Garden design and landscaping in Surbiton, Surrey

Flourish Landscaping is a garden design, build and maintenance company based in Surbiton, at Egmont Avenue. We design and build gardens across Surbiton, Berrylands, Tolworth and Long Ditton, and run a regular maintenance round in the town. Designs are drawn by Eli, our in-house garden designer. The business is run by Craig Davis, who holds a BSc (Hons) in Horticulture and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture.

Garden design fees start at £1,500 plus VAT. Most of our garden builds cost £15,000 to £45,000 plus VAT. Regular garden maintenance starts at £100 a visit plus VAT. The first site visit is free: book a visit.

Few towns wear their history as plainly as Surbiton. Laid out as a Victorian “new town” beside the railway from the 1840s, it is defined by elegant stuccoed villas on roads such as Claremont Road and Avenue Elmers, the more flamboyant red-brick houses of Claremont Gardens, and the Classical-style terraces around Maple Road and St Andrew’s Square. Beyond the conservation areas sit the comfortable 1930s family plots of Berrylands and Surbiton Hill, the post-war gardens of Tolworth, and the riverside addresses along the Portsmouth Road towards Seething Wells.

What we do in Surbiton

We provide a complete garden design, landscaping and maintenance service across Surbiton, with work shaped around the property, soil, access, planting conditions and how the garden needs to be used.

• Garden design and build
• Patios, paths, paving and decking
• Planting design and installation
• Fencing, screening, pergolas and garden structures
• Victorian tiled paths and period front garden restoration
• Drainage, levels and London Clay improvement
• Regular garden maintenance in Surbiton

Garden design in Surbiton

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 scaled designs and plans with layouts, levels and written planting schemes.

Surbiton’s period properties often bring narrow plots, limited side access and overlooked boundaries. These are exactly the conditions we enjoy resolving, whether the answer is a well-proportioned courtyard garden, a clever side return, or carefully detailed fencing and screening.

Garden build and landscaping

Once a design is agreed, our team carries out the construction, covering the full range of hard and soft landscaping. This includes patios, paths and driveways, decking, pergolas, retaining walls, garden lighting and other garden features and structures.

• Properly prepared sub-bases for paving and patios
• Level changes and retaining details for sloping gardens
• Decking, pergolas and garden structures
• Low-maintenance layouts for compact gardens
• Hard and soft landscaping handled together

On the town’s many sloping and split-level plots, well-detailed retaining and stepped, split-level solutions do much of the quiet work. Where a smaller garden needs to look good with little upkeep, we also design dedicated low-maintenance gardens.

Popular garden features in Surbiton

Alongside the structural work, a few features come up again and again with Surbiton homeowners.

• Naturalistic, pollinator-friendly planting
• Relaxed courtyard gardens
• Porcelain or stone paving softened with gravel and planting
• Pergolas for height, shade and structure
• Raised sleeper beds for heavy clay gardens

Naturalistic borders work particularly well here, using clay-tolerant plants such as Salvia nemorosa, Nepeta racemosa, Echinacea purpurea and Verbena bonariensis. You can see the wider design thinking on our naturalistic garden page.

Victorian tiled paths and period front walls

Surbiton’s Victorian villa roads, including the stuccoed terraces around Claremont Road, Maple Road and St Andrew’s Square, were built with handsome front gardens. We restore that detail with a sympathetic hand.

• Lifting, cleaning and re-bedding original geometric or encaustic tiles
• Matching replacement tiles to surviving patterns and colours
• Relaying paths on a sound, free-draining base
• Repairing or rebuilding period dwarf walls
• Reinstating piers, copings, railings or gates where appropriate

Within Surbiton’s conservation areas, we keep materials and detailing in keeping with the street, and can combine period walls with sympathetic fencing and screening.

Garden maintenance in Surbiton

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.

• Seasonal pruning and plant care
• Lawn care and hedge work
• Maintenance for small or low-maintenance gardens
• Large garden maintenance in Berrylands and nearby areas
• Communal garden maintenance for apartment blocks

We tailor each programme to the garden, from the regular care of a small or low-maintenance space near the station to larger garden maintenance in Berrylands and scheduled communal garden maintenance around Surbiton town centre. Prices and how our round works are on the garden maintenance in Surbiton page.

Surbiton ground conditions and local considerations

Like much of the borough, Surbiton 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. Getting the soil right is the foundation of everything that follows, which is why we put real care into improving clay soil.

