Gardens drawn, costed, and built by the same people.
One studio from first sketch to final planting — so nobody hands you a beautiful drawing that turns out to cost three times what you had.
Designing and building since 2011
Selected work
Built, not rendered
Private gardens mostly, with the occasional public scheme. Every photograph here is a finished build rather than a visualisation.
Shaded walk, Laurelhurst
A whole gardenA north-facing side return turned into the route everyone takes. Reclaimed stone, oak pergola, and planting chosen for low light.
Circular terrace, Irvington
A whole gardenThe client wanted somewhere to sit that wasn't a rectangle. Granite setts laid in a radial pattern with a low seating wall.
Level change, Alameda
StructuralTwo metres of fall across a short garden. Solved with wide stone treads that double as seating on the sunny side.
Deck and wall, Sellwood
StructuralHardwood deck cantilevered over a dry stone retaining wall, so the usable garden gained about a third.
Courtyard scheme, civic
StructuralA small public realm commission. Same details as a private garden, specified to take twenty years of footfall.
Border rescue, Ladd's Addition
Planting-ledNo hard landscaping at all. Soil rebuilt, hedging brought back under control, and a planting scheme that peaks twice a year.
Budgets
What a garden actually costs
Most studios won't put this on a website. The result is people spending months on drawings for something they were never going to build, which serves nobody. Pick the band you're working to and see what it genuinely buys.
$20k – $60k
A whole garden
- Paving, paths and a terrace
- Retaining or seating walls
- Full planting scheme
- Lighting and irrigation first fix
- Levels reworked where needed
Structures like garden rooms, pools or large-scale groundworks sit above this band.
- Design fee
- $2,800
- Build timeline
- 10–16 weeks from drawings
Design is charged separately because it has to happen before anyone can quote a build honestly. It comes off the build cost if you go ahead with us.
How it works
Four stages, and you can stop after any of them
The drawings are yours whether or not we build them. Studios that only release designs on the condition you use their build team are protecting themselves, not you.
- 01
Visit and measure
Two hours on site. Levels, light, soil, drainage and what you actually do out there. Free, and we'll tell you if your budget doesn't fit the brief.
- 02
Concept and cost
A drawn concept with a build cost against it — not a range, a number. If it's wrong for you we redraw it once at no charge.
- 03
Detail and schedule
Construction drawings, planting plan, materials scheduled. Enough for anyone to build from, including someone who isn't us.
- 04
Build
Our own crew, a fixed programme, and one person you call. Planting goes in last and is guaranteed for a full season.
Studio
Small on purpose
Four designers and two build crews. We take on around eighteen gardens a year, which is the number we can visit often enough to keep the detailing honest. It also means we book up — the current lead time for a build start is usually a season.
- Gardens a year
- 18Gardens a year
- Years designing and building
- 14Years designing and building
- Team, drawing through planting
- 1Team, drawing through planting
“They told us at the first visit that our budget wouldn't do what we'd asked for, and showed us what it would do instead. Nobody else had been that direct and we hired them that week.”
“The cost on the concept drawing was the cost on the final invoice, on a garden with two metres of level change. I still find that slightly hard to believe.”
Start with the budget, not the drawing.
Tell us the band you're working to and what the garden needs to do. The first visit is free and you'll know within the hour whether it's realistic.
Book a site visit