Eleanor Whitfield is a Royal Horticultural Society-trained garden designer and the founding editor of HomeIdeaGarden. Over the past twelve years she has designed more than 140 private gardens, two community pollinator parks, and consulted on planting schemes for boutique hotels in Cornwall, Provence, and the Pacific Northwest.
Her work focuses on resilient, low-input garden design — gardens that look intentional in every season, support local wildlife, and ask less of the people who tend them. Eleanor holds an MA in Landscape Architecture from the University of Sheffield and a Diploma in Garden Design from the London College of Garden Design. She is a member of the Society of Garden Designers (MSGD).
Before founding HomeIdeaGarden, Eleanor spent six years on the design team at a heritage landscape practice in Bath, working on listed-property restorations and contemporary kitchen gardens. She writes about planting design, sustainable horticulture, and small-space gardens for several trade publications.
A designer's playbook for courtyards, side-returns and narrow plots: layout moves, planting strategy and the structural choices that make small gardens feel generous.
Cottage gardens look effortless and are anything but. Here's the structure designers hide inside the romance — and the plant pairings that hold up year after year.
Most 'Japanese-style' Western gardens get it wrong. Here are the seven principles behind authentic Japanese garden design — and how to apply them honestly in your own space.
Drought-tolerant doesn't have to mean sparse. Here's how to design a Mediterranean-style garden that looks generous, uses 70% less water, and improves every year.
A balcony can hold a real garden, not just a row of pots. Here is the design framework, the right pot-and-soil setup, and a plant list that works year-round.
A pollinator garden doesn't have to look like a meadow. Here's how to design one that's beautiful, intentional, and genuinely useful to bees, butterflies and birds.
A modern backyard is more than a wood deck and a fire pit. Here are the design principles — and the planting strategy — that make it feel calm rather than empty.
Most perennial borders peak in year two and decline from there. Here is the planning method designers use to build borders that get better every year.
Soft glowing accents, structured pathways and lush greenery combine to form dreamy outdoor environments. Eight inspirations for designing a calm, natural, visually stunning night garden.
Four built modern courtyards photographed at dusk, each demonstrating a different way to combine soft warm lighting, structured stonework and lush planting.