We design for time, not for photographs
A two-hours-a-month garden looks different from a two-hours-a-week garden. We can make either one beautiful - but the choice has to be made at the start.
About us
Twelve people, one crew, eighteen gardens a year
Wilson Landscape is a design-and-build studio in Barnes. We are not the biggest garden company in London and we don't want to be - because the only way a garden turns out well is to be on site yourself.
Wilson Landscape studio · Barnes, LondonHistory
From a neighbour's back garden to 240 projects
In 2007 Michael Wilson was finishing a landscape architecture degree at Greenwich and took his first commission - 200 m² of neglected back garden in Barnes. The neighbour had spent six months trying to find someone who would do it without improvising.
For the first five years there were two of us and one trailer. Then came small plant, our own hard-landscaping crew and a second designer. In 2019 we adopted the rule we still hold to: no more than eighteen projects in a season.
That means every garden is run by one person - the same person who drew it. You know who to ring, and that person knows why a pear tree was meant to go in the corner of the plot rather than a maple.
How we think
The garden should work for you, not the other way round
The prettiest design is worth nothing if you haven't the energy to keep it up after two years. So before we draw a single line we ask how many hours a month you want to give it - and design to that number.
Native species wherever they will do the job
Hornbeam, dogwood, viburnum, ornamental grasses. Less watering, less spraying, more birds. Anything exotic goes in sparingly, where it genuinely earns its place.
Water stays on the plot
Attenuation tanks, rain gardens and permeable surfaces. In London rainwater is far too valuable a resource to send down a drain.
What sets us apart
Five questions worth asking any garden company
- Who will actually be on site? Us: our own crew, on the payroll - not a crew found through an ad.
- Do you test the soil? Us: a soil pit and a pH test included in the design fee, always.
- What does the guarantee cover? Us: 5 years on trees and shrubs, 2 years on hard landscaping, in writing.
- Where do the plants come from? Us: three growers in Surrey and Kent, hardened off in our own climate.
- What happens after handover? Us: four visits in the first year, included in the price.
Let's talk
We would be glad to come and look at your plot
Even if you are only at the “we really must do something about that one day” stage. We'll tell you what is worth sorting out before the builders arrive.