Emma Crow Garden Design

Emma Crow Garden Design Emma Crow Garden Design offers bespoke garden design and landscaping services in West Devon and East Cornwall.

From planting plans to full garden transformations — bringing beauty and function to outdoor spaces.

We've just returned from visiting family for a few months in New Zealand. The chance also to immerse ourselves in the be...
11/03/2026

We've just returned from visiting family for a few months in New Zealand. The chance also to immerse ourselves in the beautiful and atmospheric native forests over there. The forest is so wildly beautiful - every plant seems perfectly placed as if purposefully planted by an experienced designer. Contrasting textures, colours and architectural qualities, all selected by nature, are quite simply garden perfection!

There was also time for me to indulge in one of my favourite past-times - appliqué sewing. In the evenings, to the loud sound of the buzzing cicadas (it's been a good year for these with all the rain!), I stitched together a wall hanging of New Zealand plants using pieces of fabric I'd brought with me from the Scrapstore in Tavistock.

I so wanted to include the large, beautiful blooms of Agapanthus, the lupin flowers of the meadows, and the gorgeously scented yellow flowers of wild ginger we saw growing on the banks. However, these exotic beauties are not native. I became almost anti-agapanthus (if that's at all possible!) after seeing the relentless battle New Zealanders have in preserving their indigenous wildlife. I settled with the more subtle native species for my wallhanging, with their understated dark green tones and discrete flower colours. Also, ones which I could successfully piece together with my limited selection of fabric scraps!

Back in the UK now, and ready for another year's gardening...

The gardening season over, and a look back at the herbaceous border and the beauty it had to offer throughout the year
14/12/2025

The gardening season over, and a look back at the herbaceous border and the beauty it had to offer throughout the year

Towards the end of the gardening season and time to look back on some of the projects I worked on earlier in the year. T...
19/11/2025

Towards the end of the gardening season and time to look back on some of the projects I worked on earlier in the year. This one in Plymouth (more details about this one posted back in July )....coming on really well, in the competent hands of John Murrain & Sons.

Following my previous post about the tropical garden I designed four years ago, my client very kindly sent me a photo of...
11/11/2025

Following my previous post about the tropical garden I designed four years ago, my client very kindly sent me a photo of how it looked when I first planted it!

Four years ago, I was asked to create a garden which had a tropical and exotic feel. The house was a new-build, and so a...
09/11/2025

Four years ago, I was asked to create a garden which had a tropical and exotic feel. The house was a new-build, and so as I expected, the garden had a thin layer of top soil which quickly gave way to builders rubble and stones. In short, not at all the deep, fertle soil which large-leaved, tropical-looking plants demand in order to thrive.

I set about adding a huge amount of compost to the soil. The planting plan included semi-tropicals, as well as plants which look exotic, but are in fact quite tough and undemanding.

Last week, the owners asked if I would come and give the garden a tidy-up and pruning. I was absolutely delighted when I came round the corner to see this tropical scene before my eyes. What started out as a barren, overlooked scape is now a burgeoning, tropical wonderland. And this was the autumn look, so I could only imagine the huge heart-shaped leaves of the Clerodendrum, now fallen. And the round leaves, the size of dinner plates on the Darmera, which now stood like tall, brown umbrellas. I didn't clear these - I felt they had a quirky charm of their own which might go on for a week or two.

Credit goes to the owners of the garden who relentlessly followed my advice, mulching annually and keeping up religiously with the blood, fish and bone.

A Garden in Yelverton - A long, herbaceous border in autumn.At this time of year, herbaceous borders have a character a...
23/10/2025

A Garden in Yelverton - A long, herbaceous border in autumn.

At this time of year, herbaceous borders have a character all their own. Warm, russetty colours which glow in the autumn sunlight, particularly spectacular this year after the dry summer we've had. Dried seed-heads which adopt unusual colours, their beauty all too easily lost had I not persevered with their slightly tatty phase waiting for leaves to be shed. At this time of year, upkeep involves the gentle removal of untidy leaves to expose shapely seed-heads (the slimey hosta leaves were removed this week), cutting out broken or damaged stems, and a little bit of shaping here and there. Even this seemingly natural look doesn't happen all by itself!

A Garden Large near Lamerton Finally, warm, damp soil in the new beds at Lamerton!A very special moment when the first p...
10/10/2025

A Garden Large near Lamerton

Finally, warm, damp soil in the new beds at Lamerton!

