— Landscape Design & Build · Est. 2011
Designed gardens,
built to last.
— A studio practice, not a service
Most landscape work is treated as a transaction. We treat it as a piece of long architecture. Every garden we design is considered for how it will be lived in, how it will weather, and how it will look in twenty years — not just in the first photograph.
— Selected Work
Recent projects.
— Project 01
Karori Hillside
LocationWellington
Year2024
ScopeNative garden · Stone path · Water feature
A modern front-of-house native garden for a recently rebuilt timber home. Drifts of toetoe and flax frame a curved slate path, anchored by mature pohutukawa and selected basalt boulders. Designed to look established from day one and to deepen with age.
— Project 02
Thorndon Courtyard
LocationWellington
Year2023
ScopeHardscape · Water feature · Limestone bench
A small inner-city courtyard transformed into a contemplative outdoor room. A mirror-still rectangular water feature is set in weathered steel, balanced by a curved Oamaru limestone bench and a quiet gravel garden of olives, lavender and agave.
— Project 03
Kelburn Terraces
LocationWellington
Year2023
ScopeRetaining walls · Stone steps · Hillside planting
A neglected hillside reshaped into three sandstone-walled terraces planted with lambs ear, lavender, manuka and ornamental grasses. A natural-stone stairway connects the levels, threading the slope into one cohesive composition.
— One Yard, Six Months
From neglected
to designed.
— Before
— After · Six months later
— How We Work
Four stages.
I
Consultation
We walk the site together. We listen to how you live, what you love, and what isn't working. No clipboard pitches — just a conversation in your garden.
II
Design
A considered concept developed by hand and on paper. Plans, planting palettes, material samples. We refine it together until it feels inevitable.
III
Build
Our small in-house team executes the design with the same care it was drawn with. Every stone is placed by hand. Every plant is chosen for its mature form, not its day-one appearance.
IV
Care
A garden is a living thing. We offer seasonal care visits to settle, prune, and adjust the planting as it matures into the design.
— Sam Whittaker · Founder
“A garden isn't something you finish. It's something you start, and then you spend the next twenty years getting to know.”
Sam founded Verdant Studio in 2011 after a decade designing public landscapes for architectural firms in Auckland and Melbourne. He works with a small in-house team and takes on no more than eight projects a year — one at a time, fully present.
— Client Voices
“We were quoted $22,000 by a specialist firm for the Karori project. Sam delivered a more considered design at a fraction of the price, and the result genuinely improved our home. Two years on, the planting has matured exactly as he said it would.”
— Helena & James R.
Karori Hillside · 2024
“What we paid for wasn't a garden — it was a kind of careful attention we didn't know existed in this industry. Every stone, every plant, every line. We've stopped showing people photos and started inviting them over.”
— Marcus L.
Thorndon Courtyard · 2023
— By appointment only
Considering a project
in Columbus?
We take on no more than eight projects a year. If you'd like to discuss your garden, send us a note. We'll respond within two working days.