A professional, hands-on service providing help with your garden project, be it a completely new venture or to breathe life back into a fading garden

Garden Design in West Devon

I offer a full service, from design and construction, through to planting plans, and the planting of borders, as well as offering practical advice on all aspects of gardening and renovation. 

Based in Tavistock, I cover Yelverton, Plymouth, Launceston, Okehampton and the wider area depending on the size of the project.

Please visit my Facebook page for information on some of my current projects.

Emma pruning climbers in a small town garden

About Emma Crow

My passion for plants and gardening runs through my veins. I spent many hours as a child gardening with my mother at our home near Tavistock. My father was a tree specialist, holding the world's largest private wood collection. I grew up with Latin plant names and family holidays waiting for my father to scramble down woody ravines to catalogue a rare tree!

A border in a garden at Lifton, planted around 8 years ago. Upright yews provide repetition throughout this colourful border

A lush water garden at Walkhampton, enhanced by a palette of contrasting colours and textures

A wealth of gardening experience

Throughout my life I have been involved in various aspects of Horticulture, developing in depth knowledge and understanding of plants and their role in gardening over many years.

• After leaving school in Plymouth, I joined one of the leading UK nurseries, Hilliers of Hampshire, where I undertook an apprenticeship, widening my plant knowledge and an awareness for successful design in both gardens and parks
• Undertook a BSc(Hons) in Amenity Horticulture at the University of London where I studied garden design. A Masters degree in Plant Taxonomy at Reading University further deepened my understanding of plants 
• Following the publication of my research on a group of South African plants I became a curator at Limbe Botanic Gardens, Cameroon
• I took up a position as a researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew where, affiliated with Imperial College I received a PhD for my studies on bamboo 
• Returned to West Devon with my husband and two children where I have been working as a gardener and designer in numerous gardens for nearly twenty five years

A re-landscaped garden in Whitchurch. Previously a featureless slope, the garden now has levels and steps, with structural interest