A Garden for the Life You Mean to Live
A refined wellness garden should begin with the life it is meant to support, not a list of features. Explore how intention becomes ritual through design, planting, materials and outdoor living.
Read the article
Design for daily ritual
Wellness Garden Design
Refresh, recharge and reconnect. A garden can be so much more than a beautiful backdrop. Designed with intention, it becomes a wellness hub that supports your health, happiness and lifestyle.
Garden design with purpose
The Science Behind the Design
At Refined Landscapes, we design wellness gardens around evidence-backed habits that support mental and physical health, then make them easy to maintain consistently at home. This might include a sauna zone for heat-based recovery, a plunge pool or outdoor shower for cold exposure, a swim setting where space allows, a dedicated area for strength and mobility, and quieter elements such as meditation seating and contemplative stones for decompression. These features are not added for aesthetic effect. They are placed and detailed to be used daily, throughout the seasons.
The science points in a clear direction: regular physical activity can support mood and resilience. A recent Cochrane review notes that “exercise appears to be a safe and accessible option for helping to manage symptoms of depression.” Mindfulness and meditation are equally well-studied, with NCCIH research investigating whether these practices help manage “anxiety, stress, and depression.” For sauna bathing, population studies suggest meaningful cardiovascular associations. Harvard Health reports that regular sauna users experience “lower rates of heart disease” than those who abstain.
A wellness garden transforms these principles into a year-round retreat, a space designed to reduce friction, soften stress, and encourage presence with calm and intention. It is not about perfection. It is about creating an external environment that supports better routines and a more positive impact on your home life and those around you.
Founder-led
A Pioneer in Wellness Design
Jacob Berry, Director, has long been an advocate for integrating wellness into garden design. His personal wellness garden, featuring cold water therapy and outdoor showers, was featured in The Telegraph as an example of how these elements can be thoughtfully woven into a residential setting.
We believe a garden should do more than look beautiful. Thoughtfully designed, it can support wellbeing through routine, space, and simple rituals that invite return. Drawing on influences from Nordic bathing culture, Japanese onsen traditions, and contemporary cold water practice, we create environments that feel calm, purposeful, and restorative.
Every wellness garden is tailored to the client, the site, and the architecture of the home. This might be a minimal cold plunge integrated into a naturalistic pool, or a complete circuit with sauna, cold plunge, and outdoor shower. In every case, the design balances atmosphere with practicality, ensuring the space functions seamlessly throughout the seasons.
“The garden has become my place of daily ritual. Ice bath at dawn, sauna at dusk. It’s transformed my relationship with both wellness and landscape.”
Jacob Berry
Completed wellness gardens
Explore our completed wellness gardens featuring cold water therapy, saunas, and outdoor showers.
The wellness journey
From intention to daily ritual
A wellness garden follows the same considered route as every Refined project, shaped from the start around the routines the space needs to support.
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Consultation and intention
We begin with the life you want the garden to support, whether recovery, movement, stillness or ritual, alongside the practicalities of the site, privacy and access.
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Design and integration
Wellness features are designed into the wider garden from the first concept: placement, routes, screening, materials, drainage, services and lighting considered together.
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Build and detail
Our in-house construction team delivers the technical detail these spaces depend on: water, heat, electrics, surfaces and planting built to be used all year.
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Establishment and aftercare
Planting establishes, routines settle and the garden matures. Ongoing garden aftercare protects both the space and the habits it was designed for.
Our curated collection
Wellness Transformations
Built into the garden
Wellness Elements
Year-round wellness, thoughtfully built into the garden.
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Cold Water Therapy
Thoughtfully integrated plunge pools and ice baths, designed for clients who value cold exposure as part of a consistent wellness routine. We focus on calm placement, privacy, safe access, and a finish that feels coherent with the wider scheme, so the element reads as a natural extension of the landscape rather than an addition.
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Garden Saunas
A garden sauna creates a dedicated space for heat-based recovery and quiet reset, right at home. Used regularly, it can support relaxation, post-training recovery, improved sleep routines, and a sense of calm, especially when paired with a cold shower or plunge. From a design perspective, the sauna also helps structure the garden, creating a destination with privacy, shelter, and lighting that makes the space usable year-round.
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Spa Atmospheres
Beyond individual elements, we create holistic environments. Journeys through the garden that engage all senses. Sheltered seating areas, aromatic planting, the sound of water, and carefully considered lighting design combine to create spaces of genuine restoration.
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Swim Spas
The perfect fusion of swimming pool and spa, our swim spa installations offer year-round exercise and relaxation in a compact footprint. Thoughtfully positioned and landscaped to become a natural focal point within the wellness garden.
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Hot Tubs
Bespoke hot tub installations seamlessly integrated into your garden design. From sunken timber-clad designs to contemporary elevated installations, we create intimate spaces for relaxation, conversation, and therapeutic warmth throughout the seasons.
