Bridget Elworthy and Henrietta Courtauld both trained and worked as lawyers before studying garden design. Courtauld went on to work with landscape and garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith and then started her own garden design business.

Elworthy went on to study horticulture in London before spending three years back in her native New Zealand, where she grew peonies on the family farm, Craigmore, before moving to Wardington Manor. As The Land Gardeners, both Courtauld and Elworthy now specialise in the design of productive gardens - particularly walled gardens. They have combined forces to research soil health and its importance as the source of plant, animal, human, and ultimately, planetary health.

They launched the Farm Project to make high-quality, microbially rich compost on a large scale, with the goal of empowering growers and farmers to do the same. In 2022 they launched their own compost brand, Climate Compost inoculum - a home-made, fertile, life-enhancing compost available by the bag. Their books include Clive Nichols: English Gardens (The Land Gardeners Press, 2014) and The Land Gardeners: Cut Flowers (Thames & Hudson, 2020). Their short film Climate Compost, about the wonder and complexity of soil systems, premiered at the Venice Biennale in 2021.