We don't just design gardens and planting schemes. We also source specimen and special plants for our clients including things like nice topiary pieces and pleached hornbeams. If you are looked for the extra special feature plant like a mature, knarly olive tree or a 6ft tree fern then we can very easily source and supply these direct to your door. We are also very good at finding matching pairs of topiary, large size topiary and reasonably priced pleached hornbeam hedges. Call or email us with your requirements and we'll do our best to find just the right plant for you.

During the past year I have been designing gardens all over Northamptonshire with a diverse range of styles from Italianate, contemporary, traditional, country garden style right through to oriental. I have covered all four corners of the county, as you can imagine the design brief for these designs have been truly diverse. Not all of the gardens have been built yet with many still awaiting contractors to finally arrive on site.

The preparations for this years show garden for the 'Azores Tourist Board' are almost complete and the countdown to show week is about to commence! After scouring the country far and wide for exotic plants, native to the sub tropical Azorean islands, I have at last found the very last plant for the garden and I am now looking forward with anticipation to meeting the contractors, show staff and other exhibitors, and finally cracking on the with the build. Fingers crossed the weather improves and all goes well.

After designing the charming 'Artisan Garden' for Fever Tree last year at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, this year I have been asked to design an exotic sub-tropical extravaganza for The Azorean Tourist Board. The Azorean Garden is about to be built at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. These are both very different show gardens for two very different clients. It is always very exciting to work on this type of project and I feel very priveliged to be exhibiting gardens at the RHS shows. A few years ago I was fortunate enough to win a Gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show, so I will be keeping my fingers crossed that all goes according to schedule with this years garden and the judges like the way I have designed the garden.

Over the past few years I have been providing groups and horticultural societies with enjoyable talks, these are based on my experiences of designing and building show gardens including the trials and tribulations on the way. I provide a colour Power Point presentation full of photographs and designs, I recall many annecdotes and stories, sometimes humerous. The talk starts with how I was accepted to build my very first show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, goes through nine show gardens and finishes with my latest project. I am registered with the RHS as a garden speaker.

For Classic, Contemporary, Traditional & Formal Garden Designs in Bedfordshire Contact Stephen Hall Design Ltd.

Over the course of the past year we have been busy designing gardens for clients in the local area and have undertaken many commissions from clients located in the Bedfordshire villages not far from the office. The rural setting of Bedfordshire has called for the use of some very nice traditional and reclaimed materials. In each of the garden designs, the style has been in keeping both with the villages and the surrounding countryside. Garden designs have been completed for clients in Keysoe, Upper and Lower Dean, Kimbolton, Great Staughton, Tilbrook and Bromham.

Leicestershire has proved to be a very productive county this year with many varied design projects coming my way. Some of them have been very large gardens indeed overlooking countryside whilst others are of a more sensible size placed in a town or village, these have ranged from mature gardens requiring a makeover and a refresh to new build houses with nothing more than just a lawn. In both instances I am always happy to offer advice to provide the best solution for the garden.

My top 10 garden design tips for 2012:

It is only a short drive down the A1 to London and particularly Hampstead Heath which is reached from home in an hour and a quarter, in fact I drove down to Chelsea Flower Show each day last year in an hour and three quarters. If you are based in Greater London or near the city or south of the river Thames I can reach you by either by car or train. I have completed several design projects in and around London and look forward to many more so if you are looking for a traditional or contemporary garden design I would be pleased to hear from you.

With so many herbaceous plants to choose from my favorite herbaceous plant does change from time to time, but a particular plant I keep going back to and use on a regular basis is Anthemis tinctoria E.C. Buxton, it is a very good garden performer and produces masses of pale creamy-yellow daisy like flowers on thin stiff stems above a neat low mound of ferny green leaves that bring cheer to the late summer border, Anthemis tolerates dry soils and prefers a sunny spot. Anthemis flowers from late May until the frosts and grows to a height of 50cm.  It is invaluable in the garden or picked for floral arrangements.

Hornbeam has long been used as classic hedging plant and I have recently designed a project featuring a backdrop of beautiful pleached hornbeams. Pleached trees will provide a hedge that sits above head height on clear stems this allows the designer to screen unwanted views in the landscape, or will define or frame a space without closing down the garden whilst providing privacy, at the same time allowing enough light through the canopy for under planting in the border. They immediately provide good planting structure to a garden and should you wish they can be used effectively in both traditional and contemporary gardens.