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Outdoor Showers
Our outdoor shower designs blend privacy with openness, creating spaces that celebrate the sensory experience of bathing in nature. Architecturally refined yet intimately connected to the garden. As featured in The Telegraph.
The benefits
Why incorporate wellness into your garden?
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Physical Restoration
Cold water and heat have long been used to support recovery. Plunge, sauna and shower routines built into the garden make those practices easy to keep, season after season.
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Mental Clarity
Regular rituals outdoors create distance from screens and noise. Many clients find a dependable wellness routine helps them slow down, sleep better and reset.
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Connection to Nature
Bathing outdoors reconnects us with natural cycles and seasons, providing perspective and grounding in our increasingly digital lives.
Founder perspective · Grounded in Purpose
“When you reconnect with the earth, it becomes easier to reconnect with yourself.”
Founder Jacob Berry writes about the thinking behind our wellness gardens, and the life they are designed to support.
A Garden for the Life You Mean to Live
A refined wellness garden should begin with the life it is meant to support, not a list of features. Explore how intention becomes ritual through design, planting, materials and outdoor living.
Read the article
Built on trust
Our Commitment to Excellence and Quality
Excellence is built into every project we deliver, backed by our awards and accreditations and a team committed to doing things properly. From first conversation to final handover, we keep decisions clear, quality consistent and the finished result exactly as intended, supported by guarantees such as:
- BALI Accredited
- In-house design & build team
- No subcontractors
- Dedicated project manager
- Quality-tested materials
- Aftercare support
- Sustainable practices
- Fully insured
What our clients say.
A selection of our Google reviews
4.9
/ 5
Refined were nothing short of superb in transforming our gardens. They took our aging and rapidly deteriorating garden and turned it into something we're proud of – beautiful, tranquil and green. Joe, Russell and the team were friendly and considerate throughout the works. We would use them again in a heartbeat and recommend them to anyone.
Jamie Keene
March 2025
I can highly recommend Refined Landscapes, they were brilliant at transforming our small neglected garden into something that’s beautiful and suits our family. The process was easy and everyone we’ve met were lovely. The team were hardworking and respectful and did an amazing job (even let my little one sit on the digger). Special shout out to Pheobe who made communication a breeze and always sorted things promptly and efficiently.
Diána Kutas
November 2025
From the Journal
Wellness Design Insights
Founder thinking and guidance on wellbeing-led outdoor spaces.
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Jacob Berry’s Wellness Garden Featured in The Telegraph
Jacob Berry’s personal wellness garden has been featured in The Telegraph as part of its coverage of outdoor showers and the growing interest in wellness-led outdoor living.
Read the article -
When Levels Become Part of the Garden
A short project film showing how steps and level changes can become part of the garden’s experience rather than a purely functional requirement.
Read the article
Frequently asked questions
Still have a question?
Speak to the team directly. We are happy to talk through your project before you commit to anything.
What is a wellbeing garden?
These are outdoor spaces that have specifically been designed to promote relaxation, mindfulness, and enhanced wellbeing. They can provide both physical and mental health benefits through elements like water, planting, seating, and meditation spaces.
Can small gardens be designed for wellbeing?
Yes, even compact gardens can incorporate key wellbeing features to promote relaxation and mindfulness, such as water features, aromatic plants, and functional spaces. We provide a bespoke service, tailoring each project to your unique specifications, including garden size.
How long does it take to design and build a wellbeing garden?
Timelines can vary greatly based on the scale and complexity of your project. As all of our work is bespoke, we will offer a customised timeline estimate along with your quote for wellbeing gardens following a site assessment.
How do you incorporate plants for wellbeing?
We select plants that stimulate the senses, promote calmness, and thrive in your garden conditions when creating wellbeing gardens. These kinds of outdoor spaces typically have a diverse range of plants and flowers, including aromatic herbs, flowering shrubs, and visually soothing foliage.
Are wellbeing gardens suitable for all ages?
Yes, our gardens are designed with accessibility, safety, and enjoyment by the whole family in mind, while still providing spaces for solitude and relaxation.
What are the energy and maintenance requirements for a sauna and plunge pool?
We specify premium, energy-efficient equipment designed for daily use. Power and drainage requirements are carefully integrated into your property’s main supply during the initial build phase to ensure a seamless finish. Routine maintenance, such as water filtration checks for plunge pools and timber conditioning for saunas, is highly straightforward. This ongoing stewardship can be fully managed through our dedicated garden aftercare service to guarantee the facilities remain in pristine condition year-round.
How do you ensure privacy in a residential setting?
Absolute seclusion is foundational to any wellness space. We achieve this through precise spatial planning, using a combination of architectural screening and mature structural planting. By carefully positioning elements like evergreen hedging, pleached trees, and bespoke timber enclosures, we create entirely private zones that feel naturally sheltered from neighbouring sightlines without feeling enclosed.
Follow the work as it happens
See current projects, process details and behind-the-scenes moments from our team.
