A finished Elder and Stone garden with a stone pathway, clipped hedges and structured planting
BESPOKE GARDEN DESIGN & BUILD · COTSWOLDS & HOME COUNTIES

Your garden,
properly considered.

We design, build and plant gardens for people who actually want to live outside — not just glance at a lawn from the kitchen window. One team, start to finish: consultation, design, build, planting, aftercare.

A real Elder & Stone project, Burford — not a stock photo
14Years Designing Gardens
160+Gardens Completed
1Team, Start To Finish
12moAftercare Included
Elder and Stone's build team working on a garden renovation, pushing a wheelbarrow across the site
Est. 2011 · Cotswolds
ABOUT ELDER & STONE

Gardens should earn their keep, not just look nice in photos.

Elder & Stone started because too many "finished" gardens turn out to be beautiful for about six weeks — then the planting fails, the patio pools with water, or nobody actually goes out there. We build gardens people use every week, in every season, for years.

We're a small, deliberately un-scaled studio: one design team, one build team, no subcontracting your project out to whoever's free. The person who draws your garden is the person who's there when it's being built, and the same team comes back to check on it once it's growing in.

We work across the Cotswolds and the wider Home Counties, on everything from a single overgrown border to a full plot redesign around a new build.

Alice ThorneFounder & Lead Designer
HOW WE WORK

Five stages. One team all the way through.

No design-only churn, no unmanaged subcontractors on-site. The team that plans your garden is the team accountable for building it.

01·

Consult

An on-site visit — how you actually use the space, budget, timeline, what's not working now.

02·

Design

Full concept, planting plan and material palette — revised until it's exactly right, before anything's dug.

03·

Build

Groundwork, hard landscaping and structures — our own build team, never handed off to a stranger.

04·

Plant

Full planting to the approved plan, in the right season and the right conditions for it to actually thrive.

05·

Aftercare

Twelve months of maintenance visits included, so everything establishes the way it was designed to.

OUR WORK

A few recent gardens.

Real projects, real conditions — small courtyards, cottage borders and full plot redesigns.

Start Your Project
A designed garden path with stone wall and clipped hedges, Burford
FULL REDESIGN · BURFORD

Garden Room & Pathway

An aerial view of a contemporary wooden deck with outdoor furniture, Cheltenham
HARD LANDSCAPING · CHELTENHAM

Contemporary Courtyard

A stone path winding through a lush flower border, Stow-on-the-Wold
BORDERS & PLANTING · STOW-ON-THE-WOLD

Cottage Border Restoration

Detail of hand planting in a prepared garden bed, Chipping Norton
FULL REDESIGN · CHIPPING NORTON

New-Build Plot, Year One

WHAT WE DO

Four ways to work with us.

From a single border to a full plot — pick the scope that matches what your garden actually needs right now.

Full Garden Redesign

Start from scratch — whole-plot design and build, for a garden that isn't working at all.

Enquire

Borders & Planting

New planting plans and softscaping for a layout you're keeping — the part most people get wrong.

Enquire

Hard Landscaping & Patios

Paths, patios, walling and structures — built by our own team, not a rotating cast of subcontractors.

Enquire

Maintenance & Aftercare

Ongoing seasonal care so a finished garden stays finished, long after the first year's included visits end.

Enquire
WHAT CLIENTS SAY

Demo testimonials — illustrative only.

Elder & Stone is a concept build used to show our website process; these quotes are written examples, not real client reviews.

They actually asked how we use the garden before drawing anything. Eighteen months on, the planting's still doing exactly what it was meant to.

R H
Rachel H.Chipping Norton

One team the whole way through made a real difference — no chasing a designer and a separate builder who'd never spoken to each other.

D M
David M.Burford

Our border had failed twice before with two other companies. Elder & Stone's the first one who explained why, in plain terms, before replanting it.

S P
Sarah P.Stow-on-the-Wold
GET STARTED

Book a design consultation.

An on-site visit to talk through your garden, budget and timeline — no obligation, and it's the same person who'd go on to design it.

  • No-obligation on-site visit
  • Fixed design fee, agreed up front
  • Cotswolds & Home Counties coverage

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