Studio Hummingbird -Designing Gardens to Inspire

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Studio Hummingbird -Designing Gardens to Inspire Garden design in Sussex

Studio Hummingbird is a bespoke garden design studio based in Worthing, West Sussex. www.studiohummingbird.com

Victoria Rumens designs beautiful, personal gardens across Sussex, Brighton, Chichester, Horsham and the surrounding areas.

Grey skies, a pot of tea, and nowhere particular to be. Rather the perfect excuse for a little garden daydreaming. I've ...
16/10/2026

Grey skies, a pot of tea, and nowhere particular to be. Rather the perfect excuse for a little garden daydreaming.

I've put together a short garden style quiz for exactly this sort of day. Are you a cottage garden romantic, a clean-lines minimalist, or someone who secretly just wants a very nice bench and a view? A few minutes, a few gentle questions, and you'll discover the style your garden has been hinting at all along.

No marks out of ten, no homework, and nobody will ask whether you've been deadheading.

Pop the kettle on and take the quiz here: https://studiohummingbird.com/garden-style-quiz/

Studio Hummingbird | Designing Gardens to Inspire | www.studiohummingbird.com

"How do you make plants look good together?"A lot of clients ask me this question, and the answer is simpler than people...
14/10/2026

"How do you make plants look good together?"

A lot of clients ask me this question, and the answer is simpler than people expect. Contrast and repetition.

Contrast in form: something spiky next to something flat. A see-through plant like *Verbena bonariensis* in front of something solid like clipped box. The eye needs a difference to notice either one.

Repetition in colour: pick two or three tones and thread them the whole way along.

In a full garden design, that repetition runs through every border, so a large garden reads as one place rather than a collection of beds.

Three October combinations I keep coming back to:

1. *Miscanthus* 'Morning Light' + *Sedum* 'Autumn Joy' + *Aster* 'Little Carlow'
2. *Rudbeckia* 'Goldsturm' + *Persicaria* 'Firetail' + *Molinia* 'Transparent'
3. *Anemone* 'Honorine Jobert' + *Hakonechloa macra* + *Hydrangea* 'Annabelle'

Which one would you try? Tell me below.

If you'd love a hand with your own garden, a Discovery Call is a relaxed first chat:
studiohummingbird.com/book-a-call

Studio Hummingbird | Designing Gardens to Inspire
www.studiohummingbird.com | [email protected]

"Something nice”.These are the answers I hear most when I ask what someone wants from their garden. And honestly, it’s a...
14/10/2026

"Something nice”.

These are the answers I hear most when I ask what someone wants from their garden. And honestly, it’s a fair place to start.

The trouble is that "nice" looks very different on a clean-lined terrace in Ferring than it does in a cottage garden in Worthing.

So I’ve made something to help you put words to it.

The Garden Style Quiz is six questions, all pictures, about two minutes. You choose the planting you keep looking at, the materials you’d run a hand along, the mood you’d like to step into.

At the end you’ll have your style: Wild & Natural, Contemporary Calm, Romantic Cottage or The Kitchen Garden. Then I’ll email you gardens I’ve designed in that style, so you can see it built rather than imagined.

Take the quiz here:
studiohummingbird.com/garden-style-quiz

Which do you think you’ll get? Tell me in the comments before you start.

Studio Hummingbird | Designing Gardens to Inspire
www.studiohummingbird.com | [email protected]

"How long does a garden design actually take?" It's the question I'm asked most, so here's the honest timeline:October —...
13/10/2026

"How long does a garden design actually take?" It's the question I'm asked most, so here's the honest timeline:

October — first chat and site survey
November — concept design, the big ideas
Dec–Jan — detailed design, planting plans, costings
Feb–Mar — landscaper booked, materials ordered
Spring — the build

And then you get the entire summer in your new garden.

An autumn start gives every stage room to breathe, and you're guided through each one. Save this if a new garden is on your list for next year or book a call: https://studiohummingbird.com/book-a-call/

Studio Hummingbird | Designing Gardens to Inspire
www.studiohummingbird.com | [email protected]

A little secret from inside the industry: the gardens that get built in spring are being designed right now.Design takes...
12/10/2026

A little secret from inside the industry: the gardens that get built in spring are being designed right now.

Design takes a few months to do properly — getting to know you, surveying, concept, planting plans, costings. Landscapers book up months ahead for spring.

