another series looked at the gardens of Spain / Portugal. In 1996/97 Holland was the venue.
During a twenty year period, credits include programmes for these broadcasters.
1992 saw the start of the restoration and development of 110 acres of garden and grounds at Harlaxton Manor, in Lincolnshire, built by the Victorian squire Gregory Gregory, to rival anything in Europe. The formal garden is a collection of classical European features, inspired by Gregory's illustrious relative, the great European garden designer, Prince Charles Joseph de Ligne. Below the manor is a six acre walled garden, probably the most ornate of its kind in Britain, if not Europe.
Much of our work today is designing and creating domestic gardens, frequently for budgets from around £3500 to £10,000.
The majority of our work is in the UK, but we will undertake work abroad during the English winter, often on holiday homes which then secure a higher rental income.
Its creation was the subject of 2 programmes made for Yorkshire Television and Channel 4, 'Le Manoir', which made the Top 10 viewer ratings chart. This garden has also been voted by the French into their top 200 gardens.
Alan lectures extensively on gardening matters including garden design and garden restoration and still frequently appears on both TV and Radio.
Here Alan created the plant interest that was not possible in the Manor's classical gardens, with a series of show gardens, housing collections of rare and unusual plants. A ten part series for Central Television "Secrets from the Secret Garden" was shown in 1997 with Alan as presenter.
