All the hard work has paid off. Finally, after months of late nights, mulitple cups of coffee and pots of tea, the website is up and running. Greenstone Design's brand of ethical, low maintenance, sensory landscape architecture + sustainable design has officially arrived in New Zealand.

Greenstone Design UK has been around for a while but when my husband got head hunted home it was the perfect opportunity to open a new office down under. We have now been here 9 months, exhibited a sustainable sensory garden at the Ellerslie International Flower Show, designed a family Eco garden for the Wellington Home and Building Show, run the first Garden Design workshop and as of this month have 2 residential, 1 commercial and 1 public sector clients on the go. Our design team is growing and we can now offer full surveys and engineering reports as part of the wider Greenstone Design offering. Life is always busy, never dull.

I will be updating the pages regularly as I'm a bit of a fiddler and a perfectionist. So check back soon! (and do tell me if you find any glitches, typos or just have a question)

This blog will be my oportunity to post thoughts and ideas, as they happen. It won't be regular but will be worth reading I hope! Please comment as you feel the urge.

Our Facebook page has stories and links to research and design projects. You can find it at https://www.facebook.com/GreenstoneDesign. Please Like us and tell your friends

Greenstone Design Ltd, specialises in the design and development of sustainable landscapes, for schools, adventure playgrounds, hotels and hospitals, housing estates and private residences. We work around the world, wherever projects take us.

Our mission is to make the world a better place through design, so we accept commissions wherever we feel we can make a difference, environmentally and socially, and where appropriate, to a business’s bottom line.

Originally from New Zealand, I have lived in and learned from a variety of countries around the world. While living in Malaysia I was asked to design the grounds of the 50 acre Shangri-La group’s eco hotel in Sabah, Borneo. Netted butterfly café, viewing panels into the sea from decks around the beach bar, outdoor spas, were among features included to make the grounds pay for themselves.

In Portugal I designed the 8ha. grounds of Europe’s first disabled children’s hotel. Sensory gardens there include a wildlife petting zoo as well as kitchen gardens for guests to work in and profit from.

In Surrey, England, we designed 2 acre community gardens for a local food growing initiative. The gardens include inclusive full–height raised beds, a communal BBQ and children’s play area, wildlife pond, forest-garden shelter planting.

For the National Spinal Injuries Centre UK, we designed a low cost, low maintenace rehab garden. Numerous school projects have seen outdoor learning environments, roof gardens, rainwater harvesting, natural play, growing areas and proactively managed grounds develop the school site as an educational and community asset.

Residential Islamic paradise gardens, country house gardens, town house courtyard and roof gardens in counties, climates and cultures as diverse as UK, Singapore, India, France, Mexico, and NZ have all received the 'Greenstone touch'.

We believe that too often the grounds of a house, hotel, hospital or school are just there 'as a backdrop’ and do nothing positive to aid learning opportunities, fun, fantasy or bio-diversity, reduce the effect of urban heat islands and urban runoff, mitigate climate change, and ultimately bring sustainable communities together. We are keenly aware of the positive role of landscape in treating a variety of health conditions.

Our team is small, with hand-picked experienced landscape architects, garden designers, interior architects and CAD technicians. We have developed trusted relationships with land and quantity surveyors, a health and safety advisor, soil scientists, hydrologists and engineers. 

Costs vary. Projects start from around $20,000. The design fee is a small portion of that. If you are interested in how we might work together please do get in touch.

Garden design course #1 went well last weekend, hosted in the Trinity Farm barn. As part of the 2012 seminar series we are offering a selection of design-based workshops.