Colwynn Design · Garden design in Surrey
I’m Chris Bell, and every garden I design starts with a story.
With over 10 years of experience, I design gardens across Surrey that are beautiful, resilient, and rooted in the story of the place they belong to. I am the founder and lead designer at Colwynn Design.
I trained at UCLA in California, where water-wise planting is a necessity, not a trend, and where Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Middle Eastern, and European influences all shape the design language. I bring both lessons: water-wise design and cosmopolitan style to gardens here in Surrey. Gardens built to look after themselves, support local wildlife, and handle our increasingly hot and dry summers with wet winters.
I work across Dorking, Reigate, Woking, Sutton, and the towns and villages between, designing with Surrey’s own landscape: its sandy heaths, chalk downland, and clay-rich Weald, rather than against it.
I also write about garden design history on my blog, work that’s been cited by National Geographic and referenced on Wikipedia.
Chris Bell
History
A Strong Sense of Place
England’s great 18th-century landscape gardens, Stourhead chief among them, were designed as a journey: temples, follies, and framed views built to tell a story. I take the same approach, but the story I tell is your property’s own. Every design starts with research. I look into your property’s history: its past uses, the age of the house, local landmarks. That research shapes the design itself, in a path that follows an old boundary, planting that echoes a former orchard, or materials that nod to the building’s period. The result is a garden with a story built in, one you can share with visitors.
Planting
Sustainable, Drought-Tolerant Planting
I design drought-tolerant planting schemes using native and near-native species suited to Surrey’s soils and climate. These gardens need less water, less fertiliser, and less upkeep, while still delivering colour and structure through the seasons.
Wildlife
Designed for Wildlife
My gardens are natural and informal, designed to support pollinators, birds, and other wildlife as much as to look good. Native planting forms the backbone of every scheme, chosen for its relationship with local insects and animals as well as its beauty.
Drainage
Water-Wise by Design
Drawing on my water-saving design experience in California, most of my Surrey projects include sustainable drainage features: rain gardens, permeable paving, soakaways, and planted swales that manage rainfall on site. These SuDS features cut flood risk, recharge groundwater, and often become some of the garden’s most attractive elements.
Maintenance
Low-Maintenance, Long-Lasting
Because every design starts with the right plant in the right place, these gardens are genuinely low-maintenance, not just marketed that way. Less watering, feeding, and replacing failed plants means more time to enjoy the garden.
Aftercare
Ongoing Care
Drought-tolerant, native gardens take time to establish, but the wait is worth it: first year slower, second year grower, third year show-er. While the permanent planting beds in, I fill the space with wildflowers and bulbs, so the garden looks full from year one. Every project includes free quarterly check-ups for the first year, four visits to monitor how the planting is settling in and catch any issues early. You’ll also get a bespoke maintenance guide, so you know how to care for the garden long after that first year is done.
Based in Surrey, designing gardens throughout the east side of the county — from Dorking, Redhill, Tadworth, Reigate, Woking, Sutton, Carshalton, and beyond.