garden design and landscaping in Cotswold Water Park

Gardens, and gardens you can swim in, across the Cotswold Water Park

The Cotswold Water Park is unlike anywhere else we work. More than a hundred and fifty lakes spread across the Wiltshire and Gloucestershire border, left behind by decades of gravel quarrying and now some of the most sought-after waterside addresses in the country. It is a landscape of second homes and lakeside estates, places like Lower Mill Estate and the Lakes by Yoo, where the garden is part of the draw and the bar is high.

We design and build across the Water Park and the villages around it, from contemporary lakeside planting and hard landscaping to the natural swimming ponds that suit this ground so well.

The ground here is the whole story

Under the Water Park is river gravel over a high water table, the legacy of the lakes. Water sits close to the surface, and that shapes everything a garden does here.

It is the reason natural swimming ponds work so well on this ground, with water already near the surface. It is also why drainage, levels and planting all have to be planned around a table that rises through winter. A patio, a lawn or a planting scheme that ignores the water table will not last. We survey the ground first and build for what is actually under it, which is why the work holds up rather than being corrected a season later.

Gardens that match the architecture

The lakeside houses here tend to be contemporary and architect-led, glass and timber and clean lines facing the water. The gardens that suit them are considered and restrained: quality materials, generous planting, and a clear relationship to the lake beyond. We work to that register. Hard landscaping that sits quietly with the building, planting that frames rather than competes, and outdoor space designed to be lived in through the warmer months.

Where a garden steps down to the water, or wants a swimming pond of its own, the design has to handle levels and edges with care. That is the kind of work this place asks for, and the kind we like best.

Designated land and what it means

Parts of the Water Park and the countryside around it sit within or close to the Cotswold National Landscape, where the planning rules are stricter, on materials, on levels and on what can be built. We know the ground rules, we tell you what applies to your plot before any work starts, and we point you to the local authority where an application or a check is needed. Honest about it up front, never a surprise halfway through.

Design and build, under one roof

Across the Water Park, as everywhere we work, Tom designs and builds under one roof. The person who draws your garden is the person responsible for building it, so the design accounts for the ground, the water, and the way materials really behave once they are down. For a waterside garden, where the conditions are demanding and the finish has to be right, that single line of responsibility is worth having.