Garden design in York
York landscape and garden designers
We are a design studio of award-winning landscape and garden designers based in York - offering garden design in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, County Durham as well as across the UK and Internationally.
It is our mission to inspire homeowners to reconnect with their outdoor space, by creating the perfect garden for them to enjoy - whether that is somewhere to just relax, somewhere to entertain (as an outdoor extension of indoor living), or simply to create a contemplative space within the heart of the city.
With all our new design commissions we ensure that we can make a difference in both the development of the overall landscape (and its wildlife) and in using our design expertise and creativity to design a truly impressive York garden.
We are landscape and garden design experts in:
assessing your garden’s opportunities and limitations
visualising your garden’s potential in 3D
turning possibilities into 2D plans and plans into reality
designing with consideration for the development of plants over time, changing and growing through the seasons and years
We will work alongside you all the way from the initial soil survey through to the various stages of the design and build of your new garden; ensuring that the design meets your requirements and that the completed garden does too.
We create contemporary gardens, where people and wildlife co-exist
Your local York garden designers
Matthew, Creative Director at Haddon Studio, lives in York and has many years of experience when it comes to what plants will work well in a York garden. This expertise is combined with Haddon Studio’s technical and creative flair in the Masterplanning and technical detailing required to create a truly amazing garden. Matthew is also one of only around 200 garden designers in the UK to be a Registered Member of the Society of Garden Designers (having passed their gruelling accreditation process) and Haddon Studio is a Society of Garden Designers Registered Design Practice.
With local knowledge and experience second to none, combined with our industry accreditations, our York garden designers are here to help you to create a truly amazing garden design in York or its surrounding villages.
Examples of our garden designs include:
York garden style
There is no specific, overarching style of garden design associated with York and its gardens are as varied as its inhabitants. However, the gardens of York tend to fall into one of two high-level categories (although not exclusively so). These are either urban gardens set against the backdrop of the buildings of the city itself (with the skyline dominated by the Minster and its thousands of years of history) or they are country gardens set in the idyllic countryside of York suburbs and of the wider Vale of York.
We have many years of experience creating gardens in and around York which means we understand the needs and wants of our York garden design clients.
There are also some stunning gardens in and around York which may provide some inspiration if you are unsure on what you would like your garden to look like - from the Museum Gardens in the city centre, to private residential gardens (open occasionally under the National Open Gardens Scheme), to Castle Howard in the Howardian Hills, and the contemporary walled gardens of Scampston Hall. Whatever inspires you though, we will work together to create a garden design that works within the context of your house and its location to utilise the opportunities of your site and account for any limitations it may have.
Unique conditions in York gardens
Nestled in the Vale of York, and benefitting from the urban heat island effect in the city itself, York gardens are each unique because of the soil on which they rest and their climate, which affects your choices when considering which plants to grow in your York garden.
York and its surrounding countryside generally rests on acidic soil - with alkaline soils present further to the east and west of the city. This opens up a wide range of planting opportunities but plant selection should also be made with care. Alkaline loving plants such as Hebes and Lilacs may look amazing but unless grown in a pot they will fail to thrive when planted in much of the York area. That is why we always undertake a soil pH test when we start working on a new garden design. It is sad that many clients believe they are not green-fingered when in fact they’ve simply tried to grow the wrong plant in the wrong place.
In a garden context there are a number of opportunities offered with plants that prefer (or actively require) acidic soil conditions. These include well known plant genus such as Rhododendron, Azalea, and Camellia to some less commonly seen plants - such as Pieris, most varieties of Magnolia, and blueberries.
Dividing rivers and effects of soil
The soil in and around York tends towards being made up of loam in the main (which is good for growing) and many areas have a clay subsoil (which is also great for providing nutrients to grow a wide range of plants). However along the river floodplains, and to the north and east of the city, sandy soils are more common in areas that also have a high water table. Further west, Harrogate has similar soils to York whilst, heading further east, Beverley and East Yorkshire have mostly clay based alkaline soils.
How damp the soil will be also needs to be accounted for when selecting plants (and locating built features). The Rivers Ouse and Foss dominate the city itself but others such as the River Wharfe and the River Derwent can have a huge impact within the gardens in York’s surrounding villages. Planting in these situations has to be a lot more carefully considered as the roots of trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials may be inundated for parts of the year.
Choosing hardy planting and shrubs for York gardens
York’s climate is a little more sheltered than some parts of Yorkshire. However most of northern England, barring the highest points and those with a more maritime climate, is classed (in terms of plant hardiness) as being an H5 area (which is based on the RHS’s Hardiness Ratings for plants - or somewhere around an 8a area using the older USDA rating). This sounds confusing if you’re not a professional but knowing how hardy a plant needs to be to survive outside allows you to select plants that will over-winter in your garden. For York gardens you therefore need to select hardy trees, shrubs, and perennials that will survive winter temperatures down to -15 degrees centigrade. If you are using the Hardiness Ratings to select plants you should choose plants with a rating H5, H6 or H7 to ensure their survival…H4 plants may survive a milder winter in your garden but plants with a rating of H3 or less will need a greenhouse to survive.
