Talks

The Creative Gardener: Stephanie Mahon in Conversation with Bex Partridge, Declan Buckley, and Joshua Sparkes

13 Oct 2026, 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Home > What’s on > The Creative Gardener: Stephanie Mahon in Conversation with Bex Partridge, Declan Buckley, and Joshua Sparkes

13 Oct 2026, 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Garden Museum

Booking information

£25 Standard
£20 Friends
£20 Young Fronds
£10 Livestream

All our live streams are recorded so you have the choice to watch the event live or enjoy at a later time that suits you. Customers who book the live stream can automatically view the recording immediately after the event at the same link.

Book Tickets BOOK LIVE STREAM

In The Creative Gardener Stephanie Mahon, editor of Gardens Illustrated, and award-winning landscape photographer John Campbell step inside the private worlds of artists, writers, designers and makers whose gardens are as distinctive as their work.

Stephanie will be in conversation with head gardener and natural farmer Joshua Sparkes, garden designer and ceramic artist Declan Buckley, and floral artist Bex Partridge about their gardening lives and creative practice, covering everything from natural farming to dried flowers, and there will be enjoyable glimpses into the gardens of many of the other creative gardeners in the book in an exclusive screening of a short film by photographer John Campbell.

Please note that our talks now begin at 6:30pm, rather than 7pm, giving you more time to enjoy dinner at our award-winning Garden Museum Cafe. Table reservations are available here. Your talk ticket also includes entry to the Garden Museum’s temporary exhibitions from 6pm on the evening of the talk.

Speaker bios

Joshua Sparkes

After leaving the RAF and turning his hand to horticulture, Josh amassed experience at several notable gardens, including Sissinghurst and Hidcote, and on prestigious fellowships in America and Japan.

His studies focused on design, sustainability and regenerative soil management for farms and gardens. This knowledge is now in use at The Collective at Woolsery, where Josh has implemented a variety of regenerative and sustainable methods to support soil productivity and wildlife diversity.

Bex Partridge

A nature loving, floral artist and founder of Botanical Tales.

I’ve been creating and playing with dried flowers for over seven years but my love for all things that grow has been a constant thread throughout my life. I was that girl that spent most of her twenties at home growing sweetpeas whilst her mates were living it up in London (I did a little bit of that too!). Now I run a business that allows me to combine all the things I love: gardening, teaching, creating and spending untold amounts of time in the garden.

I moved my family to Devon right in the middle of the pandemic. Some gut force was pulling me to this part of the world and I love it more and more each day. The close proximity to the sea, nestled in the woods with a soothing quiet has got me captivated.

Declan Buckley

Declan Buckley is a London based landscape and garden designer. Since 1999 his practice, Buckley Design Associates, has worked in the UK and overseas on projects in urban, rural and coastal sites, from pocket–sized gardens to large–scale landscapes and public parks.