About Andy
Hook Garden Design is an independent garden design and build practice led by Andy Hook, creating resilient, naturalistic gardens across Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire.
Each garden is shaped by its setting, architecture and the way it will be used. The approach combines clear spatial structure with naturalistic planting, carefully selected materials and a practical understanding of how gardens are constructed and maintained. The aim is to create places that feel established, individual and connected to their surroundings.
A multidisciplinary approach
Creative practice has been central to Andy’s career. Over the years, he has worked across art, design and photography, developing a broad understanding of composition, proportion, light, materials and visual storytelling.
He is best known for his work as a multi-award-winning photographer, particularly his environmental portraiture, and has produced editorial and commercial work for publications including Country Life, The Field and The Sunday Times Magazine.
This multidisciplinary background continues to inform the way each garden is considered, from the overall arrangement of spaces and framed views to the smaller details that give a landscape its atmosphere and identity.
Designed with an understanding of construction
Alongside his creative background, Andy has always been drawn to making and building. From an early age, he was constantly constructing things, later gaining practical experience through building and repair work on his family’s farm.
He subsequently undertook the substantial renovation of two period properties, including a listed building and an old cottage, developing an understanding of traditional materials and methods.
This experience brings a practical discipline to the design process. Ideas are developed with an understanding of how they will be built, how materials will weather and how the garden will function over time. By remaining involved from the first concept through to landscaping and planting, Andy is able to maintain the original design intent throughout the project.
Gardens for a changing climate
Andy’s other enduring interest is the natural environment. Growing up on a farm and travelling extensively through some of the world’s more remote landscapes—including time spent living in the Galápagos—helped shape his appreciation of nature, ecology and the character of place.
Bringing these interests together through garden and landscape design has been a natural development in his career.
Returning to some of these landscapes and witnessing first-hand how they have changed over the past twenty years has reinforced the importance of creating gardens that are more resilient, sustainable and ecologically valuable.
Planting and materials are selected in response to the conditions of each site, with particular consideration given to hotter, drier summers, wetter winters and responsible water use. Climate resilience is treated as an integral part of good garden design rather than as a separate aesthetic.
The result is a garden intended to become richer with time: visually considered, practical to live with and better able to adapt to the changing conditions around it.