Who we are

Treadlight is the brainchild of David Chanter and Cristina Roe. Between us we have 30 years experience and qualifications in both the environmental and horticultural fields including landscape design, garden maintenance, retail, environmental education, practical conservation etc. We wish to combine what is at present two quite separate disciplines into one, which will fulfil the needs of today’s world.

This involvement has included; working with local conservation and wildlife groups, experience in dry stone walling, fencing and bridge building, woodland and wetland management, leading working parties of volunteers from Cornwall to the Inner Hebrides. I have also worked full time helping schools design and construct environmental areas - such as ponds, wildflower meadows and butterfly gardens - and written articles and delivered talks on practical conservation and the environment.

My first job was as a gardener’s apprentice, working for the National Trust for Scotland. Here I learnt all aspects of amenity horticulture including vegetable production, plant propagation and glass house practice. A series of jobs followed, these ranged from working for private gardens, to a nursery, to school groundsman. This experience has given me a good knowledge of plants and of horticultural skills and practices.

My gardening hero is Graham Stuart Thomas. My favourite flowers are labiates and my greatest pleasure is still my allotment. The gardens I admire are, I suppose the normal suspects, however, I have a special affection for Cambridge Botanic, Falkland Palace, Fife and Mrs Barr’s back garden in Liverpool.

I am returning to gardening after a long sabbatical pen pushing in the civil service, trying to earn a pension. Alas, the time I was spending trapped in an office neither fed my soul or gathered any material riches on earth and made me realise I needed to get back to a garden.

So I was more than happy when my friend Cristina came up with the idea for Treadlight and invited me to get involved and help out. Like Cristina, I believe it is time the horticulture industry ‘cleaned up its act’ started to take its environmental responsibilities more seriously and do more than make a few ‘organic’ gestures to placate the green lobby. I believe it is our responsibility to be stewards of this planet, that we must all contribute and that by working together we can strive towards this goal.

administration, finding that these careers did not play to my strengths.

I discovered over time that my interest and creative aptitudes were pulling me in a different direction. As a keen walker and nature lover and with my strong artistic interests, I found that I had a flair for gardening which combined my love of the outdoors with my fertile imagination. I enrolled onto a National Certificate in Horticulture course at Capel Manor in Enfield, which I self-financed from savings.

Consisting of ten modules, covering horticultural practices, fruit and vegetables, propagation, landscape and planting design, basic mechanics and soil science, I achieved a distinction overall and a distinction in both design modules. I was extremely honoured to win the Fleuroselect Summer Bedding design scheme competition and have my design planted out.

After qualifying, I had experience working in a garden maintenance company, worked full and part-time for various garden centres and undertook freelance gardening which included renovation and design. My experience has led me to believe that commercial horticulture has often missed the point, as I saw my chosen career as a steward and improver of the earth’s natural beauties.

It was disappointing to find that particularly in the retail sector, many wasteful practices existed and some of the plants and materials sold were produced by either depriving another part of the country or world of its natural resources or by unsustainably high energy, water and transport costs.

I believe this did not send the right message to customers many of whom sincerely believed they were doing their best to improve the environment.

I turned to my friend Dave Chanter, also a professional gardener. We agreed that with the increasing awareness of ecological issues and of the dangers of climate change, it was high time horticulture cleaned up its act.

Our vision is the formation of our company “Treadlight” which seeks to use the best organic practice and the lowest possible environmental footprint to produce beautiful, living, wildlife designs and gardens which will help to attract and increase the numbers of our common visitors such as the beetles, insects, bees, frogs, butterflies, hedgehogs and birds on which all life depends.