Dermot Canterbury
If your garden isn’t working, I can help. It might be overlooked, have an awkward layout and uninspired planting, or you may just feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin. I enjoy solving problems like these in interesting ways to create beautiful, uplifting outdoor spaces that work – for you and the planet. The gardens I design support busy modern lives; as places to share precious moments with families and friends, to play and explore, to stop and think, encounter beauty and just be. My gardens also offer solutions for living hopefully with the realities of a changing world: providing cool respite from summer heatwaves, absorbing stormwater run-off to mitigate floods, and giving food and shelter to struggling wildlife. And wherever possible, I reuse or recycle materials to reduce waste.
Biography:
Before graduating from LCGD in 2026, I was a BAFTA-winning director and producer. Storytelling is still at the heart of what I do, because every garden I design – big or small – tells a unique story: yours.
Instagram: @dermotcanterbury
A 7-acre site in Kent, which cherishes the past, enjoys the present and prepares for the future. This largely flat and featureless site was part of a larger estate, squeezed between an existing walled-garden and agricultural land. The design re-imagines it as a thoughtful family garden with areas for dining and entertaining, meadows, a vegetable garden, orchard and a natural swimming pool. As we move through different spaces, the garden plays with our perception of time, reflecting the 1000-year history of the site, while also preparing for the climate challenges we can expect in the future.
A family garden with a rugged, resilient joie-de-vivre. This garden was disconnected from the house and had a large, listed wall bisecting it. My redesign improved that connection, embraced the wall and created reasons for the family to go – and stay – in the garden, with a variety of seating areas for socialising and for solitude. It features a sunny courtyard, with slanted beds to provide screening and privacy and planting inspired by the North York Moors. There is also a firepit for teenage hangouts, and a disused barn converted into a conservatory so the garden can still be enjoyed in inclement weather.
This was a steeply sloping London garden with a poky dark lightwell by house and no areas to entertain except the lawn. My design created four terraced areas with a rill running between them, a cut-flower meadow and lawn, and incorporated existing TPO’d trees to create a shady woodland area for dining.
