Marlow & Fern

Start a garden

Marlow & Fern

Studio

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Start a garden

Work

Studio

Enquire

Marlow & Fern

Start a garden

The studio

9 people. One barn. A great deal of standing about in fields.

Marlow & Fern began as two people and a theodolite in a barn outside town in 1998. The barn is still the office, and the theodolite lives on the plan chest, holding drawings flat.

1998

Founded

People

Commissions a year

We work slowly on purpose.

A garden takes about three years to build and about seven to be worth photographing, which makes it a poor fit for the pace most studios are asked to work at. We have never found a way around this and stopped looking a long time ago.

The practice is deliberately small. Every commission is drawn by one of the 3 partners and stays with them from the first soil pit to the last stewardship visit. We turn down more work than we take, and we will tell you honestly if we think your site wants somebody else.

What we are good at: levels, water, structural planting, and the unglamorous engineering that keeps a terrace dry in February. What we are not: fast, cheap, or interested in gardens that only look right for one week in June.

“Half the job is knowing which of the client’s ideas to keep. The other half is waiting long enough that they forget the ones we quietly dropped.”

Jonah Fern — Partner — planting

The people who turn up.

Plus a horticulturist, a surveyor, a studio manager, and one very capable apprentice.

Eleanor Marlow

Founding partner

Levels, water and the argument for doing less. Trained at a horticultural college; with the studio since 1998.

Jonah Fern

Partner — planting

Draws every planting plan in the studio to cultivar level, then defends each one at length.

Priya Raman

Partner — delivery

Runs the sites. If a wall is out by four millimetres she will find it before the mortar goes off.

Services and fees

Five ways to work with us.

Percentage of build value on full commissions, fixed on planting and stewardship. You get a number before you commit.

Landscape design

18–36 months

Masterplanning for grounds and their approaches: survey, levels, drainage, circulation, hard materials and the structural planting that outlives everything else on site.

from £45,000

% of build value

Landscape design

18–36 months

Masterplanning for grounds and their approaches: survey, levels, drainage, circulation, hard materials and the structural planting that outlives everything else on site.

from £45,000

% of build value

Landscape design

18–36 months

Masterplanning for grounds and their approaches: survey, levels, drainage, circulation, hard materials and the structural planting that outlives everything else on site.

from £45,000

% of build value

Outdoor living

9–18 months

Terraces, courtyards, outdoor kitchens, pool surrounds and shade structures, detailed in stone, timber and lime render, with the lighting drawn in from the first week.

from £28,000

% of build value

Outdoor living

9–18 months

Terraces, courtyards, outdoor kitchens, pool surrounds and shade structures, detailed in stone, timber and lime render, with the lighting drawn in from the first week.

from £28,000

% of build value

Outdoor living

9–18 months

Terraces, courtyards, outdoor kitchens, pool surrounds and shade structures, detailed in stone, timber and lime render, with the lighting drawn in from the first week.

from £28,000

% of build value

Planting design

4–8 months

Species-level schemes drawn for succession across twelve months and maturity at year seven, with a sourcing list and a maintenance calendar your gardener can follow.

£6,500

fixed fee

Planting design

4–8 months

Species-level schemes drawn for succession across twelve months and maturity at year seven, with a sourcing list and a maintenance calendar your gardener can follow.

£6,500

fixed fee

Planting design

4–8 months

Species-level schemes drawn for succession across twelve months and maturity at year seven, with a sourcing list and a maintenance calendar your gardener can follow.

£6,500

fixed fee

Pools & water

9–18 months

Swimming ponds, tanks and rills, set into ground that has to look untouched the summer after the diggers leave.

from £32,000

% of build value

Pools & water

9–18 months

Swimming ponds, tanks and rills, set into ground that has to look untouched the summer after the diggers leave.

from £32,000

% of build value

Pools & water

9–18 months

Swimming ponds, tanks and rills, set into ground that has to look untouched the summer after the diggers leave.

from £32,000

% of build value

Stewardship

Every year, indefinitely

One long visit a year, an editing session with your gardener and a revised planting plan. Open to any garden we have drawn, for as long as it stands.

£4,200

per year

Stewardship

Every year, indefinitely

One long visit a year, an editing session with your gardener and a revised planting plan. Open to any garden we have drawn, for as long as it stands.

£4,200

per year

Stewardship

Every year, indefinitely

One long visit a year, an editing session with your gardener and a revised planting plan. Open to any garden we have drawn, for as long as it stands.

£4,200

per year

The studio year

When things happen matters more than most people expect.

Winter

Surveys, soil, drawing.

The best time to see the bones of a site and the worst time to plant anything.

Spring

Building.

Hard landscaping goes in while the ground is workable and before anything is in leaf.

Summer

Watching.

We take photographs, note what failed, and try not to touch anything.

Autumn

Planting.

Bare-root trees, bulbs by the thousand, and the stewardship visits to gardens already in our care.

Recognition

Add your awards and honours here as they come in.

Written about in

Add press mentions here as they are published.

Right now

Talking to people about next season, with a couple of places left for planting-only work.

Start an enquiry