Hughes Creative Landscapes is driven by two aims: the first, to encourage others to experience the joy and wellbeing to be derived from immersion in gardens and the natural world. Secondly, to help increase biodiversity and habitats for invertebrates, mammals and birds alongside supportive and rich planting in both private and public spaces. Working with you on the design of your garden would be an honour. A garden is a very personal space and we will work closely with you to find the perfect balance that adds value to your life and your home.

• RHS trained gardeners and high quality landscaping professionals

• A range of options to choose from including one-off planting plans through to full garden redesign

• Opportunities to involve ecology professionals to provide a survey of the ecological potential of the site

• Organic and ecological gardening practices without compromise - no noisy petrol power tools

• Ongoing, light-touch maintenance plans to ensure excellent development of the garden over many years to maintain its beauty and balance

Design process

Option 1 - planting plan

If you would like support on choosing the best plants for your garden, I can provide a bespoke planting plan service. This could include a single or multiple beds in a front or back garden, and is most applicable to those who have green fingers anyway and will likely be installing the plants themselves, but would enjoy a little more expert support in choosing the right plants. This would include a site survey as part of the service.

Option 2 - planting and habitat plan

A planting and habitat plan could specify alterations or additions to be made to create all-important habitat sites for wildlife. The planting and habitat plan would work in tandem to significantly increase biodiversity within your garden and local area.

Option 3 - full design package

This is applicable for those who want to reimagine the garden. After initial contact, I will visit the garden to understand the site and scope, and discuss initial ideas and directions for the design with you.

I will take time to understand the desired use of the space, including circulation, views, individuals using it (including young family or pets) plus interior and house design linking with the outside space. The desired level of ongoing maintenance will also be discussed to understand which plants might be best suited to this important element in the longevity of a design.

A design brief will be drawn up incorporating the elements above, and once agreed a design fee and outline budget for the remainder of the project will be agreed, with details of the payments due at each stage.

A second in-person site visit will allow a site analysis to be carried out (soil and light testing) which will form the basis of the concept design, which includes outline planting and landscaping elements with picture references. This will serve as a masterplan document and will be worked on in close collaboration with yourselves so that your exact ideas will be realised. Regular zoom calls or site visits would be scheduled to go through this and make any last adjustments.

Once the concept design is signed off, detailed planting and landscaping plans are produced which will be presented to you in a booklet format so whilst the garden is progressing, you can keep track of how the final design is shaping up in accordance with the plans.

Dates for landscaping and planting installation are mutually agreed, and Louise will layout all plants in their final position.

Louise believes in the power of gardens as biodiverse havens.

“‘If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.’

Gardens and public green spaces engender a sense of fun, joy and wonder, alongside a wider feeling of unity and community – an insight that Frances Hodgson Burnett touches upon within this quote from her book The Secret Garden. The interplay between plants, invertebrates, mammals, birds and fungi is both a vibrant and essential element of life. It keys into a deep sense of our interconnectedness: a realisation of the importance of each of those individual elements, and its vital impact on the others.

With private gardens in the UK covering 459% more land mass than the countries’ national parks put together, our gardens hold huge potential for not only providing us with a haven of beauty to enjoy, but also a food and habitat source for the invertebrates, mammals and birds who do, or could, share those green spaces with us. We can all play our part in increasing biodiversity and installing habitats for invertebrates, mammals and birds alongside supportive and rich planting in both private and public spaces. Gardeners can work together and perhaps channel Hodgson Burnett’s vision to see ‘the whole world as a garden’ and not just see up to their individual boundaries – nature and gardens don’t naturally operate with this demarcation, as evidenced by the birds or insects who travel between the different spaces, and it would be wonderful to break down these arbitrary barriers in gardeners’ minds also. Simple and inexpensive (or free) alterations to existing infrastructure can retain that sense of individual space that many desire, whilst allowing nature to thrive.

The total UK garden cover is 432,964 hectares, whilst the total area of the 224 National Nature Reserves is only 94,400 hectares or 0.7% of the land surface. In relation to urban developments, one quarter of the area of a typical city (and half its green space) is private gardens , so the potential national significance of gardens as a resource for wildlife is clear. This is before we have even considered public green spaces, including school or other community gardens. So where an individual garden, especially in an urban area, may feel small and disconnected from its surroundings, when considered together as one part of a larger mosaic, there is a huge potential for providing beneficial habitats and ecosystems.

In the face of catastrophically dropping numbers in many native species of invertebrates, mammals and birds, improving ecological diversity in our gardens and public spaces could not be more vital to consider and implement. This becomes even more urgent in the face of the climate crisis and rising temperatures, which will have an even further mitigating effect on population numbers. We need solutions to boost biodiversity, recycle more and provide easily implementable planting schemes that are drought-tolerant, all at our (green) fingertips.”