Barbara Samitier Gardens

After renovating our house in 2014 to include an extension with a lovely kitchen diner and lots of glazing looking out onto the garden we soon realised we were going to have to renovate the garden too! We had lots of requirements; family friendly, low maintenance, somewhere to hide the ugly trampoline, somewhere to hang a hammock, screening from our neighbours and a way of creating shade for our seating area. We met several designers, but Barbara stood out for us because she was so personable and didn't seem put off by our relatively low budget. We love the garden that Barbara designed for us - it is simple and contemporary in structure with a real wow factor. The planting is beautiful with lots of soft grasses, carefully placed birch trees and a subtle theme of purple, white and green. Our stunning 'Mondrian' style pergola over Balau decking is like an extra room in the Summer, home to Jasmine climbers, a growing collection of planters and pots and of course our hammock! Thank you Barbara and your team!

Barbara completely redesigned our small London garden in 2013. She was a pleasure to work with from start to finish, came up with a lovely but practical design for our garden taking into account our growing family and was on hand throughout the landscaping process to offer guidance and advice. We were so delighted with the end result we are now using Barbara again to re-design our front garden!

Barbara provided well scaled and detailed plans following discussions with a very discerning client. Her passion and attention to detail was impressive was evident throughout. As a garden designer she demonstrated excellent awareness of the requirements present in a modest urban outside space whilst maintaining the project on budget and managing her clients expectations.

Absolute pleasure working with Barbara, very professional and her creative flair and ideas was incredible, we are very pleased with the end product as our customers who also think the garden and grounds are now incredible. The garden was finished to a very high quality, on deadline and within budget, a perfect job.

Our garden was a bit of a jungle and needed redesigning, but we wished to retain something of the wild look. We were put in touch with Barbara. She has succeeded beyond all expectation. She gutted it, re-designed it and re-planted it. Cleared of everything last Autumn the garden looked like a building site and we were very worried that we would be without a proper garden for some time, but she assured us that all would be well by the Spring and the result now is stunning – a huge tribute to her vision and her planting skills. Magic

We found Barbara through SE22 magazine where she wrote a regular article on gardening. From our original meeting she prepared detailed drawings for our approval. These were very professionally prepared including a photoshopped picture of the proposed garden when finished. This included suggested planting and hard area details. She recommended two contractors who provided quotes. From start to finish she supervised the contractor providing clarification when needed. Overall we were very satisfied with her work.

Barbara is a wonderful garden designer and a joy to work with. Inspired by our travels in Japan and Kerala - and the Horniman gardens on our doorstep - We had a strong vision for our small London garden. Barbara drew it out of us, patiently collaborating with our ideas to bring to life a stunning jungle haven. The planting is cleverly designed, providing the idea of a thick jungle-like density of palms, bamboos and flowering grasses with accessible pathways between the beds. In such a small space you are encouraged to meander. Pockets of privacy, surprises to discover. The plants are so obviously happy. The birds have returned and each summer is more joyous. The single banana is now two. The grasses are four feet high. Everything is flourishing. Including us.

Barbara designed our garden In Oxford from scratch. We had just finished a big building project, so there was little more than a pile of earth to start with. She was brilliant to work with creatively, and was really able to take on board the style that I wanted and translate it into a practical scheme within our budget. So far we've lived with the garden for six months and there has been an ever changing interest. Our flower beds have bloomed and bloomed and are still doing so in November! We are delighted and we love the work that she has done.

We have just used Barbara to completely redesign our 120ft London walled garden. It was a real pleasure working with her. The best thing about her? The fact that she just got me. Not an easy task as I'm incredibly fussy. She really listened to what we asked for, and what we wanted from the new garden and delivered pretty much on the button. I think she has an incredible eye and great ideas. On a personal level, I liked her a lot too. She was easy to get along with and really honest. A great trait in anyone! She sourced the most amazing tiles too - I'd use her again just for that!

My husband and I asked Barbara to help us with the design of the front and back garden of our Victorian townhouse - projects which, between then, spanned 9 months. During this time, Barbara worked closely with our architects and builders, as well as a landscape company she had recommended, and provided each team with what they needed in a timely and professional manner. Even when we were not in active "design" mode with Barbara, she was always on hand to provide her professional advice and even helped with furniture suggestions etc. The front garden involved an entire replant of 5 large formal borders and the back garden involved an entire re-design of a patch of mud that is now a very impressive and much loved family garden. When designing the garden, Barbara made a number of suggestions on how to make our garden a space both myself and my husband and our young daughter would enjoy. We are absolutely thrilled with the results and love the finished result. Would highly recommend and will be using for a second project at the beginning of next year.

We have a large garden which was in need of a complete overhaul. We had problems with water logging in the winter and the grass and borders had seen better days. We also wanted to put in a garden office but we were concerned this would dominate the garden. The scheme Barbara came up with was amazing, separating the garden into zones she managed to actually make the garden look bigger even with the 5mx3m structure added. The planting is a huge success, we are not green fingered by any stretch of the imagination, the scheme she devised is low maintenance while looking very stylish, the addition of lighting means the garden also looks great at night. I can thoroughly recommend Barbara, the whole experience was stress free, with fantastic results.

Barbara Samitier has created a delightful urban oasis for us, which has met every single point on our brief, not just adequately but with excellence. We have a long narrow garden in zone 2 in London, which had uneven ground levels, dangerous structures and varying light throughout the day due to surrounding tall buildings and a tall tree scape. In addition to this we have a heavy clay soil, which has areas of intense dryness too. The garden needed to be contemporary but sympathetic to the Victorian town house it is part of. Our needs included potting areas, vegetable beds, adaptable play and climbing areas, wildflower meadows, storage, lighting, grown up zones and of course beautiful planting. All of this also needed to work long term for a busy working family. She took our brief and provided a design that we didn’t feel the need to change at all, as all elements had been considered. We used her suggested landscapers who have also been professional, worked to an incredibly high standard and for whom nothing was impossible or too difficult to do. They were polite and clean and were a delight to have around. The plants she chose from the nursery were of a very good quality and delivered in good condition. Barbara has considered our planting tastes with the complexities of our garden needs and come up with a perfect scheme of beauty, durability, manageable maintenance and seasonal interest. Her site visits and monitoring of the project were appropriately frequent and her exacting standards reassuring. She also demonstrated flexibility when the project required, but due to her thorough planning, the need for this was rare. I’m pleased to say that Barbara has delivered all of this and more and the garden despite being in its early stages is clearly full of promise and will delight all for us for many years to come. One would think a new garden would look bare, but this one doesn’t but we know there is more around the corner- we just can’t wait for the seasons to turn. We feel we have a whole new area of our home and life to enjoy. I couldn't recommend her highly enough.