Joe Perkins Design

Dead hedges are something we incorporate into many of our projects.
Built from branches, prunings and other woody material generated on site, they allow us to reuse what is already there rather than removing it and bringing in something new.
They can create boundaries and screening while providing valuable habitat for insects, birds and small mammals as the material slowly breaks down. And, when considered as part of the wider design, they can be beautiful structures in their own right.
The examples here are from two very different projects. In images 1 & 2 the dead hedge forms a relatively small part of the garden. In images 3 & 4, the dead hedge runs for well over 100 metres along the boundary. Swipe to the video at the end to see one very long dead hedge!
For us, it’s a simple example of a principle we try to apply throughout our work: use what the landscape already gives us wherever we can.

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ABOUT: Joe Perkins Design is a multi-award-winning landscape design consultancy, creating innovative outdoor spaces that celebrate the environment, wildlife, and biodiversity. Working across the UK and internationally, we partner with clients who share our passion for sustainable and visionary design. Discover more about our work at: www.joeperkinsdesign.com

Despite the long dry spell, grasses have been looking particularly good for ages! They bring movement, texture and structure to the planting, and they need relatively little water once established. Their value goes far beyond how they look.
Ornamental grasses can help create planting that is better suited to dry conditions, while providing cover and habitat for insects and other wildlife. Left standing through autumn and winter, their stems and seed heads continue to earn their place long after the main growing season is over.
And perhaps most importantly, they show that drought-tolerant planting doesn’t have to feel sparse or compromised. It can still be soft, generous and beautiful.

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ABOUT: Joe Perkins Design is a multi-award-winning landscape design consultancy, creating innovative outdoor spaces that celebrate the environment, wildlife, and biodiversity. Working across the UK and internationally, we partner with clients who share our passion for sustainable and visionary design. Discover more about our work at: www.joeperkinsdesign.com

What does sustainable garden design actually mean?
For us, it starts with the landscape itself.
Understanding what is already there – the soil, topography, water, existing trees and vegetation, ecology and character of a place, and working with those conditions rather than imposing a design upon them.
It means retaining and reusing what we can. Keeping water within the landscape. Reducing unnecessary hard landscaping. Choosing materials carefully. Creating diverse habitats and planting for the conditions of a site, while thinking about how those conditions may change in the future.
It also means considering the long term: how a garden will establish, evolve and be maintained, and the resources it will need along the way.
Sustainable design isn’t one particular style or aesthetic. It’s an approach to how we design and the decisions we make.
The aim is simple: beautiful gardens that belong to their landscape and are designed for the future.
Planning a garden or landscape project? We’d love to hear about it.

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ABOUT: Joe Perkins Design is a multi-award-winning landscape design consultancy, creating innovative outdoor spaces that celebrate the environment, wildlife, and biodiversity. Working across the UK and internationally, we partner with clients who share our passion for sustainable and visionary design. Discover more about our work at: www.joeperkinsdesign.com

Work has started on one of our largest Sussex projects, in collaboration with Architects Gould Baxter
Major earthworks are now underway ahead of construction of the house and landscape. We’re reshaping the topography to slow and retain water across the site through a series of swales and ponds, alongside extensive new areas of native hedgerow, trees and wildflower meadow to restore and enhance the site’s ecology and biodiversity.
It’s a significant transformation, and an incredible project to see beginning to take shape.
Swipe to see where we’re heading.

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ABOUT: Joe Perkins Design is a multi-award-winning landscape design consultancy, creating innovative outdoor spaces that celebrate the environment, wildlife, and biodiversity. Working across the UK and internationally, we partner with clients who share our passion for sustainable and visionary design. Discover more about our work at: www.joeperkinsdesign.com

An update from our Surrey Hills project.
With planning now secured for the house, we’re preparing the landscape proposals for planning.
Set within the Surrey Hills AONB, the garden has been designed in response to its setting , working with the existing topography, long views and surrounding landscape.
Wildflower meadows, generous planting and a pool sit within a scheme designed to feel part of the landscape rather than imposed upon it.

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ABOUT: Joe Perkins Design is a multi-award-winning landscape design consultancy, creating innovative outdoor spaces that celebrate the environment, wildlife, and biodiversity. Working across the UK and internationally, we partner with clients who share our passion for sustainable and visionary design. Discover more about our work at: www.joeperkinsdesign.com

Our coastal wildlife garden, two growing seasons in. Wind, salt and heavy clay, but it’s already thriving.
Planted and maintained by the brilliant B N 1 P L A N T I N G and stall.gardens without them, it wouldn’t be what it is today.
Full story on the Journal, link in bio 🔗

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ABOUT: Joe Perkins Design is a multi-award-winning landscape design consultancy, creating innovative outdoor spaces that celebrate the environment, wildlife, and biodiversity. Working across the UK and internationally, we partner with clients who share our passion for sustainable and visionary design. Discover more about our work at: www.joeperkinsdesign.com

A perennial meadow around the front entrance of our Sussex Farmhouse project.

Tall prairie perennials are interspersed throughout drifts of deciduous and evergreen grasses to ensure pops of bright colour can be enjoyed from the new patio during the warmer months. A wide variety of herbaceous perennials increase the biodiversity of the meadow, and provide an abundance of nectar plants for pollinators.

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ABOUT: Joe Perkins Design is a multi-award-winning landscape design consultancy, creating innovative outdoor spaces that celebrate the environment, wildlife, and biodiversity. Working across the UK and internationally, we partner with clients who share our passion for sustainable and visionary design. Discover more about our work at: www.joeperkinsdesign.com