01 / Profile
A designer who stays through the first three seasons
I design planting for gardens that are expected to read as wild and behave as though they were never planted — meadow edges, gravel terraces, shaded woodland floors and walled kitchen gardens. Schemes are built from soil tests and a full year of light readings rather than a mood board, then drawn as plans a contractor can actually set out.
Most of my work is long-form: I write the establishment and editing regime, walk the site each season for the first two years, and hand over a maintenance calendar the gardener can keep using. I am looking for a studio that treats aftercare as part of the design rather than a separate invoice.
02 / Selected work
Three recent commissions
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01
Marsh Hollow — perennial meadow and wet margin
A low-lying pasture with a spring line running through it, converted to a matrix meadow that floods twice a winter and recovers without replanting.
- Surveyed the water table across four seasons and set the planting bands to the observed flood line rather than the survey drawing.
- Wrote a two-cut regime and a species-by-species editing note, then trained the estate gardener through the first spring.
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02
Kiln Yard — south-facing gravel courtyard
A walled service yard with reflected heat on three sides, replanted as an unirrigated gravel garden that the kitchen also cuts from.
- Specified a free-draining build-up over the existing slab so the scheme could be laid without excavation.
- Chose a palette that tolerates being harvested: culinary umbellifers, hardy salvias and self-seeding annuals held together by grasses.
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03
Wren Bank — woodland floor restoration
A neglected beech bank with bare, compacted ground, rebuilt as a shade-tolerant ground layer that closes over before the canopy comes into leaf.
- Phased planting across three winters so volunteers could plant in manageable sessions and see each phase establish.
- Produced a laminated field key for the volunteer group so seedlings are recognised before the spring weeding round.
03 / Experience
Practice history
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2023 — Present
Hollis Ground — independent practice
Designer and principal
- Run four to six commissions a year from survey through to the second-season review, drawing all planting plans and setting-out sheets in house.
- Work alongside landscape contractors on site, resolving levels, drainage and substrate before planting begins.
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2020 — 2023
Cassel & Row Landscape Studio
Senior planting designer
- Led the planting side of mixed-use public schemes, coordinating with architects and drainage engineers from concept onward.
- Built the studio's plant library and substrate specifications, and mentored two junior designers through their first solo schemes.
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2018 — 2020
Thornbury Vale Nursery
Production grower, then trials lead
- Grew hardy perennials and grasses at scale, which is where most of what I know about root systems and timing came from.
- Ran comparison beds on drought tolerance and cut-back timing, and wrote the notes that went out with orders.
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2016 — 2018
Ferrow Hall Gardens
Gardener, walled garden team
- Maintained the long borders and glasshouse range through a full restoration cycle under the head gardener.
- Kept the propagation records and seasonal task calendar that the team still works from.
04 / Approach
Four things I hold to
Soil before species
No plant list leaves the studio before a pH reading, a drainage test and an honest look at what the site already grows on its own.
Design the third year
A scheme is drawn for how it will look once things have moved. Year-one gaps are intentional and explained to the client in advance.
Editing, not maintenance
Wild-feeling planting needs decisions, not tidying. I write regimes that tell a gardener what to remove and what to let run.
Drawings that survive the site
Setting-out sheets are made to be used in the rain by whoever is holding the spade — legible quantities, clear grid, no guesswork.