Tree planting. What a pleasure it is to plant trees for a job. There a Chinese proverb that the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago. The second-best time to plant a tree is now; so let us get cracking. We specialise in planting semi mature and specimen trees. Which can help to make up for not having planted them 30 years ago. Tree Selection The first thing to evaluate when choosing which trees to plant is where the trees are to be planted is the soil type – Clay, Loam, Sandy soil or what we have around here in The Cotswolds; a thin layer of topsoil over Cotswold Brash. For those no ..read more

Because we are so proud of our what we do, we had this video commissioned of our landscaping work at Yelford Manor in the Cotswolds. Enjoy the summer breeze blowing through the site. There are some beautiful shots of peak flowering throughout this video and wonderful cameos from the insects. Be sure to watch it all! Be sure to keep up to date with all the latest blog posts from Emotive Landscapes. Alternatively, view our homepage, find out more about our working process, view our portfolio, or simply find out more about us. Do you have a similar project you’d like us to wor ..read more

After finishing my training at RHS Wisley nearly 5 years ago, gulp, I spent some time working in rural Holland as described in other places on this site. One afternoon while busy working in the Nursery, a lovely but out of place Yorkshire lilt was audible across the beds. I said hello and spent a delightful few hours speaking with Stephen and Kim of Dove Cottage Nurseries. In short, they run a beautiful garden and nursery near Huddersfield in the naturalised style popularised by Oudolf and were travelling around Holland and west Germany to see the concentration of gardens and nurseries who w ..read more

It’s no secret, we like to do things a certain way. We are proud of the techniques and methodologies we have developed to get the quality of finish and longevity of build with aim for in our projects. When reviewing our build processes recently we found that our very experienced and skilled workers all did things in a slightly different way and this knowledge of how to build things was passed orally from colleague to colleague. Like stories round the camp fire. This has its advantage but also its disadvantages. So, we set about to try and capture the best bits of each approach to standardi ..read more

We were recently instructed to design the external space and ‘garden’ for a new design-led woodland barn. The client’s brief was creativity with a touch of the ethereal. The design process first thought about how to generate ideas that extended the viewer’s experience outside of the plot. We refer to this as the macro part of the design. We settled on the idea of a wall picking up on the local Cotswold vernacular which was intended to indicate a relic from a previous use of the land. The gentle curve indicating a full circle and a wider context. The micro view concentrates on design detail ..read more

One of the biggest misconceptions in our area of work, is people assuming that building a house is the same as building a garden. In reality, these are two entirely different crafts and we would be the first to acknowledge that we do not have the expertise to build a house (well)! There are certainly transferable skills between both practices, however, to get that 5 star result we think specialists deliver the better results. It may seem easier to use a team of builders if they are already deployed however, we believe what may initially seem like an easier often turns into a false economy. I ..read more

As detailed on this website. We consulted on and installed this scheme in the below. This scheme won the GLOBAL LANDSCAPING & OUTDOOR SPACES 2019 award after winning the European award earlier this year. Ahead awards are organised through the Sleeper Magazine. Be sure to keep up to date with all the latest blog posts from Emotive Landscapes. Alternatively, view our homepage, find out more about our working process, view our portfolio, or simply find out more about us. Do you have a similar project you’d like us to work on? Please contact us. 07754 661 455 01242 863 861 ..read more

In 2013 Bas Smets rang me. “Can you meet me in London to look at this project?” We have worked with Bas Smets Bureau on a couple of projects and they have been small but very interesting. So I replied, “of course, let me know when and where”. Down the rabbit hole it was. We became involved in creating a Babylonian garden in central London for the 34 bedroomed ultra luxury boutique hotel in central London The Mandrake. The finished project can be viewed here in our Portfolio > Be sure to keep up to date with all the latest blog posts from Emotive Landscapes. Alternativ ..read more

Part of my extraordinary enjoyment in this work is the wonderful places it takes me. I have been lucky enough to see some not many do and that many would like to. A recent project has made a new entry into my top ten work places. We are implementing the first phase in what i hope will become a multi layered garden landscape built considerately over a few years. You can view the finished project in our portfolio > Be sure to keep up to date with all the latest blog posts from Emotive Landscapes. Alternatively, view our homepage, find out more about our working process ..read more

Winner! Last week I took part in the final of the regional Young Horticulturalist and WON! So now i get to take part in the Grand Final; in Norwich against the other finalists from all over Great Britain. The competition is open to anyone over under the age of 30 on July 31st of this year. There were 2000 applicants nationwide and 8, including me, are in the Grand final. The regional final took place at Pershore college and took form of a question directed or open, buzzer controlled, on a general range of horticultural subjects. There were also a couple of identification rounds, one plant id ..read more