A WOODBRIDGE-BASED garden designer has won a prestigious national award.Jason Lock, general manager of Notcutts Landscapes, scooped the top prize in the Association of Professional Landscapers Annual Design and Construction Awards scheme.

By Lynn Abbott

A WOODBRIDGE-BASED garden designer has won a prestigious national award.

Jason Lock, general manager of Notcutts Landscapes, scooped the top prize in the Association of Professional Landscapers Annual Design and Construction Awards scheme.

His winning garden was in the Under £10,000 category and was constructed in the grounds of a converted barn at Snape for a retired head teacher.

The client wanted a low-maintenance garden that included only a small amount of grass and while the planting had to be suited to the dry and light soils, it needed also to provide shelter from strong coastal winds.

Notcutts also snatched other top slots in the competition with the Landscape Feature being won by Malcolm Veitch who is based at Solihull and the Soft Landscape award of Mark Pumphrey, also of Solihull being commended.

Another member of the

landscaping team has recently gained membership of the industry's prestigious

organisation, the Society of Garden Designers.

Chris Deakin, based at Woodbridge, was granted full membership of the society set up in the 1980s to provide the public with the assurance of competence, quality, experience and outstanding artistic flair.

Mr Deakin said: "It is a real milestone in any landscape designer's career and I was delighted to hear that I had met the society's high standards."

Notcutts is a family business established more than 100 years ago. It has three distinct trading sections, the nurseries, landscapes and 13 garden centres.

It employs more than 1,200 staff including 30 who have been with the company for more than 20 years.