CJ Landscapes is an established landscaping company providing structured landscaping services throughout Ascot. Our landscapers work with homeowners and commercial clients, delivering landscape design that supports long-term use and manageable garden maintenance. Each project is planned to suit the property layout and surrounding environment. Our focus is on clear planning, functionality, and long-term performance.
Landscape design is the foundation of all landscaping projects in Ascot. Our garden designers create layouts that consider access, garden planting, outdoor lighting installation, irrigation, and garden water features. Designs are developed to suit how the outdoor space will be used while remaining practical. This ensures well-structured and functional gardens.
Many homes in Ascot stand on generous plots, often with mature pines, wide lawns and a drive that sets the house well back from the road. A garden of that size can easily feel like a set of separate patches. Our garden designers start by walking the whole site with you, noting where the sun falls through the day, which trees should stay and how each part of the garden is reached from the house.
From there we draw a plan that ties the terrace, the lawn and the wilder edges together, with paths that lead you through the space and planting that changes as you move further from the house. Every design is bespoke, so the plan follows your plot and the way you want to use it rather than a standard layout.
Ascot sits on the light, acidic ground of the Berkshire and Surrey heathland, the sands known as the Bagshot Beds. This soil drains very quickly. That is a help in a wet winter, when lawns rarely sit waterlogged, but it brings its own problems in summer. Rain runs straight through, carrying nutrients down with it, and the top layer can turn dusty within a fortnight of dry weather.
We choose plants that like these conditions rather than fight them. Heathers, rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and pieris all enjoy acidic soil and look at home beneath tall pines. Silver birch, ornamental grasses and many Mediterranean shrubs cope well with dry spells once their roots are established. Where you would like plants that prefer richer ground, we work generous amounts of organic matter into the beds and finish them with a mulch, so the soil holds moisture for longer and feeds the plants through the season.
Lawns on sandy soil are often the first part of the garden to suffer in a hot spell. The grass usually recovers once the rain returns, but a lawn that browns off every summer tends to thin out and let moss and weeds in. Good preparation before turfing or seeding makes a real difference, as does a grass mix suited to dry ground and a higher cut through the warmer months. If you want a lawn that stays green all summer, a watering system is usually the most reliable answer.
On a large plot, the drive, the front door and the paths between them can sit in darkness for much of a winter evening. Outdoor lighting installation makes those routes safe to use and lets you enjoy the garden after sunset. We plan low path lights along walkways, step lights where the levels change and soft light around the terrace, so the garden feels welcoming from the house as well as from outside.
A long drive needs light that guides rather than floods. Evenly spaced low fittings mark the edges, and a brighter light near the house helps when you arrive home late. We plan fittings within the borders and edging, so they sit neatly out of sight in daylight and the drive keeps its natural look.
Tall pines and other mature trees make striking features when lit from below. We position uplighters carefully, keeping fittings and cable runs clear of the main roots and away from the trunk. Warm, low glare lights show off the shape of a tree without lighting up the neighbours' windows or the night sky.
Ascot lies between Windsor Great Park to the north east and the Crown Estate's Swinley Forest to the south west. Gardens near this kind of landscape look best when they soften towards the boundary. Native hedging, woodland edge shrubs and bulbs that spread under trees let a garden step down gently into the view, and give birds and insects food and shelter as part of a biodiversity led design.
Our in house construction team builds what the design sets out, from terraces, paths and steps to walls, edging and drainage. Sandy ground is easy to dig, but it can move under a heavy load if the base beneath paving or a drive is not prepared properly, so we take care over the sub base on every hard surface. Levels are set so that rain runs away from the house and into planted areas or drainage, rather than lying on the terrace.
We plan the build alongside the planting, lighting and watering, so cables and pipes are laid before the stone goes down. That saves lifting new paving later to add a light or a tap.
On soil that drains as quickly as it does here, a watering system earns its place. A well planned irrigation system delivers water straight to the roots of new planting and lawns at the best time of day, using drip lines in the borders and sprinklers on the grass. Less water is lost to paths and evaporation, and you spend far less time with a hose in a dry summer. We group plants with similar needs so each zone receives what it needs and no more.
A water feature brings sound and movement to a large garden, whether that is a formal rill beside the terrace or a wildlife pond near a woodland edge. Sandy soil will not hold water by itself, so a pond needs a proper liner and a well made edge. We place features where they can be enjoyed from the house and away from the heaviest leaf and needle fall, which keeps them clearer through the autumn.
Large gardens need steady care to stay at their best. Our dedicated maintenance team runs a monthly programme tailored to your garden, with seasonal horticultural care, aftercare for new planting and checks on irrigation, lighting and water features so small faults are caught early. We look after gardens we have built and gardens built by another contractor. Our garden maintenance page explains how the programme is arranged.
As well as Ascot itself, we work in neighbouring Sunningdale and Windlesham, and across Berkshire and Surrey. If you are not sure whether we cover your road, give us a call.
One team takes your garden from the first sketch to the finished build and then on to its aftercare. Our designers, construction team and maintenance team work together, so the people looking after your planting understand why it was chosen. Quotes are free and come with no obligation.
What this means for an Ascot garden:
Each service below has its own page with more detail on how we approach it.
Plants that enjoy acid conditions thrive here, including heathers, rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and pieris. Birch, pines and many grasses also suit the dry ground once settled. If you would like a wider range, we can improve the beds with organic matter and mulch to help them hold water and nutrients.
Yes. We plan fittings and cable routes to avoid the main roots and keep lights a sensible distance from the trunk. The aim is to show off the tree's shape at night while leaving its roots undisturbed.
Our standard programme is a monthly visit of at least four working hours, planned around your garden and the seasons. If your garden needs less input, we can talk through a lighter arrangement.
No. Quotes are free and there is no obligation to go ahead.
To talk about your garden, call 01276 582095 or 07717 058646, or send us a message through our contact page.
