Experts and Ambassadors

Zoe Claymore

Zoe is a RHS multi-award-winning Garden Designer and NAS ambassador. She brings with her a wealth of experience of designing gardens for growing and shares expertise on planning gardening spaces.

She focuses on creating outdoor places with emotional connection and ecological integrity. Zoe won the 2023 Gold Medal, the ‘Best Get Started Garden’ and ‘People’s Choice Award’ at the 2023 RHS Hampton Court Flower Show.
As well as being NAS Ambassador, Zoe sits on the editorial board of The Garden Design Journal, the Society of Garden Designers publication. She offers garden design, planting design and garden consultation services to clients across the UK.

For more information, take a look at her website www.zoeclaymore.com:

Sarah Owen-Hughes

Sarah is Head Gardener at Rudding Park Hotel & Spa in Harrogate, where she oversees the gardens and wider green spaces across the 300 acre estate and also a NAS ambassador. This includes Matthew Wilson designed bedroom gardens and the award-winning Rooftop Spa, as well as the highly productive one-acre Kitchen Garden, which provides over 500 types of herbs, vegetables and fruit to the kitchens all year round. 

In previous work, she was a dedicated Bio-strategist at a large Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) facility, developing IPM policies to reduce pest and disease load and increase overall yields in a chemical free environment, and lectured in Horticulture for 15 years across Further and Higher Education settings in Yorkshire. 

She is a member of the Royal Society of Biology; is a pilot scheme member of their Plant Health Professional Register; Fellow of Higher Education Academy; Northern Branch Member of Chartered Institute of Horticulture. She was external Examiner for the Eden Project & Kirkley Hall Horticulture Degree Programmes, and led the UK Erasmus participation in ANNIE - Aquaponics, New Novelty in Education collaboration in 2016-18. She was awarded the Branch Commendation from the Chartered Institute of Horticulture in 2023 for her contributions to Horticulture Education and widening participation in land-based careers. 

Sarah co-curates the Human Gardener stage at the Harrogate Flower Shows, and guest lectures & speaks across the country on topics including 'Secrets of the Soil', 'Science & the Garden', 'What a Pest!' & 'Confessions of a Darwinian Gardener'.