About
A garden business named after a garden.
Started in Wheathampstead in 2013, handed over in 2023, and run since by Will Barnard — with Ernie doing the public relations.
Monet Gardening began in November 2013, and it began in France. Steven Goodyear had built a garden at his own home out there; when he was back in England, people who had seen it started asking whether he would design theirs. Enough of them asked that it turned into a business — and he named it after the garden Claude Monet made at Giverny, which is still the standard the name sets.
Will Barnard joined in June 2023. He was, in his own words, working out what he wanted to do, and a summer of gardening was meant to be a way of thinking about it. It turned out to be the answer. Steven gave him more and more of the work, and when he decided the time had come to retire back to the south of France, he didn't sell the business to a stranger — he handed it to the person he'd been teaching.
Will took Monet Gardening over in October 2023, and the company was incorporated as Monet Gardening Ltd on the 29th of that month. Steven is in France and still sends his thoughts on garden designs; Will and Ernie do the gardens in west Hertfordshire.
What hasn't changed is the shape of it. One gardener quotes the job and does the job. That's why the reviews read the way they do — they're about a person, not a company: thorough, meticulous, creative, genuinely hard-working, and accompanied by a dog who gets his own mentions.
Since 2013
the Monet Gardening name, Will at the helm since 2023
One gardener
Will quotes it and Will does it
Rated 5.0
on Google — every review five stars
Free quotes
we come and look before we price it
Why Monet
Monet spent forty years making a garden at Giverny and then painted it for the rest of his life — water-lilies, a pond, a green bridge, borders planted for colour rather than tidiness. It's a good thing to name a gardening business after, because it sets the argument the right way round: a garden is something you make and keep making, not something you cut back twice a year and hope for.
Who you work with
One gardener and his dog.
No crews, no sub-contractors, no rota. The person who prices your garden is the person who looks after it.
Will Barnard
Owner & gardener
Will joined Monet Gardening in June 2023 while working out what he wanted to do, took to it completely, and took the business over from founder Steven Goodyear that October. He quotes every job and he does every job — clients describe him as thorough, meticulous, creative and genuinely hard-working.
Ernie
Lead entertainer
Will's dog, and the other half of the outfit. He turns up in almost as many reviews as Will does — 'Ernie is a little star as well' — and he has a habit of making a long day in the garden feel like a good one.
Steven Goodyear
Founder, 2013
Steven started Monet Gardening in November 2013 after building a garden at his own home in France and finding people back in England kept asking him to design theirs. He's since retired to the south of France, and still gives his input on garden designs.
Room for one more
Work experience
Monet Gardening takes young people on work-experience placements from school, college and university. If you know someone who wants a fortnight outdoors finding out whether horticulture suits them, get in touch.
Where we stop
Hedges to fifteen feet. Above that, we ring someone better.
Tall hedges and large-scale tree work go to our friends at Andrews of Kimpton, who are professional tree surgeons. It costs us a job and saves you a bad one. The same honesty applies to the quote: if the garden doesn't need the work yet, you'll be told so.
What we do take onThe details
Mon–Fri 08:30–18:00 · Sat 09:30–16:30 · Sun closed
Quotes are free — tell us about the garden and we'll come and look at it
Monet Gardening Ltd · registered at Companies House, number 15244795 · incorporated 29 October 2023 · registered office in Wheathampstead.
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Free quote, no obligation — one-off, weekly, fortnightly or monthly, whatever the garden actually needs.