01
Weeks 1 — 2Survey & soil
Levels, light and three soil pits. We design from what the ground actually does, not from what a plan would like it to do.
3soil pits before a line is drawn
Landscape design & build · The South Downs · Since 2013
Gardens that
age well.
Design, build and aftercare for gardens meant to be looked after — planted for the tenth year, not the first photograph. Four of our own crews, one soil test at a time.
Garden film
Downs HouseThe Long BorderKiln YardRidge FieldHanger WoodColdharbourDowns HouseThe Long BorderKiln YardRidge FieldHanger WoodColdharbour
The practice
We survey the ground, draw the planting and then build it ourselves — because a garden designed by one team and made by another is where the detail goes missing.
Soil first
Three pits and a percolation test before a single line is drawn.
Own crews
Four teams, no chains of subcontractors, one site manager per garden.
Planted for year ten
Nothing specified that needs replacing in three seasons.
01 — Recent gardens
Three gardens,
three soils.
A walled garden on clay, four acres of meadow on chalk, and ninety square metres of shade. Open a garden, then open any stage of how it was built.
Downs House
Sussex · walled garden
A walled garden behind a flint farmhouse, rebuilt around a long stone terrace and a shallow reflecting pool. The old kitchen beds were kept, re-soiled and replanted as the working heart of the garden.
- Size
- 2.4 acres of garden
- Soil
- Clay over chalk, improved over two seasons
- Build
- 18 weeks on site
- Aftercare
- Four visits a year, every year
How it was built
Tap a stage
Levels taken across the whole garden, three soil pits dug and a percolation test beside the wall before a plan is drawn.
02 — Method
Soil to
second year,
in five moves.
The same five stages on every garden, at every size. Each one has an owner and a date the rest of the build depends on.
01
Survey & soil
Levels, aspect, light and a soil test — before a single plant is specified.
02
Design
A drawn planting plan and materials schedule you can price, build and argue with.
03
Groundworks
Drainage, retaining structures and levels built by our own crews, not subcontracted twice.
04
Planting
Set out on the ground, walked with you, then planted by the people who designed it.
05
Aftercare
Four visits a year for the first two years, then as long as you want us.
03 — The year in the garden
A garden is never
finished.
It changes twelve times a year, so the plan has to work in all of them. Pick a season to see what we are doing on site, and what is carrying the garden that month.
June — August
Peak, and the point of least intervention. Watering is by irrigation on a timer; the only job is staking what the wind leans on.
Deadhead · stake · irrigate
Carrying the garden now
- Stipa giganteaOat grass, backlit at seven
- Salvia nemorosaDeep violet, cut for a second flush
- Achillea filipendulinaFlat cream heads in the long border
0
Years building gardens
0+
Gardens built
0
Aftercare visits a year
0%
Plant survival at year three
04 — Built by hand, week by week
02
Weeks 3 — 7Levels & structure
Falls, drainage, terraces and walls. The hard landscaping is set out to the millimetre, because everything planted afterwards sits on it.
18tonnes of stone laid by hand
03
Weeks 8 — 10Planting the layers
Structure, then perennials, then bulbs. Plants are set out on the ground and walked before anything goes in the soil.
2,400plants set out from the plan
04
Weeks 11 — 16Meadow & trees
Bare-root trees in winter, meadow seed in spring, and the mowing regime that decides what comes back next year.
46trees staked and cabled
05
Year 1 — 10Maturity & aftercare
A garden is finished at year three, not at handover. We come back four times a year and keep adjusting it as it grows.
92%plant survival at year three
05 — What a garden costs
Sized from
the ground up.
A full design-and-build garden lands between £150 and £260 a square metre, depending on levels, stone and access. Move the slider for an indicative figure before we ever visit.
Garden size240 m²
40 m² courtyard2,400 m²
Indicative build
£47,000
Plants specified
384
Weeks on site
6
Garden size against our largest build10%
Design fees, planting and aftercare are quoted separately and shown before you commit. Hard landscaping is priced from measured drawings, never from a rate per metre.
06 — The gardens
Ten years on, still standing.
Photographed on our own sites · 2026
07 — A site visit
Begin with
the soil.
We take on eight gardens a year. A visit, a soil test and an honest conversation about what your ground can do is where every one of them starts.
- Site visits across Sussex, Surrey, Kent and Hampshire
- Fixed design fee, credited against the build
- Reply within three working days