Gardens worth knowing.
Naturalistic, English-cottage inspired, ecologically focused gardens — designed, planted and faithfully kept by one pair of hands.
Begin the conversation→This is not lawn maintenance. It is attentive, expert stewardship — conscious of the minute changes, anticipating what the next season will demand, building a relationship with your land that compounds over the years.
ConsultationOne hour that changes how you see it
An hour in the garden with Tray. Ask anything at all: what to plant, what to pull, why that hydrangea keeps sulking. We walk the whole property together.
- A full hour with Tray
- Ask absolutely anything
- We walk the property
- One-page written roundup
Garden DesignFrom a single border to a whole property
Gardens rooted in place, ecological in principle, and beautiful in every season. Drawn by hand, then planted by the person who drew them, with sourcing handled through growers we actually know.
- Site & soil assessment
- Hand-drawn planting plans
- Seasonal sequencing
- Sourcing & planting
StewardshipFor gardens that want to be known and kept
The long relationship, on retainer. Ongoing, hands-on horticultural care scaled to the size and complexity of the garden. This is the heart of the practice, and where gardens genuinely compound.
- Regular scheduled visits
- Written report after every call
- Selective hand pruning
- A direct line to Tray
A garden kept by the same hands gets better and cheaper every year.
Anyone can install a garden. What changes a property is what happens in the seven years afterward — and that only compounds if somebody remembers the whole story.
Most of the value in this work lands after year three — which is exactly why we take a limited number of gardens and stay with them.
Enquire about stewardship→
A great garden thrives where it was always intended to grow.
Just as looking at artwork inspires a new perspective depending on the season of life you are in, so do gardens. Your perspective grows with the garden.
We design with native and non-invasive, regionally appropriate plants wherever possible, build healthy soil as a foundation, and think in seasons and years rather than visits and invoices.
- IEcological Stewardship
Gardens tended as living ecosystems — plants selected for place, soil built rather than fed, decades rather than seasons.
- IISeasonal Attunement
Working with the rhythm of the year, anticipating what each season asks before problems arrive.
- IIIDeep Plant Knowledge
Horticultural expertise as the foundation: the right plant, in the right place, for the right reasons.
- IVArtistry & Design
A designer's eye at every visit — not only at installation, but in the ongoing edit of a garden through its seasons.
A garden cared for over years becomes something entirely different from one maintained by strangers.Tray Simpson
Ten years learning what actually thrives here.
Tray Simpson is a sustainable garden designer and ecological steward rooted in Augusta, Georgia. With over a decade of hands-on experience working in and around some of the finest gardens and growing operations in the CSRA, he founded Tray Simpson Garden Design to offer something this market rarely provides — a deeply personal, expert, ecologically grounded approach for people who genuinely love plants and the land they grow on.
For ten years Tray served as General Manager of Bedford Greenhouses, one of Augusta's oldest and most beloved plant nurseries, where he developed an intimate knowledge of what thrives in this region, what struggles, and what makes a landscape genuinely come alive.
That experience — combined with a lifelong passion for rare plants, native ecology, and the art of garden making — is now fully devoted to the gardens of the Southeast.
- Experience
- 10+ years
- Previously
- GM, Bedford Greenhouses
- Founded
- 2025
— Tray
Let's begin the conversation.
Whether you are interested in a stewardship retainer, a garden design, a consultation, or simply want to talk about what your garden could become — reach out. We would love to come and see the canvas we could work with.