When you work with landscapes, gardens or public spaces, you make decisions that will live longer than you do.
Most of the knowledge around us is about style, speed and immediate results. Much less is about what actually happens to gardens over time: what survives, what fails, what quietly turns into a problem after ten or twenty years.
Neil Porteous works from a different position. His “client” is not a brief or a budget, but the garden itself, its history, its plants and its future.
Neil is a former Head Gardener and gardens advisor with the National Trust, including at Mount Stewart, one of the most important historic gardens in Northern Ireland. He holds an MA in Garden History and now works as an independent consultant on some of the most significant gardens on the island of Ireland.
Because he is not designing for fashion or short-term effect, Neil has something rare: a long view. He sees how planting decisions behave over decades, how gardens evolve in real climate conditions, and how to work with change rather than constantly fight it.
At the GLDA Seminar 2026, Neil’s talk “Plants for Irish Gardens for the 21st Century” will focus on selecting plants based on performance, resilience and real behaviour, using Mount Stewart as a living case study.
This is not about trends or inspiration. It is about how to think more clearly and responsibly about landscapes that are meant to last.
If you are interested in this way of working, Neil will be speaking at the GLDA Seminar on Saturday 28 February 2026 in Dublin.
Tickets and full seminar details: https://glda.ie
