About Us

We specialise in the art of landscape and garden design and horticulture, inspired by our philosophy, “to please the eye, gladden the heart and nourish the soul”
Our services include contract preparation, tender action, appraising tender submissions, including tender reporting, and advising the Client on the appointment of a contractor. Our services also include operations onsite; these include visiting the site periodically and at critical times in the contractor’s programme to observe that work is being carried out in accordance with the drawings and specifications, checking and certifying accounts submitted by the contractor, and generally administering the project. Our further services cover providing horticultural advice in connection with garden and landscape maintenance.

Operating in the Arabian Gulf since 1982, the practice was registered in Bahrain in 1994, though its origin can be traced to the early 1800s and the Royal Exotic Nursery, Chelsea, London, through which its owners and successors contributed much to the horticultural excellence of Britain. John Arthur DaviesSPCcontinues that tradition of excellence inspired by the spirit of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Our location, the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an archipelago of thirty-three islands situated in the Gulf of Bahrain roughly at the halfway point of the Arabian Gulf, between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the State of Qatar. Bahrain, the largest island and which gives the country its name, means two seas; this being a reference to the saltwater of the Gulf and the sweet water aquifers under the sea bed and which pass beneath the island. Theaquifers  emerge through fissures in the sea bed and rise as columns to break on the surface. Not so long ago, off the coast of Muharraq, it was possible to dip a bucket into the sea and lift it out filled with fresh water. Until fairly recently aquifers broke on the surface of Bahrain as fresh water springs (ains), which in turn irrigated the date palm plantations, a critical food resource they had provided for thousands of years…

In early Islamic times, the name Bahrain applied to the entire length of the Arabian coastline, extending from Kuwait in the north to Oman in the South. Thousands of years earlier it was known as Dilmun, the Garden of Eden of Sumer (present-day Iraq), and it is said to be the place where Gilgamesh sought immortality. There is archaeological speculation revealed by David Rohl, that Sumerians after settling in Dilmun eventually departed on a voyage of exploration, arriving in the Red Sea and landing on the western shore, they carried their boats overland to the Nile, where they conquered the indigenous inhabitants and founded the first dynasty of the ancient Egypt civilization. Also, there are indications to suggest that Bahrain is the island referred to by the ancient Egyptians as the “Resplendent Isle” or “Island of the Blessed” to which the Pharaoh journeyed on his passage through the under-world, culminating in his rebirth.

Our logo reflects the elements associated with the art of landscape and garden design. The pyramid reflects the hard elements found in nature and symbolizes hard landscaping; the green band indicates vegetation, i.e. soft landscaping; the dark blue represents water; the light blue the sky, denoting space – the medium through which  ideas become manifest; and the golden triangle the sun – the giver of life, and which also represents the light illuminating the creative process. The angle of the pyramid and that of the sun correspond to each other signifying the earth’s relationship with the heavens and points to the origin of the Garden.  This idea was inspired by astro-archaeological research which indicates a direct correlation between the pyramids of Egypt and the constellation of Orion, suggesting that the ancient Egyptians were attempting to reflect heaven on earth – an aim entirely in keeping with our own design philosophy expressed in the above illustration.

Our principal, John A. Davies, began his career in 1959 when he joined The City of Manchester Corporation Parks Department as a nursery boy. At the age of sixteen he was deemed worthy of being made an apprentice and there followed five years of training in amenity horticulture, which embraced nursery practice, landscape and garden design, including implementation, as well as landscape and garden maintenance. He has undertaken prestigious projects in several parts of the world embracing, tropical and subtropical climates, and is noted for out-of-the-ordinary concepts. He has been described as “a product of the traditional school of English landscape design;” “a builder of the earthly paradise” and “a planter of poems.”

His philosophy aims to please the eye, gladden the heart and nourish the soul, a philosophy inspired by a pavement garden in Chelsea, London – see image below, created by the late Mrs. Doris Henty (Christian Science practitioner), for the benefit of the community. It was his duty to maintain the garden by planting flowers according to the seasons. Passers-by invariably commented to the effect that the scene “lifted their spirits and touched their hearts.”

In 1994 in response to a government invitation to foreign investors, the practice was registered as a sole proprietorship, operating as John A. Davies Landscape Consultants. This followed service to the Central Municipal Council, and the successful completion of the assignment for the Special Projects Department at the Ministry of Housing in connection with the highly prestigious island project referenced above – see reference under Acknowledgements.

We are a multi-national, multi-talented, and dynamic team, with skills, as already mentioned, covering landscape and garden design, horticulture, and irrigation design, supported by photorealistic imaging. . Skills combining to, provide a comprehensive service ranging from conceptual design, through the production of working drawings, through tender action, contract preparation, and operations on site, the latter involving supervision, management, and administration…