Clay-tolerant planting earns its place here too, and dependable performers such as Hydrangea paniculata, Amelanchier lamarckii, Sarcococca confusa and reliably clay-happy roses feature regularly in our Surbiton schemes.

Where heavy ground and the area’s gentle slopes towards the Thames lead to persistent waterlogging, our flooded garden solutions resolve the problem at its source rather than masking it. We are also mindful of the town’s conservation areas and mature trees, and design with those local sensitivities in view.

Hard landscaping in Surbiton

Hard landscaping is a core part of the work we do across Surbiton: patios, paths, steps, garden walls, raised terraces and driveways. The area’s Victorian and Edwardian villas often call for sympathetic detailing: restored tiled front paths, period-appropriate brickwork and natural stone that suits the architecture, alongside contemporary porcelain terraces for modern living. Whatever the style, the approach is the same: properly engineered foundations and correctly specified materials that hold their form on Surbiton’s heavy clay ground.

We are approved installers for London Stone and work with Marshalls and Pavestone products where a project calls for them. Being based in Surbiton, we know the local roads and plots well, from the villa gardens near the station to the family gardens towards Berrylands and Tolworth. The borough’s clay ground also makes drainage important: on lower-lying plots we deal with waterlogged lawns, puddles in borders and standing water, which you can read more about on our flooded gardens page. All hard landscaping is carried out by our own team, never subcontracted, with the same crew on site from groundworks through to final jointing and planting.

Recent work in Surbiton

We have completed a wide range of projects across Surbiton, including a contemporary garden, a family garden transformation, and a sympathetic Victorian garden project in keeping with the area’s period houses. Just over the Berrylands border, our Berrylands garden makeover shows the same approach on a larger suburban plot. You can see more in our portfolio.

Why choose Flourish Landscaping in Surbiton

• Street-level knowledge of Surbiton, from the Claremont Road and Maple Road villas to Berrylands, Tolworth and Surbiton Hill
• A Surbiton-based team – the gardens we design, build and maintain are on our own doorstep
• Equally at home with a compact period courtyard or a large suburban family garden
• Design, build and maintenance handled in-house, with one point of contact throughout
• Degree-qualified horticultural expertise behind every plant choice
• Accredited by APL, TrustMark, Surrey Trading Standards Approved, The Gardeners Guild and the HTA; Craig Davis is a member of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture
• Fully insured, with fixed written quotations and no hidden extras

Questions about gardens in Surbiton

How much does garden design and landscaping cost in Surbiton?

Garden design: £1,500 to £2,000 for a small garden, £2,000 to £3,000 for a medium garden, and from £3,000 for a large one. A planting scheme on its own starts at £495. Building: small makeovers from about £8,000, most garden builds £15,000 to £45,000, and larger gardens £45,000 and up. Maintenance: from £100 a visit for a small garden and from £170 for a medium one. All prices are plus VAT and fixed in a written quotation after a free site visit. See our garden design fees for what a design includes.

Is the site visit free?

Yes. The first visit is free and without obligation. We walk the garden with you, then send a written quotation or a design fee proposal.

Who designs and builds the garden?

Eli, our in-house garden designer, draws the plans and Craig Davis oversees every design. Our own team builds it. Hard landscaping is never subcontracted.

How do you deal with Surbiton’s clay soil?

Most of Surbiton is on London Clay. We lay patios on a full MOT Type 1 sub-base with falls and drainage, improve beds with composted green waste, and plant what copes with clay, such as Hydrangea paniculata, Amelanchier lamarckii and Salvia nemorosa. More on improving clay soil.

Are you accredited and insured?

Yes. Flourish Landscaping is APL accredited, TrustMark registered, Surrey Trading Standards Approved, a member of The Gardeners Guild and the HTA, and fully insured.

Areas we cover near Surbiton

As well as Surbiton, we regularly work in Berrylands, Kingston, New Malden, Richmond, Worcester Park, Thames Ditton, Hinchley Wood and Claygate, as well as neighbouring Tolworth and Long Ditton. If your address falls just outside these areas, please do still get in touch.

Discuss your Surbiton garden

If you are considering a new garden, structural landscaping works or ongoing maintenance in Surbiton, we will visit, walk the site and talk through what you want. The first visit is free and without obligation, and you get clear guidance on what will work for your garden, your budget and your timescale.

Book a free site visit or email us photos of your garden with your postcode and a line on what you would like.