Urban & Rural Architectural Design
Bespoke Garden Design with a focus on vertical planting with trees, creating structure that connects your garden with the wider environment.
The Art of Vertical Design
Drummond Hughes Design specialises in dynamic designs that provide instant impact, with an emphasis on vertical planting through architectural trees. Combining naturalistic tree forms and formal structured topiary with softer textured planting of grasses and flowering perennials to create biodiverse habitats.
Portfolio
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Architectural Plants
Mediterranean Planting – Guilford, West Sussex
Poolside evergreen planting of Quercus suber (cork oaks), Pinus mugo and Yucca rostrata in December providing year round seasonal interest.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Architectural Plants
Japanese Garden – West Sussex
Design of a residential garden inspired by Japanese aesthetics. Incorporates water features, minimalist planting, and carefully placed elements for a serene and balanced atmosphere. Mature ornamental Acer planted with cloud pruned Niwaki Osmanthus heterophyllus underplanted with ferns.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Architectural Plants
Back Garden Privacy Solutions – Guilford, West Sussex
Specialised design focused on maximising privacy in a typical urban back garden. Utilises natural screening techniques and strategic planting to create a secluded and functional outdoor living space. Includes consultation and design services.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Sarah Drummond Hughes
Private Estate – Goodwood, West Sussex
Large-scale garden design for a private estate. Focus on creating a cohesive landscape that integrates with the architecture and offers distinct zones for various uses while maintaining a natural flow.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Plants Architectural Plants
Coastal Sea Shore Garden – Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex
Focus on drought-tolerant native plants, natural screening for privacy, and creating an oasis that withstands coastal conditions.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Sarah Drummond Hughes
Urban Jungle Oasis – Chichester, West Sussex
Exotic, jungle-inspired back garden with architectural plants originating from around the globe. Emphasis on lush foliage, contrasting textures and layered planting creating a secluded, private shady retreat.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Sarah Drummond Hughes
Cottage Garden – Westbourne, West Sussex
A haven for pollinators.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Architectural Plants
Rural Retreat – Ewhurst, Surrey
The design cretaed a link between the house and the wider surroundings on the estate. Full standard Ligustrum japonicum ‘Texanum’ echoed the trees in the distance providing a connection to the wider landscape.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Sarah Drummond Hughes
Aquatic and Marginal Planting – Goodwood, West Sussex
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Architectural Plants
Evergreen borders – Horsham, West Sussex
A showcase of how green spaces can enrich urban life. This garden was designed to embrace the mature pine trees adding vertical planting with contrasting textures to draw the eye up to the upper canopy, low pillows and mounds were planted in repetition to ground the design and connect both sides of the garden.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Architectural Plants. Image shows the initial setting out and placement of the plants.
Topiary Garden – Bath, Somerset
The brief was to create maximum impact and vertical drama, for this grand Victorian driveway. The design included a selection of topiary and a fusion of planting with contrasting forms and textures. Mediterranean style planting of multi-stem pines and smooth evergreen domes, contrast with spiky arid evergreen Dasylirion acrotrichum from Mexico and elegant vertical spires of Italian cypress, Cupressus pyramidalis. Niwaki cloud pruned trees include Pinus sylvestris ‘Watereri, Quercus ilex and Osmanthus heterophyllus.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Architectural Plants
Field Boundary Garden – Arundel, West Sussex
The client required naturalistic planting of grasses and flowering perennials that blend into the local landscape. Ligustrum japonicum ‘Texanum’ full standard trees, provide uninterrupted views out to the neighbouring fields and connect the garden to the wider landscape to views of the trees in the distance.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Architectural Plants
Subtropical Urban Coastal Rejuvination – Hove, West Sussex
Border rejuvenation of an established subtropical garden. Cryptomeria japonica introduced contrasting texture to mature Euphorbia mellifera and Yucca recurvifolia. Eriobotrya japonica trees and hardy Trachycarpus fortunei palms added lush leaves to the shady under canopy of a mature Acacia pravissima tree. Sword shape leaved groundcover of Libertia grandiflora, Crocosmia lucifer and Hakonechloa macra provided contrast to the feathery foliage of Mahonia confusa ‘Narihira’ and Geranium maderense. Border edges were softened by adding architectural ferns such as Blechnum chilense, Polystichum munitum and Blechnum spicant.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Architectural Plants
Shade tolerant Architectural Plants – Haywards Heath, West Sussex
Planting of carefully selected shade tolerant palms and trees, underplanted with a ground cover of ferns and Mahonia confusa ‘Narihira’.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Architectural Plants
Mature Formal Pleached Trees with Underplanting – Henley-On-Thames, Oxfordshire
Mature Persian Ironwood trees Parrotia persica, underplanted with Libertia formosa, Stipa tenuisimma, Pittosporum tenuifoilum ‘Golf Ball’ and Hebe sutherlandii balls.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Architectural Plants
Simplicity of Repetition – Pulborough, West Sussex
Taxus baccata balls and Lavandula ‘Hidcote’ frame a pathway from the garden to the house., West Sussex
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Architectural Plants
Verdant Textures – Guilford, West Sussex
Contrasting green mounds of Pinus mugo and Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Golf Ball’, surround a Quercus ilex Niwaki, Pillows of glaucus blue Hebe sutherlandii and Euphorbia ‘Portuguese Velvet’ and lavender frame the borders of the lawn. Araucaria araucaria Monkey Puzzle Tree) and Elaeagnus ebbingei full standard in the background, underplanted with lush lime green Hebe parviflora.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Architectural Plants
Evergreen Structure in Winter – Guilford West Sussex
Evergreen plants such as the Dwarf Pine Pinus mugo, Yuccas and a multi-stem Cork Oak Quercus suber, provide interest all year round. This photo was taken end of December showcasing the structure evergreen plants provide in the winter.
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting Architectural Plants
The Art of Vertical Design
Design Sarah Drummond Hughes, Planting & Image Architectural Plants
The Art of Niwaki
Planting of carefully selected Niwaki specimens to create living sculptures.
Private Garden Cass Sculpture Park Goodwood Art Foundation
The Art of Sculpture
Incorporating strategically placed sculptures into a garden deepens emotional and physical engagement, transforming passive viewing into a fully immersive, multi-sensory experience. Where possible I like to incorporate sculptures into my designs, in particular pieces of art that harmonise with the natural environment.
Our Services
Consultation
We begin with a deep understanding of your landscape and lifestyle, crafting a bespoke plan that respects the natural environment and your unique vision.
Design
Our design process blends architectural precision with the organic rhythms of nature, creating spaces that are as functional as they are poetic.
Project Management
We oversee every detail from initial concept to final installation, ensuring a seamless and high-quality experience for your garden transformation.