About Ladybird Su
Ladybird Su is an eco-artist based in North Staffordshire/Cheshire East, and is an original member of ACAVA Studios: Spode Works in Stoke. She’s a British/Irish mid-career artist, and creates pop-up gardens for events and festivals, using her preferred materials of scrounged junk, repurposed furniture and living plants. Her eye-catching pop-up gardens have been showcased at RHS Flower Show Tatton Park, Etruria Canal Festival, Geronimo! Family Festival, and GrowFest, drawing all ages in to learn in an entertaining way about making space for nature in everyday life.
Su completed the MA Art as Environment course at Manchester School of Art in 2013, where she explored how better relations might be fostered between the environment and people, through the art of gardening. Domestic gardens equal 4.3% of English land area, and 87% of homes have a garden (Office for National Statistics data). Collectively, these gardens represent a significant area of land – approximately an area equivalent to half that occupied by National Parks, particularly, as Su advocates, if managed with nature in mind.
Su has previously worked with several groups in her home town on community and educational gardens. As horticultural lead, Su is also part of a family collective effort to bring the gardens of Betley Court back to life and open them to the public, despite the disastrous fire that destroyed the Georgian house in 2019.
Ladybird Su’s Newcastle Common residency
Su will be our ‘Artist Gardener for the Growing Season’.
Visit Su’s garden at Newcastle Common on High Street; a small lawn featuring repurposed junk planters filled with bright seasonal flowers, tactile plants and aromatic herbs; a feast for the eyes and senses.
Get involved; plant a seed, make a flower pot.
Share; your stories and memories of gardening, growing, favourite plants and parks, your gardening tips.
Our ‘Artist Gardening’ will be in her garden from Springtime to early Autumn, with plenty to get your fingers green and creative juices flowing. There will be lots of tips online, using #TakeAwayGarden and you can stop-by and see Su on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays during the following weeks:
26 Apr – 4 May National Gardening Week
- Visit Su at her Newcastle Market stall where there’ll be plenty to have a go at to mark National Gardening Week
- Make a flower pot, plant a pea or sunflower
31 May – 6 June Half Term
- Visit Su at our Newcastle Common market stall for annual flower sowing
5 July – 11 July Wimbledon Week
- It’s got to be strawberries this week! Learn how to grow strawberry plants in beds of straw.
10 Aug – 16 Aug National Allotment Week
- This time it’s all about the veggies. Join Su for growing tips and create your own wildflower seed envelopes
25 Oct – 29 Oct October Half Term
- During October Half Term, prepare for the colder months by sowing winter veg and creating micro-salads for the window sill
Read Ladybird Su’s Newcastle Common diary entries
Ladybird Su Newcastle Common diary #1
Ladybird Su Newcastle Common diary #2
Learn more
Featured image by Jenny Harper
