HC Gardens & Landscape

Garden design & build · Gillingham, Kent

Drawn by hand. Built to the last detail.

A black timber pergola at sunset. A curtain of water falls from its beam into a pebble-filled rill, catching the low sun, with a bench, cushions and a yellow rug beneath the clear roof.
Pergola with a water curtain · Gillingham · 2024

HC Gardens is Catalin, a Gillingham garden designer who builds what he draws. Bespoke timber pergolas, Italian porcelain, water, fire and light, for homes across Kent.

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Before anything is dug

It often starts on squared paper. Catalin comes round, sketches the garden in pencil, lawn in green and paving hatched grey, then talks it through with you, samples and all.

He has been designing and building gardens for over ten years, mostly around Medway. Plenty of clients find him the way you might have: by following his work online for a while, then asking him round.

Based in
Gillingham, Kent (ME8)
Works across
Medway, Kent and the South East
Designing & building
Over ten years
On Facebook
98% recommend, from 32 reviews
A hand-drawn garden plan on squared paper: two lawns coloured green, hatched grey paving, gravel paths in a grid, a brown border of shrubs and the word Garage written down the side.
Plan, 2019. Pencil and crayon on squared paper, for a garden beside a garage.

The work

Recent gardens

Three gardens from Medway to Southampton, and what went into each one.

Before: a bare, patchy lawn behind a new-build house, edged with timber fence panels. Before

Southampton · 2022

A three-foot drop, made level

The plot fell away by more than three feet at the back. Catalin brought it level, then added a garden room, a screened hot-tub area, a fire table behind glass and a path of slabs floating over water.

“7 weeks and 2 days, mostly working on my own, but I made it.”

  • Overland Silver porcelain
  • Garden room
  • Floating path
  • Fire table
  • Lighting
After: a level garden with large pale porcelain paving, two lawns divided by a stepping-stone path, stone spheres, an outdoor sofa and a dark-clad garden room on the right. After, seven weeks later
At night, dark porcelain slabs float over a narrow pool between two lawns, flanked by two glowing globe lights, leading to a lit seating area behind a bead curtain.
The floating path after dark
Close-up of flames in a fire table seen through its glass screen.
Fire table, behind glass

Rainham, Medway · 2025

Render and red cedar

A rendered fireplace and barbecue plinth set against a full-height screen of Western red cedar, with cedar doors on the cupboard and large-format porcelain underfoot.

“We use Western red cedar for its durability, beauty and dimensional stability. Alongside the rendered walls it just looks so perfect.”

Catalin, on Instagram
A tall white rendered fireplace with a recessed log store, beside a rendered plinth with a cedar cupboard door, in front of a full-height screen of vertical cedar boards.
The same fireplace and barbecue plinth seen across the lawn, with daffodils in the border and a French bulldog lying in the sun.
From the lawn, with a supervisor
Pale porcelain stepping slabs curving through black stone chippings beside a lawn, with timber raised beds, a porcelain patio and green wall panels between leaf-pattern screens on a garage wall. Day
The same stepping slabs at night, each with two small lights set into it, glowing against the dark stone. Night

Darland View, Gillingham · 2022

Steps that follow the lawn

Stepping slabs follow the curve of the lawn through black stone, with lights set into them so the route still reads after dark. Timber raised beds, green wall panels between decorative screens, and a pergola at the top of the garden.

  • Porcelain
  • Lit stepping slabs
  • Raised beds
  • Green walls
  • Pergola

More recent work

A sunken porcelain terrace with an outdoor sofa, below timber-clad steps and a horizontal slatted timber screen, with a raised dining deck and lawn beyond.
Sunken terrace, timber steps · 2024
A long terraced garden seen from a raised patio: grey porcelain, timber steps down to a gravel garden with stepping slabs, slatted fences and black-mulched beds.
Terraced garden, gravel and slatted fence · 2026
Wood-effect grey porcelain paving with dark stone-clad planters topped by staggered vertical timber posts.
Wood-effect porcelain, timber screens · 2024
Large pale porcelain slabs with gravel joints, framed by a dark porcelain border against artificial lawn.
Porcelain with gravel joints · Rainham · 2026
Over 400 more posts on Instagram

Signature

The HC pergola

The HC logo is a pergola, a beam on posts gathered in slender bundles, and that detail runs through his builds. Each one is drawn for its own garden. Charred, stained or painted, open or roofed, lit for the evening, and once with water falling from the beam.