A very special moment when the first plants at last went into the ground after an unusually dry summer.

A Garden in CrapstoneHere's a garden dominated by a large lawn which it's owner has really had enough of. The downstairs...
05/10/2025

A Garden in Crapstone

Here's a garden dominated by a large lawn which it's owner has really had enough of. The downstairs rooms of her house have large patio doors overlooking this expanse of green. There really is scope for something far more interesting here.

My client loves Japanese maples and has plenty in pots which could all be used in the garden revamp. This got me thinking along the lines of a Japanese inspired garden.

So here it is: the two, existing maples on the lawn will be retained, and the design hangs around these. There are two, leveled circular areas to the design. The first has in its centre a tall, floaty grass which rustles in the wind. This is bang in alignment with patio doors, leading you across the veranda to come and explore the second circular area with its Japanese style pergola and curved bench.

The planting plan will incorporate my client's potted maples, along with other plants native to Japan. Some cloud pruned shrubs would really look the part alongside the dark stained pergola, dripping with wisteria flowers in early summer. I'm looking forward to drawing up the planting plans next spring, but first we need to focus on the hard-landscaping.

A Hotel Garden in ItalyStill in Italy and we came across this majestic, nineteenth century villa, now operating as a hot...
30/09/2025

A Hotel Garden in Italy

Still in Italy and we came across this majestic, nineteenth century villa, now operating as a hotel and health spa.

Behind the villa are the hotel gardens and recreational area, and the old orange orchards are still here...

It would have been so easy, during the conversion of the villa into a hotel for these stately, old trees to have been torn out, making way for easy planning of outdoor facilities - bars, dance floors, hot tubs and outdoor restaurant.

Instead, the developers have kept them, worked around them and cherished them. They've been cared for and enhanced with clipped skirts of box and Bougainvillea, their rows used to create interesting vistas with statues. Health spas with relaxing seating areas under the trees - explore some more, and there's the bar, actually built around the trees, and a restaurant area under a leafy canopy.

This mix of new and old has created an intriguing and magical place - in the comfy chairs it's hard to draw yourself away!

On holiday in ItalyWe’ve taken a few days holiday to visit the ancient ruins of Pompei. The level of preservation of sho...
24/09/2025

On holiday in Italy

We’ve taken a few days holiday to visit the ancient ruins of Pompei. The level of preservation of shops, houses and the life style of affluent Romans is astounding. Being a gardener, I was particularly interested in the gardens and how the Romans harnessed nature in creating their ideal outdoor space.



There was one garden which was especially interesting, almost entirely intact, with deep marble canals, with water features and channels. The wooden trellises and pergolas that would once have existed long ago have now been restored.

With a garden of this complexity the process of development must have been not that dissimilar from nowadays. I began to imagine the conversations between the designer and the client, commissioning the landscape contractor, and the groundsmen planting the hedges, orchards and climbers, perhaps following planting plans we might recognize today.

A Garden near PensilvaI'm delighted to have been asked by a very focused and hardworking couple to work alongside them i...
18/09/2025

A Garden near Pensilva

I'm delighted to have been asked by a very focused and hardworking couple to work alongside them in developing their garden. They are undertaking the hard-landscaping themselves - this alongside all their house renovations as well!

My role is to help them with outline plans for the various areas of the garden, and planting plans as the borders take shape.

The first area to develop is the pond area to the side of the house. On my second visit, the undergrowth had already been cleared (there really is no stopping this couple!) and the bare bones of a pond and retaining wall revealed beneath.

The new steps next the pond were being revamped and they needed to blend. My outline plan addressed this with a curved bed which sweeps round from the steps to join the existing, curved wall behind the pond.

The pond was roughly oval-shaped and didn't fit snugly into the circular space created by the retaining wall. My clients had built the pond a while ago and really couldn't face the idea of revisiting pond construction. So the solution - to lay paved edging in a circle around the existing pond, and plant Iris sibirica in the soil area inside the circle. This is a water marginal plant, but equally happy in dry soil. A few smooth, well-placed, Scottish pebbles and we now have the impression of a natural, round pond. Some suggestions for a spout coming out of the wall to feed the pond, and a planting plan to enhance the pond to come!

There is a rectangular raised area where a turn in the old flight of steps used to be. Rather than dismantling it, I incorporated it into the design as a raised bed, ready for an elevated shrub.

I would not be at all surprised if this driven couple have this part of the garden well and truly underway when I next come by!

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Tavistock

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Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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