About us
Meet your Garden Design Team
At Rob Hardy & Co, we are a small studio with a big commitment to getting it right
Rob Hardy & Co was founded in 2016 on a simple belief: that a well-designed garden changes the way you live in your home. Since then we’ve grown into a close-knit team of garden designers, landscape architects, horticulturists and project managers based on the Harewood Estate, Yorkshire.
We believe outdoor spaces should connect people to nature, to each other and to their homes and are proud that our work reflects this. We’ve won a gold medal and best in show at RHS Tatton Park, we’ve been selected to exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026, and we’ve built a client base that comes to us largely through recommendation. However, credentials only tell part of the story. What sets us apart is the way we work, carefully, honestly and with a real investment in the outcome of every project we take on.
The Garden Design Team
Rob Hardy
Director & Garden Designer
Rob’s award-winning gardens are known for their balance of colour, form and structure.
With over 20 years of experience in garden design, horticulture and project management, Rob brings a confident, creative approach to every project. His background in Fine Art, combined with formal training in horticulture at Askham Bryan and a Garden Design degree from the Northern School of Garden Design, gives him a distinctive perspective grounded in both artistry and plant knowledge.
Rob’s award-winning gardens are known for their balance of colour, form and structure - spaces that are not only visually striking but practical and inviting. He is particularly skilled at creating flexible, liveable outdoor environments that respond to both setting and client. A pre-registered member of the Society of Garden Designers and winner of an RHS Gold Medal and Best in Show at RHS Tatton Park.
Tim Gray
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Tim graduated from the Yorkshire School of Garden Design and brings a thoughtful, imaginative approach to every project. Fascinated by the power of gardens to evoke memory and emotion, he's particularly interested in the stories outdoor spaces can tell and how they connect with their architectural setting and the wider landscape.
With a background in law and hospitality, Tim combines analytical thinking with a natural sensitivity to people and place. He draws out the unique character of a site while responding to the personalities and aspirations of those who will use it, creating gardens that feel beautifully composed and deeply personal.
Hala Khalifa
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Hala is a highly experienced landscape architect with a strong track record of delivering large, design-led projects. Before joining the studio she worked as a Senior Landscape Architect at Sites International, contributing to major masterplans and detailed landscape designs across the Middle East.
Skilled at guiding projects from concept to delivery, Hala balances creative ambition with the practical demands of complex sites. Her experience of working closely with architects, planners and engineers brings clarity and coordination to even the most challenging briefs. She is passionate about creating landscapes that feel rooted in their setting; functional, elegant and enriching to experience.
Fran Dalziel
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Inspired by her rural upbringing and love of design, Fran creates outdoor spaces that feel like a natural extension of the home. Trained at the Yorkshire School of Garden Design, she has a strong eye for composition, texture and seasonal planting and is particularly drawn to gardens that balance structure with softness.
Warm, professional and detail-oriented, Fran brings genuine enthusiasm to every project, whether it's a compact courtyard or a larger rural landscape.
Susan Bone
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Susan is a highly accomplished landscape architect with over 25 years of experience designing beautiful, functional outdoor spaces. Known for her ability to translate complex ideas into elegant, practical solutions, she excels at creating gardens that feel both refined and inviting, seamlessly blending architecture with planting to enhance the character of each space.
Over the course of her career Susan has worked on a wide range of projects, from private gardens to large-scale developments, bringing strong design sensibility and a keen eye for detail to every brief.
Jack Taylor
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Jack trained as a product designer before focusing entirely on bringing garden designs to life through three-dimensional images, virtual reality and walkthrough animations. As a qualified designer, he's also involved in key design decisions, working closely with the team to ensure the vision is communicated with clarity and impact from the very first client presentation.
Jo Chambers
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Jo keeps the studio running smoothly, managing project planning, client liaison, invoicing and marketing and making sure the team has everything they need to do their best work. Organised, dependable and solutions-focused, she brings a calm, positive energy to the business and takes genuine pride in ensuring every client feels well looked after from first conversation to finished garden.
Jo spent 30 years in social housing, predominantly in the delivery of new homes, giving her a strong understanding of design teams, the planning process and project delivery, a background she now combines with a growing passion for horticulture. What draws her to the work is the knowledge that what the studio delivers isn't just a beautiful outdoor space, but one that enhances the way people live in their homes for years to come. Watching that come to fruition, she says, is quite special. She's also, by her own admission, completely in awe of the team who design them.
Accreditation
We’re a pre-registered member of the Society of Garden Designers working towards full accreditation.
Our Approach to Garden Design
Our design philosophy is straightforward: create beautiful gardens that perfectly suit their setting and the people who live in them and make them spaces you want to spend time in, season after season.
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Great garden design is more than making a space look remarkable. It's the thought that goes into how the space is used, the features and materials that give it character, and the subtle details, visible and invisible, that make a garden truly work. We believe in looking carefully at those finer details. They're not the finishing touch, they are the design.
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Quality is not negotiable for us. We select the best materials available, built to last and chosen to suit the specific demands of each project. Whether that's hard landscaping materials or plants sourced from the best nurseries in Europe, we'll help you find the best that your budget allows.
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We take our responsibility to the environment seriously. We specify locally sourced materials wherever possible, choose plants that support biodiversity and pollinators and design with sustainability in mind from the very beginning of a project. A garden that works with its setting, rather than against it, is always a better garden.
Our process places your vision at the heart of our designs
A beautiful design is only as good as the process that delivers it. Ours is thorough and transparent, keeping you informed and in control at every stage.
We listen carefully, design with purpose and stay involved through every stage of a project until the garden is exactly what it was always meant to be. We're easy to work with, honest about costs and timelines and deeply invested in the outcome of every project we take on.
Our studio is based on the Harewood Estate in Yorkshire, a working estate that constantly fills us with inspiration. We work primarily with clients across Yorkshire and Northern England, though we’ll always consider the right project where it takes us, including major cities like London, Manchester and Leeds.
We found Rob on the Internet and he has been a breath of fresh air. He is a man who inspires confidence and after assessing the site he came back to us with plans and illustrations of his vision for our gardens. We are thrilled with the end result and cannot recommend Rob Hardy & Co highly enough.
- John Grayshon
Explore our Garden Projects
Harrogate townhouse garden
historic house garden in Yorkshire
garden for entertaining in Huddersfield