Volunteer Your Garden As A Student Design Project

What You'll Receive

If your garden is selected, you will receive:

• Multiple design proposals and concepts developed by our students.
• Digital copies of each student's design work, typically including a mood board, a master layout plan, a planting plan and a 3D visualisation of a selected area of the garden.
• Creative ideas tailored to your garden, aspirations and brief.
• A final presentation of the students' work at the school, together with presentation videos for you to keep and refer to in the future.
• The opportunity to compare different approaches to the same design challenge.
• A complimentary drone video and aerial photograph of your garden.

Many volunteer clients find the variety of ideas particularly valuable, as each student brings their own creativity and perspective to the project.

Location and Catchment Area

As our students need to visit project gardens during the course, we are generally looking for gardens located within approximately 30 minutes of the school, as indicated by the red area on the map.

For particularly interesting projects that offer exceptional learning opportunities, we may occasionally consider gardens up to one hour away (green area).

If you are unsure whether your garden falls within our catchment area, please do get in touch. We are always happy to discuss potential projects before you submit an application.

What Makes a Good Project Garden?

We are interested in gardens of all shapes and sizes. The most important factor is that the site presents an interesting and rewarding design challenge for our students.

Some of the qualities that make a successful project garden include:

• Potential for improvement, redevelopment or a change of use.
• Clear design challenges and opportunities for creative solutions.
• Owners who are willing to engage with the design process and provide feedback.
• Good access for student site visits.
• Distinctive site features, such as changes in level, slopes, awkward layouts or challenging conditions.

We are particularly interested in gardens where a professional topographical survey is already available. This is especially helpful for larger sites or gardens with significant level changes, as it allows students to work more accurately and develop more detailed design proposals.

A large garden is not essential. Some of our most successful projects have been relatively modest spaces with interesting design challenges and engaged clients.

Each year, we also aim to include at least one commercial or public space as part of the student project work. These are very welcome and provide students with valuable experience working on larger-scale or more complex briefs beyond the private garden setting. If you represent a commercial site or public space and are interested in participating, we would be delighted to hear from you.

Important Information

Before submitting an enquiry, please note that this is a garden design project only.

Volunteer garden owners receive design work free of charge, but:

• The school does not build gardens.
• Students do not undertake landscaping or construction work.
• We do not provide funding for materials, plants or contractors.
• There is no obligation to implement any of the designs.
• Any future construction or landscaping would be arranged independently by the garden owner.

Many volunteers use the designs as inspiration for future improvements, implementing all, part or none of the proposals according to their own plans and budget.

Frequently Asked Questions