“A bespoke wooden pergola adds a focal point and gives the garden character you can’t get from an aluminium one off the shelf.”

Catalin, on Instagram

Six pergolas, 2020 to 2025

  1. A grey timber pergola across the back of a red-brick house, its posts gathered in bundles of slim uprights, with porcelain paving beneath.
    2020GravesendGrey posts in bundles, the year the logo was drawn.
  2. Looking out from under a clear-roofed pergola at night towards a lit timber lattice screen with a diamond pattern, uplit fence panels and lights along the lawn edge.
    2020RainhamClear roof, and a lit lattice screen with a diamond motif.
  3. A large pergola at night with slatted timber walls and warm wall lights, reached by lit stepping slabs that curve up beside a lawn and timber raised beds.
    2022Darland View, GillinghamSlatted walls, bundled posts and warm wall lights.
  4. A black timber pergola with a clear roof and a slatted back screen, sheltering a bench and table on a yellow rug, seen across a lawn from a sofa with orange cushions.
    2024GillinghamThe one at the top of the page. Clear roof, slatted screen, water from the beam.
  5. A charcoal timber pergola with a hanging egg chair and rattan seating, joined to a new charcoal-clad garden studio with a glazed door.
    2024SittingbourneBuilt three years earlier. He came back to add a garden studio beside it.
  6. A long timber pergola at dusk, its slatted back wall lit by a row of wall lights, with deck lights along the front edge and lawn in the foreground.
    2025KentSlatted timber walls, wall lights and lit decking.

Materials

What he builds with

“For some, it is just a hole in a slab. For me, it is a detail.”

Catalin, on Instagram
  • Close-up of charred timber with a cracked, crocodile-skin surface.

    Charred timber

    Shou sugi ban, the Japanese way of burning timber to protect it. He has charred his own boards since 2020.

  • Vertical Western red cedar boards in warm orange and brown tones.

    Western red cedar

    For screens and doors. Chosen for durability, looks, and because it stays straight.

  • A pale porcelain path framed in dark porcelain, with a slab cut on the diagonal where the path turns.

    Italian porcelain

    Often Marca Corona, via Cheshire Sandstone. Cut on site to curves, mitres and manhole covers.

  • Water drops splashing into a dark pebble-filled rill at dusk.

    Water

    Rills, paths of slabs floating over water, and a curtain falling from a pergola beam.

  • A timber-clad garden room at dusk with soffit lights washing down its slatted front.

    Light

    Set into steps, decks, walls and soffits, so the garden is still used after sunset.

Services

What he takes on

All kinds of landscaping and garden design, from a single patio to the whole garden, front and back.

Design

  • Garden design, drawn by hand
  • Site visits and free quotes
  • Material samples before you commit

Structures

  • Bespoke pergolas and canopies
  • Garden rooms, offices and gyms
  • Decking
  • Fencing, slatted screens and cladding

Surfaces

  • Porcelain and sandstone patios
  • Paths and floating steps
  • Driveways and front gardens
  • Turf and artificial grass

Features

  • Water features and rills
  • Fire features and barbecue areas
  • Garden lighting
  • Planting, raised beds and green walls
  • Bespoke benches and tables

Reviews

98% of 32 reviewers on Facebook recommend HC Gardens

“Cat and the team worked really hard on creating something absolutely outstanding which has exceeded our expectations. The attention to detail is clear to see along with touches of creative brilliance.”

Martin R. Front and rear garden

“We originally saw some of Cat’s work on Facebook… he drew a design for us and came around a few times before we proceeded, as my husband wanted to see samples.”

Karen P. Design and build

“…totally transformed our worn out garden in a little over a week, working solely on his own. I can’t believe it’s the same garden.”

Paul O. Full garden

“Every time I look out at my patio I feel like I’m on holiday.”

Leanne W. Patio
Read all the reviews on Facebook

Free quote

Tell Catalin about your garden

Send a few photos and a rough idea of what you’d like. Quotes are free, with no obligation.

  1. Send photos WhatsApp is quickest. A few shots of the garden as it is now.
  2. Site visit He comes round, measures up and talks through ideas.
  3. A drawn design Sketched by hand, with samples to see and touch.
  4. The build Designed and built by the same person.
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