Gardener Dan Pearson champions outdoor living
Discover how garden designer Dan Pearson transforms outdoor living with a thriving garden that doubles as a living pantry for cooking and eating outside.
Outside Bath, a narrow valley holds Hillside, the home of garden designer Dan Pearson and his partner, Huw Morgan. The old stone farm cottage sits on a southwest-facing slope, its garden flowing down toward a stream that looks too innocent to have carved so deeply into the land. What started as a small project in a Peckham backyard has become a full outdoor life where growing, cooking, and eating outside are central.
The garden as a living pantry
Their garden produces more than beauty. Most meals begin with seeds, either saved from friends or selected from catalogues. When they moved in during 2010, they cleared land beside the house and arranged beds in expanding patterns—some structured, others free and natural. Over time, sunlit fennels and swaying poppies made room for rows of salads, chicories, kales, and beans. An orchard now bears apples, pears, plums, gages, mirabelles, quince, and cobs. Below it, a polytunnel protects tomatoes, peppers, and aubergines.
The space no longer feels like a work in progress. Lush grass surrounds the fruit trees, and a winding path descends to the polytunnel.
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An outdoor kitchen at the heart of it all
A corrugated roof extends from the house, covering an outdoor kitchen and dining area. A northeast-facing window ensures the space stays bright even on overcast days. The concrete floor opens directly into the vegetable and herb garden, where two large wooden tables overlook the valley. The tables hold signs of daily use: a basket of freshly picked plums, a copper trowel, cold tea, and binoculars left after watching a woodpecker.
The kitchen contains only what’s necessary—a black cast-iron gas hob, shallow ceramic sinks with handmade copper pipes, and a wood-fired bread oven. A chestnut ladder leans nearby for harvesting fruit. There’s no excess, just tools to transform garden produce into meals.
It also serves as their break spot—tea and cake between gardening tasks. The area feels naturally worn, not arranged for show. Flowers from the beds fill pots and vases: red dahlias, pelargoniums, orange cosmos floating in water.
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The couple’s meals follow a rhythm. They eat outside year-round, even in winter, bundled under blankets. The garden isn’t just a source of food; it’s where they pause, talk, and reflect.
What they’ve created goes beyond gardening. The corrugated roof, concrete floor, and wooden tables aren’t separate features. They form a single system where the kitchen isn’t confined indoors but extends into the land. The fruit trees, polytunnel, and outdoor sink connect through more than location—they share a purpose.
The effect lingers only while facing the garden. For Pearson and Morgan, that’s intentional. The garden isn’t scenery; it’s the center of their life.
