Lee Burkhill Award-Winning Garden Designer Blogger & TV Expert
Lee Burkhill is a British garden designer, horticulturist and television presenter best known as Garden Ninja and for his work on BBC One’s Garden Rescue. Based in North West England, he combines professional garden design with a gardening blog, YouTube tutorials and educational resources aimed at helping people understand their outdoor spaces.
His career brings together several sides of gardening: creating attractive spaces, solving practical problems and explaining how plants behave. For readers discovering him through television, his work beyond the screen provides a fuller picture of the designer behind the memorable Garden Ninja name.
Who Is Lee Burkhill?
lee Burkhill works across garden design, horticultural education and broadcasting. His official biography describes him as an RHS-qualified horticulturist who studied at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
His professional services cover locations including Manchester, Liverpool, Southport and Cheshire. Alongside client projects, he offers online learning and consultations, giving people outside his immediate area ways to access his expertise.
His portfolio gives a useful introduction to his specialism: making small or awkward gardens more attractive and usable. Examples include front gardens, family spaces, overlooked back gardens and compact plots where layout choices have a substantial effect on everyday enjoyment.
From IT to a Career in Gardening
Before becoming a professional garden designer, Burkhill spent 12 years working in IT project management, according to his official biography. Gardening offered a creative outlet alongside that corporate career.
In an interview with Horticulture, he explained that his interest began in childhood, when he helped his grandfather with vegetables and roses. Later, gardening became a way to step away from the pressures of work.
A garden design course at RHS Harlow Carr helped him explore a different professional direction. His success in a BBC and RHS design competition in 2016 then became an important turning point.
That background helps explain the appeal of his story to people considering a career change. His route involved an existing interest, further study and an opportunity to demonstrate his skills publicly. It also shows that a horticultural career can develop after years spent in another industry.
Why Is He Called Garden Ninja?
Garden Ninja is both Burkhill’s professional identity and the name associated with his online gardening community.
He told Horticulture that an early client inspired the name by comparing his arrival and problem-solving in her garden to the appearance of a ninja. He also wanted a business identity that could make other gardeners feel part of a community.
The name therefore reflects more than a memorable television persona. It supports his stated ambition to make gardening approachable for people with different levels of experience.
For a beginner, that welcoming approach matters. Learning about plants often involves unfamiliar terminology, conflicting advice and uncertainty about where to begin.
Lee Burkhill on BBC’s Garden Rescue
Lee Burkhill joined Garden Rescue for series six in 2021. His television work includes garden transformations alongside Charlie Dimmock, with Chris Hull and Flo Headlam joining the presenting line-up for series seven.
The programme gives viewers a way to see garden design as a sequence of decisions: understanding a household’s needs, developing a layout and bringing planting and construction together.
Its appeal also comes from recognisable challenges. Many people have an outdoor space that feels difficult to use, lacks privacy or does not reflect how they want to spend their time.
In a Thompson & Morgan interview, Burkhill identified the invitation to join Garden Rescue as a major career highlight. He described television as an opportunity to share gardening advice and design ideas with a much wider audience.
Lee Burkhill’s Awards and Notable Projects
Burkhill’s award-winning reputation is supported by documented competition success and exhibition work. Understanding the particular awards also helps distinguish garden design achievements from recognition for communication and blogging.
RHS and BBC Feel Good Gardens Competition, 2016
Burkhill was one of four winners in the 2016 RHS and BBC Feel Good Gardens competition. His design, Fancy a brew? Take a pew, was selected for display at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.
The brief asked entrants to create a front garden inspired by their local area. Burkhill drew on Manchester’s industrial heritage and neighbourly traditions.
His design incorporated reclaimed sleepers, cobbles, seating and planting to encourage people to stop and talk. It treated the front garden as a social space, giving the project a purpose beyond its appearance.
Chelsea Flower Show Recognition, 2018
At the 2018 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Burkhill designed and planted Hartley Botanic’s trade stand, with landscaping provided by G.K. Wilson.
Hartley Botanic confirmed that the display received both a five-star award and the Director General’s Linley Award. These were awards for the trade stand, an important distinction when describing his Chelsea achievements.
The display explored plant history and provenance while marking Hartley Botanic’s 80th anniversary. It combined horticultural storytelling with the presentation of the company’s glasshouses.
Burkhill’s project account explains how the glasshouses represented different plant-exploration themes. Woodland-style planting outside created a softer setting around the more dramatic interiors. The project illustrates his interest in using plants to communicate an idea as well as create visual impact.
Gardening Media Recognition
Thompson & Morgan’s 2023 interview also records his shortlisting for the Garden Media Guild’s Individual Social Media Influencer of the Year Award.
That recognition relates to another part of his career: communicating gardening knowledge through online platforms. A shortlist place is distinct from an award win, but it remains a relevant professional achievement.
What Defines Lee Burkhill’s Garden Design Style?
Plants Shape the Design
In his Horticulture interview, Burkhill described a process that begins with plants suited to the site’s soil and aspect. He then develops the layout, functions and materials around those conditions.
For homeowners, the practical lesson is to understand the space before buying its contents. A useful starting checklist includes:
- Where sunlight falls during the day.
- Which areas feel exposed or sheltered.
- How people move through the garden.
- Where seating would be used most often.
- How much maintenance the household can realistically manage.
These observations create a clearer brief than a collection of attractive photographs alone.
Small Spaces Deserve Careful Planning
Burkhill’s portfolio specifically highlights small and awkward gardens as a design interest. His work aims to combine function with visual appeal, whether the brief calls for abundant planting or a quieter retreat.
A compact garden makes priorities especially important. Seating, planting, storage and circulation compete for limited room. Deciding which functions matter most helps prevent the space from becoming crowded.
Gardens Should Invite Participation
In his interviews, Burkhill places value on clients becoming involved with their gardens after the design work ends. He describes a garden as something that continues to change and develop.
That is a useful expectation for anyone planning a makeover. A completed installation is the beginning of a garden’s life, with future decisions about growth, maintenance and changing household needs still ahead.
The Garden Ninja Blog and YouTube Channel
Garden Ninja extends Burkhill’s work beyond client projects and television. Its resources include gardening articles, video guides and a forum, alongside paid courses and professional services.
The website covers subjects such as pruning, garden planning, wildlife gardens, tree care, propagation and seasonal gardening. Readers can move between practical maintenance topics and broader design ideas.
On his introductory page, Burkhill describes his goal as helping people learn regardless of budget, background, location or experience. This makes the educational side of Garden Ninja central to the brand.
For readers outside Britain, the most useful approach is to separate general design ideas from local growing instructions. Layout principles may transfer readily, while planting dates and species choices need checking against local conditions.
Conclusion
Lee Burkhill’s career combines professional garden design, recognised exhibition work and an interest in teaching. His Garden Ninja resources and television appearances provide different ways to explore the same subject: how to make outdoor spaces more enjoyable and useful. His work offers a practical starting point for inspiration understand the site, decide how it should function and give plants a considered role in the design.
