Zen Garden Creations Ltd.

Zen Garden Creations Ltd. is a garden design and creation enterprise based in the Cotswolds. We are specialists in creating beautiful serene outdoor spaces with a design style highly influenced by the Zen gardens of Japan. Lawrence Jiko Barrow is the Founder and Chief Designer. 

Though we are specialists in Zen Gardens, we can create other styles of gardens such as classic English cottage gardens, wildflower, sub-tropical, contemporary or Mediterranean. Please get in touch if you are interested in having a delightful garden made by us.

Our projects are based on the client’s wishes and budget, ranging from a small Zen corner of an existing garden or building an entirely new garden from scratch. Here are examples of previous projects created by Zen Garden Creations:

Zen Garden

Mediterranean, English, and Other Gardens

Lawrence Jiko Barrow, Founder and Chief Designer

Lawrence Jiko Barrow

Lawrence is the leading designer of Zen Garden Creations Ltd. Born in 1970 to English and Japanese parents in Thailand, he grew up in Tokyo and Hong Kong and was educated in the U.K. and the U.S.A. He is an ordained zen monk, having trained at Bukkoku-ji zen temple in Fukui prefecture, Japan under Tangen Harada Roshi for more than a decade. He was given the name Jiko 慈光, which translates as Compassionate Light. He is a graduate of the Traditional Arts College, Kyoto and was apprenticed to Shigaraki potter Sawa Kiyotsugu. After a long stint as a zen monk he lived in Kyoto, the ancient capital and cultural heart of Japan where he encountered Japanese pottery and zen gardens . Following 18 years in Japan, he returned to the U. K. to open a pottery studio but a passion for creating gardens led him to return to his Zen roots and establish Zen Garden Creations Ltd.