About Jo Thompson Landscape & Garden Design
Jo Thompson is one of the UK’s leading garden designers, known for creating beautifully crafted, sustainable landscapes and gardens that stand the test of time. Her work is defined by biodiversity, exquisite planting design, and a masterful understanding of space, colour and form. Renowned for her romantic style and expertise with roses, Jo favours what she calls “a gentle intervention rather than the heavy stamp of design.” Her gardens are deeply connected to their setting and have earned her an international reputation as one of the most talented and thoughtful landscape and garden designers working today.
Described as a modern successor to Britain’s horticultural heroine Gertrude Jekyll, consistently listed by House & Garden and Country Life among the country’s top garden designers, and named by The Times as one of the six best garden designers working today, Jo works closely with each client to ensure that every garden design reflects its setting and the people who will enjoy it. Her design approach is grounded in listening, attention to detail and an instinctive understanding of how planting design can shape atmosphere and emotion.
“You shouldn’t look at one of my gardens and immediately know that I made it. It doesn’t need to look like it has always been there, but it should look like it could be there forever.” – Jo Thompson
Jo Thompson
Garden Designer, Plantswoman, Author, and RHS Gold Medal Winner
A multi–gold medal winner at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Jo received Gold in 2025 for The Glasshouse Garden. Her projects span the UK and internationally – from wildflower meadows in the English countryside to rooftop terraces in New York and coastal gardens in Italy and Brazil. Current public projects include the Winter Garden at RHS Rosemoor and the planting strategy at Highgate Cemetery in London with Gustafson Porter + Bowman.
Much of Jo’s formative inspiration comes from Italy, where she spent her childhood in Rome and Venice and long summers in Tuscany. The art, architecture and landscapes of Italy continue to inform her instinctive feel for space, light and planting composition.
Jo is the author of The Gardener’s Palette and The New Romantic Garden, which explore the magic of gardens and how planting design can evoke emotion and atmosphere. An expert and lover of roses, she created a series of “rose recipes” for distinguished grower David Austin Roses for the Handbook of Roses.
She also writes The Gardening Mind, her acclaimed weekly gardening and design Substack – the most-read gardening newsletter globally – blending practical planting advice, behind-the-scenes insight and garden design inspiration. Ranked in the worldwide Design charts and read in more than 160 countries, it offers Jo’s creative perspective on the art and craft of making gardens.
Jo is an RHS Shows Judge, a member of the RHS Show Gardens Selection Panel and RHS Gardens Committee, and Garden Advisor for RHS Rosemoor. A Fellow of the Society of Garden Designers and the Landscape Institute, and a Trustee of Bankside Open Spaces Trust, Jo also lectures widely and teaches at the London College of Garden Design.
The team
We are a team of landscape architects, garden designers and architects, all of whom are horticultural experts, bringing their skills and commitment to every project. We are a small and happy studio, bursting with creativity and expertise.
The team
We are a team of landscape architects, garden designers and architects, all of whom are horticultural experts, bringing their skills and commitment to every project. We are a small and happy studio, bursting with creativity and expertise.
