FAQs

It’s All Green to Me is a landscape education initiative that helps people understand, design and connect with nature. Founded by Lily Bakratsa, an architect and landscape architect, it offers accessible courses, workshops and participatory projects for beginners, professionals, communities and anyone curious about landscapes, combining landscape design, horticulture, ecology, research and creative practice.

Lily Bakratsa is the creator and owner of It’s All Green To Me.

About Lily

Lily is an architect and landscape architect, and also holds a diploma in professional gardening. She teaches garden design in Capel Manor College (Regent’s Park, London) and also works as a freelance architect/landscape architect in London.

Lily comes from a family with a strong educational background; both her parents were in education and her wider family owned a private school in Greece. Reading, exploring, bringing people together and finding innovative methods for teaching runs in her family.

In 2017, Lily received an award from the Landscape Institute (LI). She is also a Landscape Ambassador and member of the editorial board of the LI. You can read her story and find out how she set up It’s All Green To Me here.

In It’s All Green To Me our vision is to make landscape knowledge accessible to everyone and to inspire a deeper connection between people and nature. We believe that anyone can learn to understand, design with and care for the landscapes around them. Through education, research, creative practice and participatory design, we aim to empower individuals and communities to create places that are more biodiverse, inclusive, resilient but also beautiful and meaningful.

Please send an email to: hello@itsallgreentome.com

We offer landscape education, courses and CPD; workshops and community learning; participatory design and public consultation; landscape research and publications; and creative, nature-based projects. We work with individuals, professionals, communities, organisations and teams to learn, explore and create better relationships with nature and place.

We have a variety of themes; our workshops have a problem-solving approach and focus on the know-how of designing with nature. Typical event titles are: ‘How to become an urban gardener’, How to design a playground for natural play’, ‘How to look after your houseplants’, ‘How to green your balcony’ or ‘How to create a meadow’.

Lily Bakratsa organises the content of all the courses. She meets with a range of professionals to bring a holistic approach to each course. It takes a lot time to organise a course; it feels like working on small project, and Lily loves the process.

Courses are run by Lily, but at times she will invite guest lecturers or other professionals, depending on the content and the requirements of the workshop. All guest professionals are mentioned in the workshops at the time of booking.

Freelance educators, writers, biologists, forest school leaders, gardeners, horticulturalists, arboriculturalists, construction builders, nursery managers, psychologists, philosophers – depending on the theme and content of the workshop. If you work in any of these areas and want to be involved, please email us.

Our workshops are for anyone curious about nature, landscape and creative making — from absolute beginners and homeowners to students, designers, professionals, community groups, schools and organisations. No previous landscape or horticultural experience is required; our workshops are designed to be accessible, practical and collaborative.

Anyone from 18 to 100 years old is welcome.

Designers have attended our courses in the past and they all left us with great comments and feedback. The content of our courses incorporates knowledge from different disciplines, not just design, which makes the experience fun and worthwhile. Some of our previous attendees were designers with little practical experience outdoors; others wanted to improve their knowledge of plants and understanding of nature. Whatever your profession, come with an open mind and enjoy what we have prepared for you.

This really depends on the theme of each workshop. Our courses usually last four hours (with a 30-minute lunch break), but there are shorter workshops available. Class duration is shown in the description section of the workshop when you book the course online.

We aim for a maximum of 6 people.

We do not have any exams or official tests after the end of a workshop and do not offer any formal qualifications. Please note we are not an academic organisation.

We also offer private educational services; if you have an event we can be part of, please send an email to: hello@itsallgreentome.com. This can be anything from a school project to a community event, part of a fair or festival, or a private event for your business.

We do not offer work experience, but at times, and depending on the popularity of the event/workshop, we have volunteers helping us out; we pay transport fares, lunch and drinks.

We love hearing about new ideas for workshops: drop us a line and we can see how we can work together.

Once you book a course, we will contact you via email to give you all details you need (materials to purchase, timetable etc.)

You can book workshops/events online. After booking you will receive a confirmation email; please enter your details (email/phone) carefully at the time of booking, otherwise we will have no way of contacting you. If you have problems booking online, please email hello@itsallgreentome.com.

This really depends on many things such as the format, course length, materials, number of tutors, number of participants, etc. There is much work involved in the preparation and the delivery of an event/workshop; most of this work goes unseen but a great result justifies the efforts and work that takes place backstage.

Please check the website for the pricing of individual workshops/events.

Bookings and payments are done online through our website. Our online payments are done through a Stripe plug-in, which provides us with a secure banking infrastructure. For more details, please read about Stripe here. We take secure payment over debit/credit card or Paypal.

We give refunds up to 14 days before the event/workshop takes place. This is so we can have some time to give your place to someone else.
Please note that we cannot refund later than 14 days’ notice – you can, however, give your ticket to a friend, if you wish.

As many as you wish – you only need to add them to your basket and proceed to checkout.

Unfortunately we do not offer concession prices.

Absolutely. We are also commissioned by schools, residents’ associations, museums and charities to educate their communities or work on a project with them either as a one-off event or as a series of events. Please send an email to hello@itsallgreentome.com and we will get back to you.

We most certainly can. We can bring a community together through an educational activity to support your public consultation event. Please send an email to hello@itsallgreentome.com and we will get back to you.

We do – drop us a line and we will get back to you with loads of ideas.

Unfortunately we don’t.

Most workshops take place online but we plan them in a way so that you can rest during the day, explore the outdoors without feeling overwhelmed by looking at a screen.

This depends on the content of the workshop; as far as gardening tools are concerned, we usually use hand spades, trowels, forks, buckets, snippers, pruning scissors, watering cans, hoses etc. We will always show you on camera how to use a tool so that you use it in a safe way.

For design workshops we use all the necessary drawing equipment, plus scalpels if needed. If any of the tools you use need special attention, we will show you how to use them at the start of the workshop.