Garden Design Online Services: Award Winning UK Designer Lee Burkhill

Your garden should be a space you love spending time in, not a source of stress and uncertainty. As the award-winning garden designer behind hundreds of transformations and a familiar face from BBC One’s Garden Rescue, I specialise in making professional garden design accessible, affordable, and achievable for everyone. Whether you want to learn the skills to design your own garden, get quick expert advice on a specific problem, or commission a full bespoke redesign, my range of services takes you from confusion to confidence.

Most of what people actually need doesn’t require a five-figure budget or months of waiting. My online courses start from just £29 and teach you the exact process I use professionally, while a £250 video consultation gets you personalised sketches and an actionable plan within days. If you do want the complete bespoke service, that’s available too, but for most gardens and most budgets, the courses and consultations below deliver the bulk of the value at a fraction of the cost and none of the wait.

1. Garden Design Online Courses

What if you want to learn how to design your own garden, properly, without attending expensive, long yearly courses or night school? You can learn garden design online with my courses, priced from £29 to £199.

Have you ever looked at beautifully designed gardens and wondered how designers create such harmonious, functional spaces? The secret isn’t some innate talent available only to the privileged few. Garden design follows proven principles that anyone can learn, and my online courses distil over three decades of professional experience into accessible, practical lessons you can complete from anywhere in the world.

Unlike traditional garden design courses that require years of attendance and fees often exceeding £10,000, these comprehensive online programmes teach you everything from fundamental design principles to advanced planting schemes in a matter of hours, depending on which course you choose. Each is structured with video demonstrations, downloadable resources, practical exercises, and real-world examples from my award-winning portfolio.

Garden Design Online Course Features

• Learn at your own pace anywhere in the world
• Step-by-step syllabus to train you in the fundamentals of garden design
• Cost-effective compared to expensive classroom courses or degrees
• Quizzes, video demonstrations and lessons with other online students
• An active course forum for further questions or examples of design work with Lee
• Unlimited access to the course materials, for life

Whether you’re a homeowner wanting to design your own garden with confidence, considering a career change into garden design, or a keen gardener looking to deepen your horticultural knowledge, these courses provide a flexible, cost-effective pathway to expertise. Many graduates have gone on to design their own gardens successfully or even launch garden design businesses.

Not sure which course suits you? See the full course comparison here, or browse them all below.

69

New Garden Starter Kit: Beginner Gardening Checklists

For the garden you’ve already got, not the one you’re starting from scratch. Seven checklists and video lessons from BBC Garden Rescue’s Lee Burkhill, built to help you work out what’s worth keeping before you spend a penny.

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29

Garden Design Examples for Small Gardens: 30 Design Templates & Planting Plans

Garden Design Examples for Small Gardens: 30 Design Templates & Planting Plans: In this online gardening course, I’ll walk you through 30 fantastic garden designs, explaining the logic behind the layout, the plant choices, and take-home tips for applying them in your own garden.

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99

Weekend Garden Makeover: A Crash Course in Design for Beginners

Learn how to transform and design your own garden with Lee Burkhills crash course in garden design. Over 5 hours Lee will teach you how to design your own dream garden. Featuring practical design examples, planting ideas and video guides. Learn how to design your garden in one weekend!

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199

Garden Design for Beginners: Create Your Dream Garden in Just 4 Weeks

Garden Design for Beginners Online Course: If you want to make the career jump to becoming a garden designer or to learn how to design your own garden, this is the beginner course for you. Join me, Lee Burkhill, an award-winning garden designer, as I train you in the art of beautiful garden design.

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2. Online Garden Design Consultation

Sometimes you don’t need a complete garden overhaul, or the time it takes to work through a course yourself. Perhaps you’re struggling with a shady corner that never seems to thrive, can’t decide where to position a new patio, or simply need expert guidance to bring your own ideas to life quickly. That’s exactly what the Online Garden Design Consultation is for.

This virtual consultation brings award-winning garden design expertise directly to your home through a convenient video call at a time that suits your schedule. Before we meet, you’ll receive a detailed questionnaire that helps me understand your garden’s challenges, your lifestyle, and your aspirations for the space, so we make the most of every minute together.

During your hour-long consultation, we’ll walk through your garden virtually using photos and videos you’ve shared, discussing everything from problematic areas to untapped potential. I’ll create rough sketches directly over your garden photos, showing you exactly how different features could work in your space. You’ll receive practical, actionable advice on plant selection, layout improvements, and design solutions you can implement yourself or brief a landscaper to execute.

This service is perfect for homeowners who enjoy being hands-on with their gardens but want professional guidance to avoid costly mistakes. It’s ideal if you’re working with a limited budget, tackling a specific garden problem, or planning a phased garden improvement project. Many clients use this consultation as a starting point, gaining the confidence and direction they need before deciding whether to invest further.

