Gardening & Design

Horse River Green is named after the sward that sits in front of our house in Great Chesterford and runs down to the Cam. The green, in the centre of the village, sometimes provides a place for contemplation and thought, sometimes a place for children from the primary academy to play after school, for people to walk dogs and for others to see the tiny trout rise or watch for the kingfisher, egret or otters that live there. To us it represents much of what an outdoor space should and can be, and it’s this that inspires us. 

It is a family affair. My wife and I started the company in 2024, after decades of developing and tending our own gardens. This has always been a labour of love for us.

We are local, working in Essex, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. We know the area, and the climate; we know what works and what doesn’t. We know the best place to get the big boulders or the specialist fruit trees. And we believe we can help you get the very best from your garden. 

Our Services

GARDEN DESIGN 

Your garden is an extension of your home and your life. It should work for you – creating outdoor living spaces in which to entertain and play – but it should also make you happy to be in it. A place of peace and contemplation, of beauty, of laughter, of food and wine, of play, of friends and family. Your garden space should welcome you and encourage you to enter. It should reflect your personality throughout the changing seasons.  

To achieve that we work together to truly understand you and what you want from the garden. And we provide a complete development of that space – not only hard landscaping and planting but also lighting and even sculpture.

You should understand how this is all going to work and what all this is going to cost, so while every garden is unique, a typical design process will likely follow these steps. 

THE PROCESS 

Step 1: Initial consultation 

Every garden design project starts with an initial consultation and site visit. It’s an opportunity for us to get to know each other and discuss your aspirations for your garden. Of course, there is no cost or obligation. 

Step 2: Engagement 

If you’d like us to proceed, we’ll work with you to develop a ‘client brief’, understanding and outlining the main ideas and features of the garden, your aspirations, functional and aesthetic requirements. The engagement fee is £500. 

Step 3: Site Survey and analysis 

Here we aim to understand the space, in relation to the house, to its surroundings, the sun and the ‘borrowed landscape’. Depending on the size of the site we may commission a topographical survey.  

Step 4: Outline garden designs 

Informed by everything we see and discuss, we develop an outline design proposal with sketches, plans, materials and planting palettes. 

Step 5: Final plan 

Once you’re happy with the outline designs, we’ll produce a final landscape plan which captures the agreed layout of your garden, and details of hard landscaping, materials and planting plans.  

Step 6: Finding the right contractor 

We work closely with an experienced team who produce highest quality work. They are great to have on site and fully fuelled on a couple of cups of coffee a day! We recommend them wholeheartedly. However, we can also coordinate a tendering process to make sure you are completely comfortable with the contractors brought in 

Step 7: Garden build 

We will oversee the garden construction throughout the process, making sure everything goes smoothly and the work is done to the highest standards. We are also there to handle the, sadly inevitable, little problems that emerge and resolve them smoothly. 

Steps 3 to 7 are included in our final design fee, which is based on a percentage of the finished project cost: 

1. The first £10,000 at 20% fee 
2. The next £10,001 to £50,000 at 15% fee 
3. Everything above £50,001 at 10% fee 

Step 8: Aftercare 

Your new garden is a living thing, subject to the elements and seasons. If you’d like to enjoy the experience of caring for your garden we’ll leave you with advice and aftercare instructions. Alternatively, if you’d like us to do that, you can engage us with a monthly maintenance contract or ad hoc visits. 

GARDEN CARE 

We love gardens and gardening. We hope to encourage you to feel the same way and we will work with you in whatever way makes sense for you. If you prefer to leave all the work to us then we can schedule regular visits under a maintenance contract. If you’d like to work with us then we can arrange ad hoc visits as necessary. And if you’d like to do it all yourself with perhaps a little advice along the way then we might come by as the seasons change to help guide your work or appear at your call if something challenging crops up. 

TREE SURGERY, FENCING, HARD LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE and LAWN CARE 

We know what we know. And if we don’t, then we know people who do!  We work with local teams who provide excellent specialist services. Obviously we use these people when we build your garden, but we’re happy to put you in touch with them separately if you need them.