Projects

Six gardens from Lansdown to Painswick

Real budgets, real build times and the problems we had to solve. Every garden here was designed in our studio and built by our own crew; most are still on our maintenance rounds.

Irregular stepping stones crossing a lawn into a shady woodland garden

Showing all 6 gardens

A sawn-stone terrace below a high wall clothed in climbers, with an old carved stone urn — Lansdown, Bath BA1

Case study 01 · Bath

A walled terrace on Lansdown

Location: Lansdown, Bath BA1
Garden size: 160 m² rear garden
Build time: 7 weeks
Budget band: £40,000–£60,000

The garden behind this Grade II townhouse falls almost two metres from the back door to the far wall, and the 1970s concrete terrace had cracked along its whole length. Our clients wanted somewhere to eat outside that still felt as if it belonged to the house.

We lifted the concrete and laid a sawn Bath stone terrace on two levels, rebuilding the failing retaining wall with stone salvaged from the original. Climbing hydrangea and star jasmine now cover the north wall, and the old carved urn that had been hidden under ivy is the centrepiece again. Listed building consent was handled with the conservation officer before a single slab moved.

Design plan
Landscaping build
Planting

A brick-walled courtyard with an oak dining table, festoon lights and lush fan palms and ferns — Widcombe, Bath BA2

Case study 02 · Bath

A Widcombe courtyard for long evenings

Location: Widcombe, Bath BA2
Garden size: 38 m² courtyard
Build time: 3 weeks
Budget band: £15,000–£25,000

A shady, brick-walled yard behind a terraced house on Prior Park Road, used mainly for bins and a bicycle. The owners cook a lot and wanted to seat six people outside without it feeling cramped.

We laid reclaimed brick in a herringbone pattern, built a cedar bench along the warmest wall with storage underneath, and planted for shade: fan palms in pots, Fatsia, hart’s-tongue and soft shield ferns, and a white-flowered climbing hydrangea. Festoon lights on a dimmer finish it off. The bins now live behind a slatted screen by the gate.

Courtyard package
Lighting
Shade planting

A timber-framed cottage with a cottage-garden front border and a cobbled path leading from the lane — Lacock, Wiltshire SN15

Case study 03 · Wiltshire

A cottage garden in Lacock

Location: Lacock, Wiltshire SN15
Garden size: 620 m² front and side garden
Build time: 5 weeks, planted in two phases
Budget band: £25,000–£40,000

This timber-framed cottage sits close to the lane, and the front garden had been reduced to lawn and a privet hedge by previous owners. Our clients wanted the generous, slightly unruly look the village is known for, without hours of work every weekend.

We relaid the cobbled path from the lane using the original stones plus reclaimed setts from a yard in Chippenham, replaced the privet with a mixed native hedge, and planted deep borders of roses, foxgloves, hardy geraniums and self-seeding annuals. Phase two, the side garden and a small vegetable patch, went in the following October.

Design plan
Path restoration
Cottage planting

Stone stepping stones winding through drifts of purple wildflowers and grasses — Clifton, Bristol BS8

Case study 04 · Bristol

A wildflower path in Clifton

Location: Clifton, Bristol BS8
Garden size: 210 m² rear garden
Build time: 4 weeks
Budget band: £15,000–£25,000

A Victorian villa garden that was almost entirely lawn — patchy, hard to mow on the slope, and of little use to the family or to wildlife. They asked for something that would look after itself more and bring in bees.

We cut the lawn back by seventy per cent and laid a meandering path of Pennant sandstone stepping stones through meadow-style planting: catmint, wild marjoram, Salvia ‘Caradonna’, hardy geraniums and fine grasses. The garden is cut once a year in late winter. Two summers on, the owners counted more than three times as many bees on a July afternoon as before.

Planting design
Paths
Lawn reduction

Clipped yew and box topiary shapes set in fine gravel in a sloping Cotswold garden — Painswick, Gloucestershire GL6

Case study 05 · Cotswolds

Restoring topiary in Painswick

Location: Painswick, Gloucestershire GL6
Garden size: 900 m² terraced garden
Build time: 9 weeks
Budget band: £60,000 and above

An Arts and Crafts garden on a steep Cotswold slope, with yew and box topiary planted in the 1930s. Twenty years of light trimming had turned the shapes into blobs, and box blight had killed two of the hedges outright.

We spent a winter hard-pruning the yew back to its framework and replaced the blighted box with Ilex crenata, which clips the same way but shrugs off the disease. New self-binding gravel paths follow the original lines found on a 1952 estate plan. The cloud-pruned shapes will take another three seasons to fill out; Rosie’s team visits four times a year to keep them on track.

Restoration
Topiary
Gravel paths

A small garden pond covered in water-lily pads with a gentle bubbling fountain — Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire BA15

Case study 06 · Wiltshire

A wildlife pond in Bradford-on-Avon

Location: Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire BA15
Garden size: 340 m² garden · 14 m² pond
Build time: 3 weeks
Budget band: £10,000–£15,000

A young family wanted a pond the children could watch frogs in, but safe and easy to keep clear. The garden sits on heavy clay above the river, which made drainage the first problem to solve.

We dug a 14 m² pond with a shallow pebble beach on one side so hedgehogs and frogs can get in and out, lined it with EPDM under a protective fleece, and added a small solar pump to keep the water moving. Native marginals — water mint, marsh marigold, purple loosestrife — are planted in hessian baskets. A steel mesh grid sits just below the surface until the youngest turns five.

Water feature
Wildlife
Native planting

About the numbers

What our budget bands include

Budget bands cover design, materials, labour, plants and VAT — everything the client paid us. They do not include lighting fittings chosen separately, furniture or planning fees. Build time is the number of weeks our crew was on site, not counting the design stage.

As a rough guide for 2026, a new terrace in natural stone costs £220–£320 per m² laid, and a planted border £45–£80 per m² including plants.

Rosie’s team come four times a year and leave the borders looking better than when they arrived. They know which seedlings to keep and which to pull, which is the whole point.

MargaretCorsham, Wiltshire · Four-season care plan

Could your garden be number 251?

Tell us a little about it and we will arrange a Walk-Round visit. You will come away with notes, a sketch and a realistic idea of cost.

Book a consultation Call 01225 480 312