Garden design and landscaping in Kew
Creating beautiful gardens across Kew.
Few places take their gardens as seriously as Kew, home to the Royal Botanic Gardens, and the gardens we look after reflect that. There are Georgian houses around Kew Green, the late-Victorian and Edwardian streets such as Pagoda Avenue and Lawn Crescent, the family plots off Sandycombe Road and Leyborne Park, and the riverside addresses near the Thames towpath and the National Archives. Much of the housing is period, with the character and constraints that brings. We are equally at home with a compact courtyard near Kew Gardens station and a larger family garden by the green, and our approach responds to the property rather than imposing a single house style.
Garden design in Kew
Every project begins with a proper reading of the site and how you intend to live in it. Our garden design and build service turns that into a considered scheme, and for clients who want everything resolved before work starts, we provide designs and plans with layouts, levels and written planting schemes. Whether you are searching for garden designers in Kew or simply weighing up ideas, we will give you an honest view of what the space can become.
Many Kew gardens are classic period plots, long and narrow with limited side access and often overlooked on more than one boundary. These are exactly the conditions we enjoy resolving, whether the answer is a well-proportioned courtyard garden, a clever side return, or careful fencing and screening to restore privacy between closely set houses. With Kew Green, Kew Road and Lawn Crescent all within conservation areas, we design with those local sensitivities in view.
Garden build and landscaping in Kew
Once a design is agreed, our team carries out the construction, covering the full range of hard and soft landscaping. As experienced landscapers in Kew, we lay patios, paths and driveways on properly engineered, free-draining foundations, in porcelain, natural sandstone and traditional paving, and we build decking, pergolas, retaining walls and other garden features and structures. On riverside plots near the towpath we pay particular attention to drainage and levels. In the home of the Royal Botanic Gardens, expectations of planting run high, and our soft landscaping, from turfing and new lawns to fully planted borders, is handled by trained horticulturists. Where a smaller garden needs to look good with little upkeep, we design dedicated low-maintenance gardens too.
Features Kew clients ask for
In Kew, where horticultural expectations run high, naturalistic, pollinator-friendly planting is the feature we are asked for most. We plant nectar-rich, long-flowering schemes for the local clay and gravel with Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’, Origanum ‘Rosenkuppel’, Allium ‘Millenium’ and the prairie dropseed grass Sporobolus heterolepis, all magnets for bees and butterflies; there is more on our naturalistic garden page. On Kew’s many period town plots we also create relaxed courtyard gardens where paving gives way to gravel, and add pergolas and raised sleeper beds for height and growing space.
Garden maintenance in Kew
Our garden maintenance service keeps planting healthy and the whole space in balance as it establishes, carried out by trained horticulturists rather than general gardeners. For many Kew homeowners this is the most valued part of what we do: regular, knowledgeable gardening services that understand seasonal timing, correct pruning, lawn care and hedge work. We tailor each programme to the garden, from the regular care of a small or low-maintenance space near the station, to the upkeep of a larger garden by Kew Green, to scheduled communal garden maintenance for apartment blocks around Kew Road.
Kew ground conditions and local considerations
Like much of the borough, Kew sits on heavy London Clay, which holds water in winter, shrinks and cracks in summer and has a direct bearing on drainage, lawns and planting; free-draining Thames river-terrace gravels lighten some of the ground, while the riverside plots lie on damper alluvium. The clay here tends to be neutral to slightly alkaline, so lime-hating plants are best kept to raised, ericaceous beds, and a soil check at the outset is always worthwhile. Getting the soil right is the foundation of everything that follows, which is why we put real care into improving clay soil, opening up its structure rather than working against it. Clay-tolerant performers such as Viburnum tinus, Anemone × hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’, Alchemilla mollis and Hydrangea paniculata earn their place in our Kew borders, with reliably clay-happy roses alongside. For damp, riverside ground we turn to moisture-lovers such as Astilbe × arendsii and Cornus sericea ‘Flaviramea’. Where heavy ground or a high water table leads to persistent waterlogging, our flooded garden solutions resolve the problem at its source. We are also mindful of the area’s conservation areas, mature street trees and tree preservation orders, and design with those in view.
Recent work in Kew
We have completed a range of projects across Kew and the wider borough, and nearby our ongoing garden maintenance in Richmond shows the same horticultural approach. You can see more in our portfolio.
Why choose Flourish Landscaping in Kew
- Genuine, street-level knowledge of Kew, from Kew Green and Kew Road to Pagoda Avenue and the riverside
- Horticultural standards to match the home of the Royal Botanic Gardens, with degree-qualified plant expertise
- Equally at home with a narrow period terrace garden or a larger family plot by the green
- Design, build and maintenance handled in-house, with one point of contact throughout
- Planting matched carefully to Kew’s neutral-to-alkaline clay and riverside ground
- Independently accredited by APL, TrustMark, the Institute of Horticulture, the Gardeners Guild and the HTA
- Fully insured, with transparent written proposals and no hidden extras
Areas we cover near Kew
As well as Kew, we regularly work in Richmond, East Sheen, Twickenham and Ham, as well as neighbouring North Sheen, Kew Green and Mortlake, and Brentford across the river. If your address falls just outside these areas, please do still get in touch.
Discuss your Kew garden
If you are considering a new garden, structural landscaping works or ongoing maintenance in Kew, we would be pleased to visit, walk the site and talk through what you are hoping to achieve. Initial consultations are without obligation, with clear and honest guidance on what would work well for your garden, your budget and your timescale.
Contact us today to arrange a free consultation.
