What is commercial garden design?

It is garden and landscape design for places that serve many people, such as hotels, hospitals and universities. It plans how the space looks, how people use it and what is planted, so the outdoor space suits the place and the people who use it.

Is landscape design the same as landscaping?

No. Landscape design is the planning: the layout, the seating, how people move through the space and which plants go where. Building it is landscaping, which a contractor carries out from the designer’s drawings. Naomi’s work is the design, and she can also do the planting.

What kinds of places does Naomi design for?

Hotels, hospitals and universities. Her commercial work includes a hotel courtyard on Kensington High Street, two gardens at Wexham Park Hospital in Berkshire, a hotel entrance at Gatwick and a student garden in Oxford.

Does Naomi design hospital gardens?

Yes. Hospital and healthcare gardens have their own page, with both Wexham Park gardens in full.

A paved hotel courtyard with a timber bench, timber planters and a stone-framed opening onto planting

Commercial gardens

Commercial garden design

Planting-led garden and landscape design for hotels, hospitals and universities. Across Sussex, Surrey and London.

01273 381512

RHS Chelsea Silver-Gilt

Two judged Chelsea Flower Show gardens, 2018 and 2021, plus two further Saatchi Gallery exhibits.

Trained at the London College of Garden Design

Naomi studied both garden design and planting design there, and qualified with Distinction.

5.0★ from 13 Google reviews

Left by clients on Google.

Garden and landscape design for commercial spaces

Naomi Ferrett-Cohen offers commercial garden design for places that many people use every day: hotels, hospitals and universities. For guests, patients and students, the outdoor space is often the first thing they notice, and it can leave a lasting impression of the place.

Naomi sketches her designs by hand on paper first, then builds a 3D model in SketchUp, so everyone involved can see the whole space before anything is built. She draws up a master plan that brings the layout, the hard landscaping and the planting together, with planting chosen to give colour and interest through the year.

Naomi works across Sussex, Surrey and London, and she is happy to travel further for the right project.

Hospital garden design →How Naomi’s garden design service works →

What Naomi’s commercial gardens do

A welcoming first impression

Naomi designed the planting for a Kensington hotel courtyard and reception entrance, so guests arrive somewhere they will enjoy. Her Gatwick hotel entrance brings together new seating, a bike area and planting that continues into the car park.

Somewhere to stop and rest

Her hospital gardens give patients, visitors and staff somewhere calm to sit outside, and the Oxford student garden she designed gives students a place to rest, talk and be among plants, away from the pressure of study.

Planting that works through the year

Evergreens give the Kensington courtyard its backbone, with trees chosen for bark and autumn colour. At Gatwick the planting is robust, and carries on into the car park.

Commercial and healthcare gardens by Naomi

Design visual of a decked area with a pergola and fabric canopy, a gabion bench, corten planters and standard trees — Hospital Garden, Berkshire →A peaceful escape at the heart of Wexham Park Hospital, in three linked areas for visitors, patients and nurses.

A hotel courtyard with timber planters, a timber bench and a wall of trailing plants, with brick buildings around — Hotel Courtyard, Kensington High Street →A planting scheme that turns a Kensington hotel courtyard and entrance into an experience to be enjoyed and admired.

A curving gravel path through grasses and perennials towards a timber arch, with the hospital building behind — Wexham Park Hospital Garden →The structures of the RHS Chelsea 2021 NHS tribute garden, redesigned and rebuilt at Wexham Park Hospital as a calm place for patients, visitors and staff.

Design visual of a hotel entrance with a brick facade, a tree and round planter of agapanthus, and grey paving — Renovated Hotel, Gatwick →A complete redesign of a Gatwick hotel entrance, with new seating, a bike area and planting that extends to the car park.

Design visual of students walking along a curved timber path beside raised bowl planters and a curved seating wall — Student Garden, Oxford →An Oxford garden for students to rest, talk and be among plants, carrying on the legacy of a Chelsea show garden.

How it works

How Naomi designs a commercial garden

Step 1

You tell Naomi about the space

A first conversation about the site, who will use it and what you want it to do for them.

Step 2

Naomi visits the site

She looks at the layout, the light, how people arrive and move through, and what is already planted.

Step 3

You see the design first

A concept design, then drawings and a planting plan, so everyone involved can see it before work begins.

Step 4

The space is planted and cared for

Naomi can do the planting, and provides a maintenance plan and site visits as the planting matures.

We had the pleasure of working with Naomi on two separate Chelsea Show gardens. Her work was truly amazing, from the moment of concept throughout the process of design and execution we could not have been more delighted and proud to partner with her and her team.

— Geraldine Reilly