540 gardens.
Six of them, in detail.
A representative slice of our portfolio — private gardens, estate grounds and hospitality landscapes across five regions. Filter by type, or scroll to three projects told in full.
The Hillside Courtyard
The brief
A walled 1970s garden, mostly lawn and overgrown shrubs, for a couple downsizing from a larger estate but unwilling to give up a "proper" garden — somewhere to sit with a book, host a dozen people, and keep busy without it becoming a chore.
The approach
We kept the original brick walls — the garden's best feature — and replaced the lawn with a sunken stone terrace and a long reflecting pool that mirrors the walls' proportions. Planting is almost entirely structural: yew, box and hornbeam, chosen specifically because they hold their shape with two maintenance visits a year rather than weekly mowing.
What changed
The garden went from roughly 70% lawn requiring weekly cutting to under 10% — replaced by stone, gravel and structural planting. Water use dropped because the new planting needs no irrigation after its first establishment year. Evening use of the garden increased significantly once the lighting scheme was installed, according to the clients.
In the clients' words
"We were nervous about losing the lawn — it felt like the obvious thing a garden 'should' have. A year on, we use this space more than we ever used the old one, and spend a fraction of the time on it."
Al Marmoom Villa Garden
↔ Drag to compare site condition before and after the 14-month build
The brief
A newly built villa on a graded sand plot in Al Marmoom, with a brief to create "somewhere that feels like it's always been here" — despite the surrounding development being only a few years old.
The approach
Rather than fight the climate with thirsty lawns, the design leans into it: a central shaded courtyard with a long linear pool, surrounded by date palms, olive and arid-adapted planting selected with our Dubai studio's nursery partners. Every planting bed sits on a drip irrigation zone calibrated to that specific species' water need — not a single blanket setting.
What changed
The estimated irrigation demand for the finished garden is roughly 40% lower than a comparable villa garden using conventional turf and ornamental planting in the same district, based on our design team's water-budget modelling at handover.
A note on award recognition
This project received the Middle East Landscape Awards' Best Private Garden (UAE) recognition in 2021, cited in particular for the water-budget approach to a large arid-climate plot.
Cliffside Terraces
The brief
A 24-room boutique hotel on a steep coastal site, where the existing grounds were a mix of invasive species and erosion-prone bare slopes — a safety and conservation concern as much as an aesthetic one.
The approach
We worked with a local ecologist to remove invasive species and replant the slopes with indigenous fynbos — the same plant community native to the Cape Floristic Region — terraced with low dry-stone walls to control erosion. Guest paths were routed to existing contours rather than cut new, minimising additional disturbance.
What changed
Within 18 months, the replanted slopes had established enough ground cover to meet the erosion-control targets set with the local conservation authority — and the hotel reports the gardens are now consistently mentioned in guest reviews, a first for the property.
Ongoing relationship
TerraLux's Cape Town maintenance partner continues to manage the grounds on a quarterly contract, including continued monitoring for invasive species regrowth.
Tell us about
your site.
Whether it's a courtyard, a coastal plot or a hotel's grounds, the first step is the same: a conversation about what you have and what you want it to become.