Tom Hill Garden Design

14/05/2025

22/02/2024

One of my favourite projects built in 2019.

05/02/2024

Artistic impression of an exterior dining space for a quaint 17th century pub in Dorset.
We will be breathing new life into what is currently a nondescript space with new hard landscaped elements, raised timber planters, galvanised metal furniture and a planting scheme which focuses on plants with textural interest.

02/02/2024

Im excited to be collaborating with to bring a rather unique water wall design to life.

The first photo is of the three dimensional clay model which I created to help communicate my design to Hylton and his team.

The design is intended to be as much a stunning piece of artwork as it is a water feature. The pattern will be hand crafted across 3 individual panels in various textured finishes to create an ebb and flow to the water as it runs over the surface.

The design is inspired by an image of the structure of plant stem from a great little book I own called ‘ An Atlas Of Plant Structure. It’s probably the book I most frequently use when researching ideas for gardens, as it is packed full of wonderful images of organic patterns and textures found in nature.
You will notice my design has evolved somewhat from the reference images (swipe left) but importantly it still retains enough of the organic composition I desired for the piece, albeit in a more stylised form.

The final photo is of the design before It was rotated and scaled up. Although this design has a closer connection to the reference images we felt the horizontal lines would create more interest as the water flows over them.

I will be sharing more on this as it develops

15/01/2024

A Mediterranean-style gravel garden with views over Dorset’s rolling hills

10/01/2024

Design sketches for the first project of the year.
This is a section of a larger garden which I have been working on for the last couple of years.

14/12/2023

Exceptional craftsmanship from on this intricate cobbled circle detail

Pitchers from
Paving from

07/12/2023

Throwback to a garden completed a couple of years ago.
Built by

The brief here was to create a Mediterranean style garden which evoked memories of my clients holidays in Italy and France.

To achieve the look, I selected a palette of materials which were warm in colour and characterful. For me, the most important element to get right was the stone selection, as this is probably the material most closely associated with Mediterranean gardens. After searching high and low for the right walling stone, I chose a beautifully textured stone from ,which was also used to form the rustic cobble path. Even the mortar for the pointing was considered, using grit rather than building sand, which was roughed up with a wire brush to add further character and give that aged appearance.
The walls were capped in a matching stone as opposed to using a traditional flat coping as I felt this could have ended up looking a bit too clean and sharp, resulting in a more modern aesthetic.
A smooth Jura limestone from was selected to complement the rustic walls and when combined with the cedar and millboard created a good balance between the rustic and modern elements in this garden.

23/11/2023

Steps, glorious steps.

My first thought when I visited this garden was, this is going to be a challenge!
The site sloped steeply in multiple directions and my client was looking to utilise all of the garden, even the areas which seemed inaccessible. I was keen to work with the topography of the site, which meant that I would have to include a large amount of steps in my design, all of which would need to offer something different from the other, whether it be material or form.

The Cor-ten steel steps which are almost sculptural in form are one of the main features in this garden and link the upper and lower tiers. Charred composite deck boards were used for the long run of steps from the upper garden down to the middle tier where it adjoins a hide and reveal formed concrete path with integrated steps. The layout of the path and positioning of the steps slows your journey through woodland planting before you arrive at the final set of steps down to the garden room. These are also formed with the charred deck board but this time they are staggered to form pockets for planting and areas to perch around a gas fire feature.

Here are some photos of the steps we created.