London Borough of Richmond upon Thames · SW13
Garden Design & Landscaping in Barnes
Shoots & Leaves are landscape designers and garden builders working in Barnes. We take a garden from the first survey and drawing through the groundworks, drainage, paving, joinery and lighting to the last plant, using our own experienced teams for every stage.
Barnes sits inside a loop of the Thames, and that geography shapes the gardens: low-lying ground, a high water table in places, and plots that hold water long after the rain has stopped. It is one of the reasons drainage is usually the first thing we talk about here, and one of the reasons twenty years of building in London matters more than a portfolio of photographs.
We work across SW13, from the streets around the Common and the Pond to Barnes Bridge and the roads backing onto the towpath, and we will always come and look at the garden before quoting for it in writing.
Gardens in Barnes
Barnes has an unusually mixed housing stock for a village-feeling area: Victorian and Edwardian terraces near the station, substantial semis and detached houses on the roads towards the Common, mansion blocks, and post-war infill. Garden sizes vary accordingly, from modest walled rectangles to broad plots with room for real trees.
The Common and the Green give the whole area its character, and a lot of gardens borrow from it — mature oaks, limes and horse chestnuts either in the plot or immediately over the boundary. That brings shade, root competition and leaf fall, and it also brings tree protection: many mature trees here are subject to preservation orders or sit within conservation areas, so anything involving excavation near them needs care and, sometimes, consent.
Then there is water. Ground close to the river and the Pond can be damp, slow-draining and high in the water table, and gardens that back onto the towpath side of the loop often show it: standing water on lawns through winter, moss on paving, and a rotting fence line. Any garden here needs its drainage designed rather than assumed.
Garden Design for Barnes Homes
The best Barnes gardens tend to be quiet ones. With a Common, a green and a river within walking distance, a garden rarely needs to compete — it needs to sit comfortably between the house and the mature trees around it, and to give you somewhere dry and pleasant to be for as much of the year as possible.
In practice that means designing for winter as well as August: an evergreen structure of hedging and shrubs, generous soil volumes so planting can cope with root competition from nearby trees, shade-tolerant layers of ferns, hellebores and grasses under the canopy, and one or two well-placed multi-stem trees to give a garden its own height rather than relying on borrowed trees.
Where a family needs lawn, we are honest about whether the ground will hold it. On the wetter plots the answer is proper land drainage and a raised, well-constructed lawn — or artificial grass in the part of the garden that takes the heaviest use, so the rest can be planted well.
Terraces are usually sized for real use — a table with chairs pulled out, not a token square — and set with falls away from the house. Where a garden is overlooked from the towpath side or a neighbouring upper floor, hedging, pleached trees and joinery screens give privacy without walling the space in.
More about how we work: garden design and landscaping & construction.
Landscaping & Garden Construction
In Barnes the ground works come first and they matter. We excavate, deal with the water, and only then build: Aco or slot drains, soakaways or shingle gullies where the ground will take it, and land drainage under lawns where it will not. Where it is possible we route rainwater to storage so it can be reused for irrigation.
After that our teams build the garden itself — paving in natural stone, porcelain or reconstituted stone, brickwork, retaining walls and steps, fencing, gates, pergolas, garden rooms and stores, bespoke joinery and metalwork. Any digging near protected or neighbouring trees is planned to avoid damaging roots, and we work in from the least damaging access route we can find.
Planting and turfing follow, with soil improved and imported as needed, irrigation installed while beds are still open and lighting cabled in at the same time. You have a written quote before we start and clear communication throughout the build.
Why Choose Shoots & Leaves
Over twenty years of designing and constructing gardens in London, and a base in West London a short drive from SW13.
One company for everything: design, drainage, groundworks, hard landscaping, joinery, metalwork, lighting, irrigation and planting, all carried out by our own experienced teams.
A written quote for all work, a prompt start, honest advice about what ground conditions in Barnes will and will not support, and a personal service from the people who will actually be building your garden.
Our Work
The clearest way to judge a landscaper is to look at what they build. Our portfolio shows completed gardens across London — the paving, brickwork, steps, joinery and planting we would bring to a garden in Barnes — with the design thinking behind each one.
We would rather show you our work than list projects we cannot verify, so nothing here is presented as a local case study unless it genuinely is one.
Frequently Asked Questions
- My Barnes garden floods every winter. Can that be fixed?
- Usually, yes — but it has to be diagnosed first. Low ground, a high water table, compacted clay and falls running back towards the house are the common culprits near the river, and the answer may be land drainage, a soakaway, re-levelling or a combination. We look at the whole garden before recommending anything.
- There is a large tree over my boundary. Can you still build a terrace?
- Often yes, with the construction detailed to avoid harming roots. Many mature trees in Barnes are protected or sit in a conservation area, so we plan excavation and foundations around them and tell you where consent is needed.
- Do you install lawns or artificial grass in Barnes?
- Both. On well-drained plots a properly prepared turf lawn is lovely; on wet, shaded or heavily used ground we will say so, and either build the drainage a real lawn needs or suggest artificial grass for the busiest area.
- Do you handle the whole project, including design?
- Yes. We design the garden, build it and plant it with our own teams, which is the reason drainage, levels, cabling and planting end up in the right order.
Book a Garden Consultation
Tell us about your Barnes garden and we will come and see it, talk through what is possible and follow up with a written quote for all of the work. Design, construction and planting are all carried out by our own teams, so you deal with one company from the first visit to the last plant.