Following our session, you’ll receive a summary of our discussion, annotated photos with my sketches, and personalised recommendations for plants and materials suited to your garden’s conditions.

Garden Design Online Consultation Benefits:

• Work out your garden’s potential layout
• Address planting issues or ideas
• Get expert advice on making your garden work perfectly
• Create rough sketches of garden features over your garden photos
• Provide expert tips to help save you time & money
• Choose a convenient time and date online
• Detailed questionnaire sent out in advance

The cost for this service is £250 per hour. I’m proud to have been one of the first designers offering this kind of service, making expert garden design advice genuinely accessible regardless of where you live.

3. Full Bespoke Garden Design

For those who want the complete, done-for-you experience, I offer an award-winning full garden redesign service. Investment starts from £2,500, depending on size, complexity and location, and includes:

• Initial consultation
• Mood boards
• Concept design
• Scaled final design in plan format
• Watercolour hand-drawn garden design render
• Planting list & maintenance plan

The process starts with an in-depth consultation at your property to understand your lifestyle and how you want to use the space, before I create detailed hand-drawn designs, scaled plans, planting schemes matched to your soil and aspect, and 3D visualisations. These are bespoke creations tailored entirely to your space, not generic templates.

This service suits homeowners undertaking significant garden projects or anyone who wants the assurance of a fully bespoke design from start to finish. Most projects take at least six weeks from start to finish, longer for larger gardens. Investment: from £2,500, depending on size, complexity and location. See the full pricing breakdown here.

Not quite ready for that level of investment? The online courses and video consultation above give you most of the same expertise at a fraction of the cost, and with no waiting list.

4. Garden Media, TV Presenting & Guest Speaking

Garden Ninja Lee Burkhill is available to book for any media, presenting or guest speaking engagements.

As a regular presenter on BBC One’s Garden Rescue and an experienced speaker at RHS flower shows, I bring both horticultural expertise and engaging communication skills to media appearances, corporate events, and gardening shows. Popular topics include garden design fundamentals, sustainable gardening, wildlife-friendly gardens, and the journey from amateur gardener to professional designer.

If you’re interested in booking me for media work, speaking engagements, or guest appearances, please get in touch through the contact form with details about your event, preferred dates, and any specific requirements.

Pricing: available upon request based on requirements

5. Lee Burkhill Cameo

Looking for a unique gift for the gardening enthusiast in your life? Through Cameo, I offer custom video messages, garden advice, encouragement, or a personal touch for birthdays, anniversaries, or any occasion. Each video is personally recorded and tailored to your specific request, and typically arrives within a few days.

Book through Cameo, pricing available on the platform. Book me, Lee Burkhill, on Cameo here.

Why Work With Lee Garden Ninja

With decades of experience and a portfolio of award-winning designs, I’ve helped hundreds of homeowners transform ordinary outdoor spaces into extraordinary gardens, whether that’s through a course, a consultation, or a full redesign. What makes working with Garden Ninja different is the combination of professional expertise with genuine accessibility. Garden design shouldn’t be exclusive or intimidating; it should be a joyful process that empowers you to create the outdoor space you’ve always wanted, at whichever level of involvement suits you.

My approach balances aesthetics with practicality, and aspiration with budget reality. Whether you’re spending £29 on a course, £250 on a consultation, or commissioning a complete redesign, you’ll receive the same commitment to excellence and attention to detail. That’s why every service is tailored specifically to your needs, your budget, and your vision.

Reviews of Garden Ninja Services

Want to see what my clients say about my design and online garden consultation services? Have a look below at my plethora of 5-star reviews from happy Garden Ninja clients!

 
 
 
  
 
 
 
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 Rosemary 
 
 
 
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Lee has been very helpful and patient to help me with my courgette problem
  
 
  
 
 
 
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 Rosie Masters 
 
 
 
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As a complete beginner gardener who moved house last year and inherited a tiered blank canvas garden I decided to sign up for Lee’s Garden Ninja Beginner Design Course. I’ve learnt such a lot and I love how Lee breaks down information into bite size sections with videos and tips on all of the basic guidelines that you need to understand. Each topic was easily digestible and you can move to particular section. You can also download images and designs for each of the aspects, with multiple examples which means that you can build a very valuable source of information as reference material for the future.  I’d recommend purchasing the course bundle so that you have access to around 30 different designs and then work your way through the courses as and when you have time.

