The people who draw your garden build it.
Since 2011, Rachel Hurst has designed and Tom Beckett has built every one of our gardens, with our own team, from Tunbridge Wells.
Booking design consultations for January 2027 and builds from April 2027.
Book a site visit
01632 960227
Espaliered pears
Raised oak beds
Gravel dining terrace
0
5 m
Walled kitchen garden, Penshurst. Built spring 2026 in six weeks.
Walled kitchen garden, Penshurst. Built spring 2026 in six weeks.
Request a site visit
Rachel Hurst, garden designer
Tom Beckett, landscaper
There is no handover.
Rachel Hurst, a garden designer, and Tom Beckett, a landscaper, founded Ashdown Gardens in 2011, and they still design and run every job themselves. We build what we design, with our own team, so the person who drew the step is standing there when it’s laid.
2011
Founded by Rachel and Tom, who still design and run every job.
9
Two designers, six landscapers, and Priya in the office.
30
miles around Tunbridge Wells, from Sevenoaks to Haywards Heath.
What we build.
We design and build gardens from scratch, and remake the ones people have fallen out of love with. Whatever the size, the team that draws it builds it.
Patios and terraces
In natural stone and porcelain, on a sub-base built to last.
Retaining walls and steps
Holding a slope, and the way up it.
Decking
Designed with the rest of the garden and built by our own team.
Pergolas
Shade and structure over a terrace or a path.
Outdoor kitchens
For cooking and eating outside.
Lawns and wildflower meadows
Lawns laid or relaid, and meadow where the grass can grow long.
Ponds and rills
Still water and running water.
Lighting
For the evenings.
Planting
The planting that pulls it together.
Smaller jobs, a new patio, a lawn relaid, a border replanted, from £4,000.
See how it works
Meadow at the top
Fire pit
The long slide
Three terraces cut into the bank
A sloping family garden, Crowborough.
Eight weeks, three terraces.
A bank they never used.
Three terraces cut into the bank, a long slide for the children, a fire pit, and meadow at the top.
“They turned a slope we never used into the best room in the house.”
Helen and Mark, Crowborough
0
eight weeks
Recent gardens.
Four gardens from the last few seasons. You have just watched the Crowborough slope come out of its bank; here are the other three, from a walled kitchen garden to a courtyard ten metres square.
Penshurst
Six weeks, spring 2026
A walled kitchen garden
Raised oak beds, a greenhouse, espaliered pears and a gravel dining terrace.
Tunbridge Wells
Three weeks
A ten-metre courtyard
Ten metres square: a rusted-steel water bowl, ferns and tree ferns, and lighting for the evenings.
Haywards Heath
Five weeks
From builder's rubble
A new-build plot turned into lawn, borders and a porcelain terrace.
A courtyard or a whole hillside, every one starts with a walk round the garden together.
Ask about your garden
How it works.
1
Site visit
We walk the garden with you and talk through what you want from it.
£150, taken off the design fee if you go ahead
2
Concept plan
A plan with a mood board and a build estimate.
Garden design from £1,800
3
Detailed drawings
Everything drawn and specified before the first spade goes in.
4
The build
Built by our own team, the people who designed it.
Most full gardens take four to ten weeks
What it costs
Every garden we build comes with a two-year guarantee on the build. The first step is a £150 site visit, taken off the design fee if you go ahead.
Book a site visit
Garden design
Concept plan and detailed drawings
from £1,800
Full gardens
Most of the gardens we build, four to ten weeks
£25,000–£80,000
Smaller jobs
A new patio, a lawn relaid, a border replanted
from £4,000
Maintenance
Monthly visits, March to October, for gardens we have built
from £160 a month
What clients say, and who stands behind the work.
4.9
out of five, from 84 client reviews
“Rachel listened, and the garden is exactly what we didn't know we wanted.”
Priya and Sam, Sevenoaks
Our own team of nine, with no subcontractors on a build
Rachel draws every garden we build
Stone and porcelain laid to the maker’s specification
Fully insured, with £5 million public liability cover
Every garden comes with a two-year guarantee on the build
Book a site visit.
£150, taken off the design fee if you go ahead. We walk the garden with you on any day from Tuesday to Saturday.
Booking design consultations for January 2027 and builds from April 2027.
Call
01632 960227
hello@ashdowngardens.co.uk
The office is open Monday to Friday, 8am–5:30pm, and Priya answers.
44 Chandos Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 2NY
Request a visit
Site visit £150
Request a site visit
Within thirty miles
We work within thirty miles of Tunbridge Wells, in these towns and the villages between them.
Tunbridge Wells
Sevenoaks
Tonbridge
Crowborough
East Grinstead
Haywards Heath