My Experience

A Vermont Landscape and Garden Designer
I bring a unique blend of the artistic and the quantitative to all my endeavors. My educational background is in physics and mathematics, and for 20 years I worked in systems engineering and adult education. After moving to Vermont in 1994 I completed the Vermont Master Gardener program and went on to study landscape design at Vermont Technical College. As a Vermont Certified Horticulturist I have an excellent knowledge of trees, shrubs and perennials that thrive in the colder climates of North America.

I have experience creating designs for properties both large and small. Since starting Outdoor Spaces in 1997 I have worked with numerous clients as a landscape designer and consultant. My projects have run the gamut, including intimate entrance areas, steep hillside gardens, large-scale plantings, landscape plans for multi-acre properties, and gardens designed for public access. In addition, working from architectural and engineering drawings, I have provided the landscape design for a number of yet-to-be-built structures.

The scope of my work with clients ranges from short consultations involving limited spaces, to the development of large multi-year master plans. I have helped many clients expand their current gardens or develop new plantings. I have also overseen plant selection and managed garden installation for my clients.

Click here to see a list of some of my projects.

A Teacher and Coach
For several years I have given hands-on workshops where I teach people how to design their own gardens. While workshops are typically held at my Goshen home, I have also conducted workshops for Master Gardener chapters in Burlington, Rutland and Brattleboro ( Vermont) and in Glens Falls ( New York), and for the Adult Education programs in Middlebury and Rutland. And from 2003 to 2007 I taught the landscape design module of Vermont’s Master Gardener program.

In addition, I have worked individually with a number of clients coaching them on how to design their own garden. Not only do they finish with a completed design, they also learn a good deal about the design process.

A Speaker and Writer
I am a regular presenter at the Vermont Flower Show, and have given talks at the Floribunda Flower Show in Norwich, the Shelburne Museum’s Lilac Festival and at Stowe’s Garden Days and at various libraries around the state.

I have been a speaker for several Vermont Garden Clubs (including Middlebury, Rutland, Warren, St Johnsbury, Arlington, Springfield and Newport) and for Master Gardener chapters in Rutland and Westport, New York.

From time-to-time I write articles about landscape design and gardening. Some of my articles can be found on this web site. In addition, as time and inspiration allow, I publish an e-newsletter, The North Country Gardener. It is filled with ideas and images for anyone who loves to garden north of the 42nd parallel.

A New England Gardener with Old English Roots
As a gardener I have a passion for beautiful outdoor spaces of all sizes. As a landscape designer I love to work with space and form, both in response to our human needs and to create a harmonious whole.

Growing up in England, my most evocative memories are my parents’ country garden in Kent and outings with my mother to visit some remarkable public gardens. Our many visits to Sissinghurst, the masterpiece created by Harold Nicholson and Vita Sackville-West, were especially powerful.

My husband, Dick Conrad, and I now live in Goshen, Vermont in a nineteenth-century mountain farmhouse. Our house is surrounded by our extensive garden creation, which we delight in sharing with family and friends. Like most gardeners, we are apt to describe it as a 'work in progress'. However we have already developed a number of separate garden spaces, linked together by walkways and steps, paths and lawn. These include an inviting entrance area, a patio garden, a small pond in a naturalized setting, a uniquely designed gazebo set in its own garden, a colorful ‘garnishing garden' and a European style kitchen garden. There are also more than 15 beds containing perennials, shrubs and small trees all selected to thrive in Vermont's northern climate. A pivotal point in the garden is the screened gazebo, where, in at the height of summer, we watch the sun setting late in the day behind the long perennial bed, a grove of birch trees and the mountains beyond.

All of the photographs on this web site were taken by Dick in our garden.

Outdoor Spaces -- Vermont Landscape and Garden Designs

Judith Irven
423 Goshen Ripton Road
Goshen, VT 05733
802-247-4707
OutdoorSpaces@wildblue.net