After completing the courses last week I booked a 1 hour on-line consultation call with Lee which has given me the confidence to proceed with the design ideas I’ve been floating but wasn’t sure if they’d work. Lee reviewed my draft plan and photos before we spoke, and because I’d done my homework by completing the course, we discussed my gardening experience, the high level brief of how I want to use my garden and the effect I’m trying to achieve, so we went straight into full design mode! It was amazing, I thought I was a client on Garden Rescue! Within 30 minutes Lee had sketched out my basic design on copies of the photos I’d sent leaving us time to talk about plants/trees which would complement the design and how to resolve some of the issues with a neighbours fence, the tiers, tree stumps etc.

Lee was so warm and friendly, just like you see him on the TV, it was such a great call and I got so much out of it. Lee sent me scanned copies of the sketches he made, re-capped each area that we discussed as well as links to planting suggestions, the colour wheel etc, so I’m now all set now to put my design together.

I can’t thank Lee enough for all of the advice and encouragement, what he offers is truly fantastic so if you’re wanting work done in your garden and need independent professional advice on your project, however small or large I would 100% recommend booking in an on-line consultation with the chief garden ninja!
  
 
  
 
 
 
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 Helen Harper 
 
 
 
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New build and a very overlooked garden

After living in a secluded and private plot with land in Norfolk we decided to go for a new build but with an overlooked garden. We were aware about it from the start so as soon as we settled we took on the project of improving the privacy of our back garden. That's how we found Lee, his website and YouTube channel. We were happy with what we saw and learnt from his site and  immediately booked a consultation with him. And we are so happy we did !! Even friends and with garden experience would come up with some ideas for us which wouldn't work or wouldn't do us any favours to the issues we needed to deal with. That's why we wanted to have a specialist who can highlight different points to us. The structure of the consultation was brilliant: you send the required info/pics beforehand with your concerns and at the beginning of the consultation there's a short introduction from you, and then lots and lots of information with drawings on your sketches/photos from Lee with all the tips, explanations and reasons why and how,  followed by links to the mentioned info by email the next day.
We genuinely believe that we will save ourselves money by starting the process with this consultation from lee.
  
 
  
 
 
 
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 Paul Tippett 
 
 
 
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Love the video's and all the helpful advice on his website, it really helps especially being new to gardening, definitely one of the best sites for information and guidance. It's been a massive help,  especially the way in which lee explains/walks you through certain topics.
  
 
  
 
 
 
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 Syed Ali 
 
 
 
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Lee is great. I reached out to him as I was having issues with my new turf. Lee responded straight away an explained to me what the problem was and also provided me with a solution. He's also asked to follow up with him in a week which is great 👍
  
 
  
 
 
 
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 Mark Hett 
 
 
 
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Absolutely brilliant advice.
  
 
  
 
 
 
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 gail easton 
 
 
 
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Lost of useful advice on the blogs and you can ask questions in the members forum, where you get a comprehensive rely.
  
 
  
 
 
 
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 Heidi Karino 
 
 
 
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Lee's consultation took me from completely confused and stressed about my garden, to really excited about what it could become. I'm a complete novice with a new build garden. I had a basic turf & patio arrangement, but after living there a few years I realized the patio was all wrong.

As well as giving me a draft design, Lee helped me understand some basic garden design principles that let me go away and come up with a design that would work for me and my family.

We've finally got the landscaping done and I am so happy with how it's turned out. There is no way I could have come up with this design on my own. The consulation was the best money every spent and I highly recommend it to anyone with a garden dillema.
  
 
  
 
 
 
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 Mr P Stanton 
 
 
 
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Thanks Lee - a very detailed and helpful reply to my post. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. 5 stars!
  
 
  
 
 
 
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 Anne Wilson 
 
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. 
We thoroughly enjoyed our 1 hour consultancy with Lee. Before the meeting we had some ideas but were worried if they'd work. After speaking to Lee we now have a clear idea of what we can do in our garden and the confidence to do it (and go bold!). I am not sure why we hesitated in contacting the Garden Ninja as he is an expert in both plants and garden design and his shared knowledge will prevent us from making some costly mistakes.
Many Thanks Lee
  
 
  
 
 
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Do You Have a Gardening Question?

If you have a gardening question, why not use the Garden Ninja Gardening Forum, where hundreds of Garden Ninja members can help you, or look through the hundreds of gardening guides on my blog?

The online gardening forum has hundreds of mixed gardening and garden design questions with detailed answers from the Ninjas and me. So, if you have a gardening question that you’re either too embarrassed to ask or can’t find the answer to online, use the forum below to allow the Ninja community to help solve your garden problems. It is free to use!

Garden Ninja on Social Media

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Lee Burkhill

Lee Burkhill, known as the Garden Ninja, is an award-winning garden designer and horticulturist with over 30 years of gardening experience and 15 years as a professional garden designer. A qualified RHS professional, Lee specialises in sustainable garden design and practical horticultural advice. He designs and presents on BBC1’s Garden Rescue and in leading gardening publications.

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