In Conversation With Rob Jones, Founder At The Garden Design Company Ltd

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Rob Jones is the esteemed founder of The Garden Design Company Ltd, a firm established in 1996 that uniquely offers both garden design and build services under one roof.

His journey in garden design and horticulture began at Pershore College of Horticulture in 1991, initiating a journey to create inspirational gardens across southern England.

Rob speaks to Mollie Brown about his career, how he believes soil is the backbone of any good garden and his plans for the future of The Garden Design Company.

Watch the full interview with Rob on YouTube here:

How did your love for gardening begin and how has it evolved over the years?

“In the late 1980s, I was a lawyer and I was specialising in medical crime but as a sideline, I was making up hanging baskets for sale,” Rob shares.

“I would drive up in my Golf GTI to New Covent Garden and load my car up with Busy Lizzies and Geraniums and then park in an underground car park in Old Covent Garden where my office was. I then changed into a suit and did a day’s work as a lawyer before driving home and then making up a hanging basket.

“I sold those through several small garden centres and nurseries and one of them then came up for sale in about 1990, but the figures didn’t add up. I thought my time would be better served if I actually went away to college and actually learned something about horticulture and garden design.

“So I decided to take a year out and went to Pershaw as a mature student and never really looked back.”

What was the pivotal moment that drove you to pursue garden design?

“In those days, I was commuting to London and then covering the rest of the country for the Doctor’s Defence Organisation,” he explains.

“Invariably, I would be commuting to London in the dark and then returning in the dark. It suddenly dawned on me on one of those horrible commuting days that I didn’t want to do that for another 40 years.

“The advantage of having qualified as a lawyer is that you could always go back to it. It’s probably a bit late now, but certainly, at the time, I thought I could go and dabble in garden design and horticulture with the hope of returning if I needed to.”

Can you tell us about setting up The Garden Design Company and the work you do there?

“Whilst at college, I saw an advert for a garden centre in Marlow in need of someone to set up a brand new design and build company for them. They gave me the job and so I did exactly that.

I learnt a lot very quickly in those four years, and on the 1st of May 1996, we established the Garden Design Company Limited. We wanted to offer a service that allowed people to find a designer and contractor all in one place.

We design and create gardens and also create relationships with our clients, so we rarely advertise and instead just work on repeat business and recommendations from private clients.”

describe your Garden design philosophy in just three words.

“Natural and sustainable,” says Rob.

Could you tell us a little bit about one of the most challenging projects you’ve ever worked on and how you overcame the challenges that came with it?

“This year was the first time we’ve ever entered the BALI Awards and we won in both of the categories we entered in, and they’re really looking for challenging projects.

“The first one was in Wimbledon and all the materials, the plants, the trees, the soil, the diggers and the dumpers all had to go through the client’s study. What we did was we built a tunnel of timber on the floor, on the walls and on the ceiling through this client’s study so that he barely knew we were there.

“We won an award for that, but the other one was almost equally dramatic where access wasn’t a problem, but it was up in the Children’s and it involved the creation of 250 square metres of wildlife pond with 84 tons of glacial boulders being incorporated into the water feature.”

How have garden design trends changed over the year, and where do you kind of see them heading in the future?

“Nowadays, people are embracing the idea of kitchen gardens and growing your own, whether it’s fruit, vegetables or cut flowers,” Rob notes.

“It really is quite shocking when you talk to people about the air miles, food miles that, particularly cut flowers, involve. If we can just stop buying flowers from abroad, and buy more seasonally locally grown flowers, or indeed, grow them yourself, we would make a huge difference.”

What’s the one piece of advice you wish you’d received when starting in garden design?

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years now, so I’m probably doing something right, but I do think that I should have gone to work for somebody else,” he laughs.

“Who knows, I’ve probably been doing it all wrong. I effectively set up my own with the garden centre, but so much of it was self-taught, so I often think that perhaps I should have gone to work for someone else to start with and to have seen how they did it!”

Are there any exciting projects or goals you have set for your garden in the near future?

“I’m on the board of a wonderful charity called Greenfingers, and we raise money to design and build gardens in children’s hospices so that children with life-limiting illnesses can benefit from being outside,” he explains.

“Greenfingers is celebrating its 25th anniversary next year, and we’ve got a couple of big gardens that are being built at the moment for them. I’m looking forward to opening those next season because it’s just lovely to give other people who are less fortunate than you the opportunity to enjoy the outdoor room.”