Our Philosophy
Over 20 Years Experience
As well as water, sun and plenty of hard work, a beautiful garden requires love, knowledge and attention to detail. The Fourth Room prides itself on providing staff who have a genuine love of gardens, a sound knowledge of plants and flowers, and who take their satisfaction from leaving every garden looking its very best.
In this busy commercial world The Fourth Room eschews the current trend of doing everything as quickly as possible with the latest power tools, and instead maintains traditional methods such as using secateurs, a rake and a broom to get the best out of your garden by becoming familiar with its finer details.
So instead of seeing your finest shrubs turned into poorly flowering lollipops by having a hedge trimmer run over it three times a year, we hand prune the shrubs at the right time of year to give the healthiest growth, abundant flowers and the best shape.
Instead of blowing everything to one end of the garden, we will use a rake and a broom to clear up, with a quick blow at the end to get those little bits that got away. And surprisingly, it doesn’t really take that much longer than the boys and their two-stroke onslaughts on your garden.
In this way your garden will always be kept at its best for you to enjoy.
Our TEAM
Experts in Garden Care
The Fourth Room delivers excellent Garden Care Services – Including regular maintenance plans, grass cutting and lawn care, weed control, professional pruning and hedge trimming, fencing and trelliswork, tree felling and pruning, turfing and patio cleaning, Insurance work is also undertaken.
John Dowling
Head Gardener Berkshire, Surrey, Hampshire
John, the proprietor, began his horticultural career in 1982 working on an eighty-acre estate in the heart of Maidenhead thicket, tending the grounds, growing plants in a small nursery on the site and harvesting the vegetables every morning for use in the estate kitchens.
In 1984 he attended Pershore College of Horticulture, near Worcester, to complete a three-year Diploma in Horticulture, continuing to work on the estate in his spare time and during holidays.
At the end of the three years, he spent some time working in Pistoia, Italy at Innocenti & Mangoni Piante, a two hundred acre nursery where he learned to tend for mature plants and underwent a masterclass in topiary, both specialities of the region.
Upon his return to the UK, he spent some time in Hungerford before moving to Windsor in 1989 and establishing his own landscape business offering quality garden care, something he is still doing today.
Stephen Long
Head Gardener BEDS, BUCKS, HERTS
Stephen established The Fourth Room in 2000 and has been involved in the horticultural industry all his working life.
Starting his career in a nursery and then attending Pershore Horticultural college in the mid 80’s, he has explored every avenue in the garden industry including floristry.
Stephen’s passion for plants, colour and the relationship between home and garden has evolved organically. In 2009 he joined forces with John, who he has known since horticultural college, together they have assembled a fantastic team enabling The Fourth Room to offer unsurpassed standards of horticultural excellence across the home counties to the north and west of London.
Married with three boys, in Stephen’s spare time he likes to cook home grown food and play guitar.