Designing gardens with edimentals

What if your garden could feed you, delight you and support wildlife — all at once? In designing gardens with edimentals, garden designer and horticulturalist Emma explores the art of weaving edible plants seamlessly into beautiful, purposeful spaces.

Drawing on her hands-on experience across garden design, horticulture and edible planting, Emma will guide participants through the principles of site analysis, client brief development and plant selection; showing how the right choices can serve people, pollinators and the wider environment simultaneously.

Emma Gunn is a horticulturist, garden designer, expert forager, author and educator with nearly 30 years of experience in the horticultural industry. After studying Garden Design at Pershore College, she spent over two decades working at the Eden Project in Cornwall and teaching foraging, where she developed extensive knowledge of ornamental and edible plants, sustainable horticulture, interpretation and public engagement.

Alongside her work at Eden, Emma has designed and advised on a wide range of private gardens throughout Cornwall and the South West, helping clients create beautiful, practical spaces that reflect their lifestyles, interests and connection to the natural world. Her work often focuses on combining ornamental planting with useful plants for food, wildlife and wellbeing.

Emma is the author of Never Mind the Burdocks and is particularly known for her expertise in foraging, edible landscapes and underused edible plants. Through talks, workshops and practical demonstrations, she encourages people to look beyond conventional vegetables and discover how productive gardens can also be beautiful, biodiverse and full of character.