Sustainable London townhouse garden with a dining area framed by biodiversity-rich planting, edible herbs, flowering perennials, and raised beds.

Catriona Rowbotham is an experienced ex architect turned garden designer and course director at The English Gardening School bringing 30+ years of design and construction knowledge and problem solving experience to create uplifting outdoor escapes filled with soft and abundant planting.

  • Urban garden with drought-tolerant planting, edible herbs, and biodiversity-focused design for pollinators and sustainability.

    Narrow Sunny Greenwich Garden

  • Driveway garden design with Irish moss, sedum, and thyme planted between steel edging for a sustainable, space-efficient solution in a city setting.

    Herb-Filled Front Garden

  • Front garden without fencing, featuring ferns, Star Jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), and biodiversity-focused mixed planting for an urban home.

    No-Fence Front Garden

  • Townhouse front garden with naturalistic planting of Ammi majus, knautia, and Erigeron, plus potted herbs for biodiversity and sustainability.

    Victorian Townhouse Garden

  • 1960s Townhouse Garden

  • Sunny Roof Terrace

  • Triangular Town Garden

  • Shady Surburban Front Garden

  • Sunny front garden in Greenwich with mixed planting of Ammi majus, ornamental grasses, and Kniphofia for texture and seasonal colour

    Sunny Greenwich Front Garden

Services

  • For commercial and public organisations

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  • For homeowners

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Kind Words

  •  “Catriona understood that we wanted something sensory for our children and created just such an entrance of different smells, textures and visuals that combine so well together. The delight for us are the planters- so specifically created and so ‘Small Steps y’! The icing on the cake is the vibrant water feature that brings additional auditory delight and visuals too. Our children love the tinkling sound of the water. The surprise has been seeing how the planting has established. Catriona had the vision to know what would work well and how it would look. We appreciate it all - it is a joy”

    Anita Coppola MBE, Head of Small Steps

  • “The garden feels like it has always been there; there’s a sense of appropriateness, and with its newly defined areas there’s now a coherence as well as an ease to using the garden – whether that’s having a cup of tea, sunbathing or grabbing some herbs. Catriona’s knowledge of plants and flowers is invaluable – we wouldn’t have known what to put where. It is so good for our wellbeing just taking a moment to breathe out there. We’ve noticed a lot more birds in the garden, and of course our neighbouring squirrels!”

    Alex Petit, Victorian Townhouse Garden

  • We liked that Catriona presented layout options to us, then worked through our favourite option to come to a solution that worked for us. What then surprised me most when the garden was done was what a difference it made – everything feels calmer. We all use the garden a lot – the kids are out there all the time. The zoning works well – we like having a separate eating, sitting and play area and the washing line is now tucked away out of site. It means we use the whole garden now. Even though you can see the play area from the kitchen, the water feature works well to distract from it, it's all anyone coming to visit comments on, and at night we only light up the things we want to see. Our friend’s four year old looked out when she came round one evening and the lights were all on and told us it looked magical, which was very sweet!’’

    Rachel Lockhart, Triangular Town Garden

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