Mary Reynolds (landscape designer)

Mary Reynolds is an Irish gardener, landscape designer, author and public activist, known for being the youngest contestant to win a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show.

[citation needed] In her personal anecdotes, Reynolds claims to have developed her fascination with nature at a young age, often referencing a childhood memory in which she became lost on the family farm and felt the plants around her "leaning towards me […] fighting for my attention.

While Reynolds provided the paperwork and proof of sponsorship, she later confessed; "It was very carefully worded so no actual amount was mentioned; [my sponsors] gave me a pound, so it wasn’t a complete fib.

The garden mimics that at the Royal Kew, as it also features a stone faerie covered in moss, surrounded by a variety of native Irish fauna.

Beale requested the design feature four central gardens, each inspired by the seasonal Celtic festivals of Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine, and Lughnasa.

Reynolds' first publication is an instructional memoir in which she promotes sustainable horticultural practice through "forest gardening", while also detailing her spiritual connection to the Irish landscape through the terms and symbols of Celtic paganism.

[19] The book features illustrations by artist Ruth Evans, alongside drawings and architectural sketches by Reynolds, and a foreword by US author Larry Korn.

[20] Other notable figures who shared their support of Reynold's writing include Sir Tim Smit, Co-Founder of the Eden Project; and James Alexander-Sinclair, judge and council member of the Royal Horticultural Society.

She also makes use of traditional Celtic symbols and folklore in her landscape designs; such as Druid thrones, obelisks and her sleeping faerie sculpture at the Delta Sensory Garden.

In 2017 she worked as a course instructor at the Irish National Heritage Park in Wexford, her efforts focussing on restoring or "healing" the land to its natural, wild state.

[22] We Are The Ark was founded by Reynolds in 2018 with the aim of creating international environmental activism in regards to rewilding land by returning gardens to nature in order to increase biodiversity.

[1] Reynolds was eager for his assistance in her design, and so followed Collard to his reforestation project in Ethiopia, resulting in a brief romance that was depicted in the biopic Dare to be Wild.