About — Colwynn Design

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 Reigate, Dorking, Banstead, Carshalton, 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

Many of Surrey's most famous gardens were designed as a journey: temples, follies, and framed views built to tell a story. I take the same approach, and 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, a dry river bed for an ancient waterway. or materials that nod to the building’s period. The result is a garden with a story built in and is unique to your home. This story is something my clients enjoy sharing with their guests.

Many of Surrey’s most famous gardens were designed as a journey: temples, follies, and framed views built to tell a story. I take the same approach, and 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, a dry river bed for an ancient waterway. or materials that nod to the building’s period. The result is a garden with a story built in and is unique to your home. This story is something my clients enjoy sharing with their guests.

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.

Our summers are getting hotter and drier, and water in the garden could be scarce in the future. Surrey's own reservoirs already come under strain most summers, and hosepipe bans are becoming a familiar event. Having a drought-tolerant garden is a great benefit to the environment. it keeps thriving through dry spells without relying on constant watering, easing pressure on local supplies at exactly the time they need it most. Choosing the right plant for the right spot from the outset also builds in resilience for the long term, so your garden copes with whatever a Surrey summer brings.

A drought-tolerant native planting scheme

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.

I build in layers, ground cover, shrubs, and small trees, the way a wild hedgerow layers itself, so different creatures find food and shelter at every level. Species are chosen for overlapping flowering times too, giving pollinators a steady source of nectar from early spring through to late autumn rather than one short summer peak. Seed heads and stems are left standing over winter instead of cut back, feeding birds and sheltering overwintering insects. Where there's room, I'll often add a bug hotel, a patch of long grass, or a small area for a seasonal pond. These are modest features that do a lot of quiet work for local biodiversity. The result is a garden that feels genuinely alive through the seasons, not just decorative.

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.

These drainage features help to minimize puddles on lawns, send rainwater away from paved areas and help your garden retain more water for the long rooted drought tolerant plants to tap into in heat of summer.

A rain garden with a planted swale managing rainfall

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.

All gardens come with irrigation plans and I will make sure it is set up so that you do not need to worry about it at all.

Sheet mulching and no dig gardening are other methods I use to help your gardens looking good while looking after themselves.

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.

Wildflowers and bulbs filling in a young garden

Based in Surrey, designing gardens throughout the east side of the county — from Dorking, Redhill, Tadworth, Reigate, Banstead, Sutton, Carshalton, and beyond.