So the couples who'll be enjoying a brand-new garden next June? They're the ones having the first conversation this autumn, with a cup of tea and plenty of time to get every detail right.

If a whole new garden is on your list for 2027, autumn is the perfect time to start the conversation. ☕

Studio Hummingbird | Designing Gardens to Inspire
www.studiohummingbird.com | [email protected]

Settle a debate for me: tulips or daffodils?Daffodils come back every year and ask for nothing. Tulips are pure glamour ...
10/10/2026

Settle a debate for me: tulips or daffodils?

Daffodils come back every year and ask for nothing. Tulips are pure glamour and, for most of the tall hybrids, a one-season affair — the bulb splits into offsets that take years to flower again, if they ever do.

In my own garden the daffodils win on loyalty. But nothing in April beats a bed of dark tulips against a white wall, so I plant them anyway and pretend not to notice the following year.

Which side are you on? I'd love to know — vote below.

If you want tulips that actually return, ask me about Darwin Hybrids and the species tulips — or book a Discovery Call:
studiohummingbird.com/book-a-call

Studio Hummingbird | Designing Gardens to Inspire
www.studiohummingbird.com | [email protected]

Most people can tell me exactly what they don’t want in a garden. Far fewer can name what they do. ‘Something nice’, ‘a...
09/10/2026

Most people can tell me exactly what they don’t want in a garden. Far fewer can name what they do. ‘Something nice’, ‘a bit more colour’ is the answer here most and honestly it’s a fair start so I made a quiz to help you put a name to it. Six questions, all pictures, about two minutes. Wild and natural, contemporary calm, romantic cottage, all the kitchen garden? Which one are you? Your result comes by email with gardens I’ve designed in your style. Take the garden style quiz here: https://studiohummingbird.com/garden-style-quiz/

Studio Hummingbird | Designing Gardens to Inspire | www.studiohummingbird.com

A garden designed for October, not July.Most gardens are planned for summer. Understandable — but it leaves the other ei...
09/10/2026

A garden designed for October, not July.

Most gardens are planned for summer. Understandable — but it leaves the other eight months as an afterthought.

This one was planned with autumn as the headline act. The trick is in the grasses: *Stipa* and *Miscanthus* look ordinary in June and extraordinary in October, because the sun drops low enough to shine *through* the seed heads rather than onto them. Put them where the evening light can get behind them and they do the rest.

Add the late perennials — sedums, Japanese anemones, asters — and enough evergreen structure to hold the picture when they've gone, and the garden earns its keep all year.

Planning a whole-garden transformation? Ask to see how the design will look in October, not just in July.

If your garden has nothing left to say after August, that's a design question — book a Discovery Call:
studiohummingbird.com/book-a-call

Studio Hummingbird | Designing Gardens to Inspire
www.studiohummingbird.com | [email protected]

"The result is a little piece of paradise that has transformed my day-to-day life hugely."Finola's new home came with ro...
08/10/2026

"The result is a little piece of paradise that has transformed my day-to-day life hugely."

Finola's new home came with rotten decking, artificial grass and not a single plant. This wasn't a tidy-up. It was a new garden from the ground up.

She knew what she liked and what she didn't. We built the design around that, and I guided it every step of the way, from concept to the final planting.

Here is what Finola wrote, word for word:

"Our back garden in our newish home was absolutely awful: rotten decking, artificial grass, and no plants. Having created a new garden in our last home I had some ideas about what I wanted and what I didn't. Victoria listened to all that and worked with my ideas, but also added lots of her own suggestions that I wouldn't have thought about. She helped and guided every step of the way, from concept design to final planting. The result is a little piece of paradise that has transformed my day-to-day life hugely. I love looking at and being in the space, watching it transform and bloom. None of that would have been possible without Victoria's help. I highly recommend her."
Finola, Google review

If you'd love someone beside you at every stage, a Discovery Call is a relaxed first chat:
studiohummingbird.com/book-a-call

Studio Hummingbird | Designing Gardens to Inspire
www.studiohummingbird.com | [email protected]

07/10/2026

We had a tiny bit of rain, hadn’t we?
Now is the time to think of collecting water again and get a water butt in. In this video we check out where to position a water butt ideally.

Did you know that one single shed roof can collect 36 litres from a decent rain shower and 2,800 litres over a year. That’s roughly 14 water butts. Not bad. Don’t buy 14 water butts though.

Studio Hummingbird | Designing Gardens to Inspire
www.studiohummingbird.com | [email protected]

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