About Fernwick
Fourteen seasons of gardens in and around Bath
A small, hands-on studio of designers, builders and gardeners. We work on fewer than thirty gardens a year so that each one gets proper attention, from the first survey to the tenth spring.
How a kitchen-table practice became a studio on Walcot Street
In 2012 Eleanor Marsh redesigned the front garden of her rented house in Larkhall: a strip of gravel replaced with lavender, a pear tree and a bench. Within a month three neighbours had asked if she could do theirs. She had trained as a landscape architect and spent six years at a perennial nursery near Stroud, so the drawings came easily. The van was borrowed.
Tom Ashby joined in 2015, and from then on Fernwick built its own gardens rather than handing drawings to contractors. That decision shaped everything that followed. When the people who draw a garden are the people who dig it, the details hold: the step heights are right, the drainage works, the plants go in where the plan says.
Today we are nine people working from a first-floor studio above Walcot Street, five minutes from Pulteney Bridge. We take on fewer than thirty design and build projects a year, mostly in Bath, Bristol, west Wiltshire and the southern Cotswolds, and look after around sixty gardens through the seasons.
Bath is a World Heritage city, and much of our work is in conservation areas or around listed buildings. We are used to talking to conservation officers, to tracking down the right shade of Bath stone, and to working on streets where a skip needs a licence and a lorry needs a plan.
“We would rather do thirty gardens a year properly than sixty in a hurry. The best compliment we get is a phone call ten years later asking us to come back.”
- 250+gardens designed since 2012
- 60gardens on our maintenance rounds
- 9designers, builders and gardeners
- 0bags of peat compost since 2019
The people
The team you will actually meet
Alongside these four are our build crew of five — two of whom have been with us since 2016.
-
Eleanor Marsh
Founder & lead garden designer
Trained as a landscape architect, then spent six years propagating perennials at a nursery near Stroud before starting Fernwick. Eleanor draws every concept by hand and still visits each build weekly.
Favourite plant: Sanguisorba ‘Red Thunder’
-
Tom Ashby
Build & maintenance manager
Tom grew up on a farm near Frome and dry-stone walled before he could drive. He runs our crew of five, prices every build and is the reason the street gets swept at the end of each day.
Favourite plant: a well-laid hedge of hawthorn
-
Daniel Okoro
Planting designer
Daniel joined in 2024 from a botanic garden in Bristol, where he looked after the dry garden. He writes our planting plans and maintenance calendars and has strong opinions about grasses.
Favourite plant: Stipa gigantea
-
Rosie Hartley
Head gardener
Rosie leads the maintenance team that looks after around sixty of our gardens through the year. She knows which self-sown seedlings to keep, and which will take over by July.
Favourite plant: Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’
What we believe
Four things we will not compromise on
These are less a mission statement than the habits that have kept clients coming back, and recommending us to their neighbours, for fourteen years.
-
Design for the site you have
We start with the soil, the light and the views out — not a style from a magazine. A north-facing Widcombe yard and a south-facing Cotswold slope deserve different gardens.
-
Peat-free and grown nearby
We have used only peat-free compost since 2019, and most of our plants come from nurseries in Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. We reuse stone and brick on site wherever we can.
-
One person you can call
Your designer is your point of contact from the first visit to the final planting. You will always have their mobile number, and they will always answer it in working hours.
-
Tidy sites, honest numbers
Fixed written quotations, a week-by-week programme and clear staged payments. If something unexpected turns up underground, you hear about it the same day — with a price.
Our story so far
From Larkhall to Walcot Street
-
2012
Eleanor starts designing gardens as a sole trader from her kitchen table in Larkhall. The first three clients are neighbours.
-
2015
Tom joins and Fernwick builds its first garden with its own crew: a Bath stone terrace in Weston.
-
2018
The studio moves to the first floor of 14 Walcot Street, between the antiques shops and the Saturday market.
-
2019
We go fully peat-free and start buying most of our plants from growers within sixty miles.
-
2020
Rosie sets up the maintenance team so that gardens we plant can be looked after by people who know them.
-
2023
The business is incorporated as Fernwick Garden Design Ltd, now a team of seven.
-
2024
Daniel joins as planting designer; we complete our first restoration of a 1930s topiary garden in Painswick.
-
2026
Our 250th garden: a courtyard off Prior Park Road. The team is nine people strong.
Come and see us on Walcot Street
We are happy to talk through ideas at the studio over a cup of tea — bring photos, a rough sketch or just a list of what you like. Saturday appointments are available.