Catherine Thomas Landscape & Garden Design Ltd

I am a keen gardener with a lot of experience in creating gardens, but my new garden required a good professional to get the best out of a small and difficult site. I choose Catherine Thomas from 3 candidates because she was able, on the first visit to offer imaginative ideas having taking into account all my requirements from the garden. Catherine produced excellent plans and after some amendments a budget was set. Three local Contractors were chosen and we selected one which we both felt we could work with. From the time work started Catherine was regularly on site and if changes needed to be made, because things did not go to plan, she work it out with the contractor immediately.. I now have a beautiful garden which gives me everything I wanted.

Moving into a newly built house, I was faced with a largely empty space surrounded by tall fences on three sides with just a large shed and a set of ugly, water trapping paving slabs as landscaping features. I was daunted by the design task until my sister suggested employing a garden designer. Considering which designer to choose, we remarked that we knew of one of Catherine's previous projects. Visiting this garden again, we were attracted by her flowing designs and sympathetic plant combinations so we contacted her in the Spring of 2016. Working with a garden designer for the first time, I greatly appreciated how straightforward every stage became with the help of Catherine's clear paperwork and collaborative approach. The design process became a dialogue which gradually shaped Catherine's clever final design for my garden that has made an excellent use of the plot; visually making it much wider than it is in reality. Catherine was then, able to use her wide professional knowledge to help me contact a superb hard landscaping company and skilled metal workers who have constructed an eye-catching pergola. I am now just waiting for the warmer weather to begin to follow Catherine's planting plan which I am sure will enhance the appearance of my new house and will be a joy to behold for many years.

We asked Catherine to design our garden 5 years ago. We had moved into the house the year before and transformed it but didn't know where to start with the garden. It was fairly large - a third of an acre, well established but very overgrown. We live within the New Forest and wanted to create a natural, informal garden. Catherine has these qualities herself and I instinctively felt she would know how to design what we wanted. She spent several hours with us getting to know us and our garden before putting pen to paper. Her designs were works of art and a pleasure to read. I still have them and refer to them frequently to remind myself what plants are where. We gave her free rein to chose the plants she felt would thrive in our garden and are delighted with the all year round colour throughout the garden. The garden feels natural, soft and romantic due to Catherine's expert knowledge and imagination. We have a wonderful variety of grasses which provide a range of height and soothing sounds all year round and architecture and interest in the depth of winter. She has incorporated water features, a wildflower area, plenty of wildlife friendly plants, a variety of seating areas and lots of places for our grandchildren to explore. We are delighted with our garden which has greatly enhanced our lives. Catherine kept to budget and to our timescale and was a pleasure to work with. We highly recommend her

Catherine completely redesigned our very tricky garden. We live on a sloping site and the garden had previously been very unsympathetically landscaped - harsh, ugly brick walls and no planting. Catherine's designs managed to transform what was a very ugly garden into a beautiful and softly landscaped space. The designs were absolutely gorgeous and exactly what we wanted. She produced a very specific client expectations document before she produced the designs, meaning that all of our requirements were met. Catherine also did a planting plan for us, which was also exactly how we wanted it. Catherine is very flexible and helped us to phase the work as well as working closely with us when we needed to reduce the scope of works to bring the work within budget. We used Catherine's recommended landscapers for the biggest section of work and they were brilliant. However, we decided to use alternative people for some of the smaller areas, including doing some of the work ourselves. Her drawings were fully understandable by everyone and she was very helpful in pointing us in the right direction when doing any of the work ourselves. Now that the work is virtually complete and much of the planting has been done, we couldn't be more thrilled with the results. We absolutely love the garden - spending time in it is relaxing and enjoyable, exactly as a garden should be. We have received many complements on the outcome and transformation of the garden. I would have no hesitation at all in recommending Catherine to anyone wanting to create a beautiful outdoor space of any size or shape.

Our city centre house had a small courtyard with grass, gravel and a steep flight of concrete steps. We only have one entrance and this was through the courtyard so it was particularly important that it looked attractive. We also had to take into account physical disability so the steps had to be made into a wheelchair friendly access. Our specification was required car parking, planting, pond and raised beds that could be maintained from wheelchair height. We interviewed three garden designers and selected Catherine Thomas because she was willing to work with us in a style that was very professional but also creative. She saw the project right through from design, managing contractors and planting. The measure of a good design is how it grows and ages with the property. We are now ten years on and there is maintenance needed to some areas of the courtyard hard landscaping and we are about to undergo some alterations affecting the front of our house. We are keeping Catherine Thomas's original design and adapting the extension to complement and continue to reflect the existing courtyard and we will be using her again for this work.

Catherine has provided a full design and landscaped patio garden for us - it was completed to a very high standard and has delighted us ever since - in a small space she has created different areas for different purposes and colour and scents all year round - not to mention our water feature !!! 5 stars - would definitely recommend to others