Garden Design is a professional service; just like an Architect but for outside, green spaces and is charged accordingly, for both the time it takes to come up with ideas, provide the drawings and technical documents; as well as the expertise in knowing about layout design and planting design to achieve the best solutions for you and your garden. Our fees depend on the complexity of the design; sloped gardens with more elements and design challenges (e.g. awkward shapes or existing elements that have to be incorporated) are more time consuming than a site that is flat and a straightforward shape, and currently has very little in it. Size is a factor, but larger gardens are not necessarily more expensive to design. We recommend you don’t make cost the only consideration when selecting a garden designer. As a designer needs to have a wide range of skills and you will be working with them for some time, choose someone who you feel you will be happy working with.

It can vary dependent on our availability, the complexity of the design and the time it takes for you to feedback, but on average a medium sized garden can take around 6 - 8 weeks to go from having a site survey completed through to having finished drawings ready for a landscaper to cost up the build. At busy times we often have a 3 month wait for new design projects. Landscapers will likely have a 3 - 6 month wait for scheduling in the build too.

We include one set of printouts for each stage of the design process in our costings along with 15 minutes of amendments. As long as the overall scope of the brief has not changed and the amendments are relatively minor then this is usually covered. Anything more extensive and we will agree costs first. Our meeting time for presenting back each design stage is also included. If scheduled meetings are cancelled last minute then we will charge a cancellation fee.

All stages of design work are invoiced separately and each stage is split into 2 invoices. We invoice 50 percent of the costs for a design stage as we commence the work and the remaining 50% of costs for a design stage after we have completed and presented the work. Our design invoice payment terms are 7 days.

When it comes to planting, we will provide you with a breakdown of payments and dates before any planting commences. Dependent on the scale of planting, this would consist of a £50 (non refundable) deposit to secure planting dates, a mobilisation payment to purchase plants and materials and then between 1 and 3 stage payments. The final payment will be invoiced after completion of planting. Our planting invoice payment terms are 7 days for deposit and final payments and 3 days for mobilisation and stage payments.

The majority of the planting we do ourselves. The success of plants depends on how well they are looked after once they’re in the ground. However, if the plants die within the first 3 months, having been properly watered during this time and have not been subject to very adverse weather or as a result of Honey fungus being present, we will look at replacing them. We do not offer a guarantee on hedging plants or bulbs. Trees and specimen plants are usually covered by the tree nurseries direct.

Gardens can be built at any time of year – although progress can be quicker when the weather is good. Rain and mud are landscaper’s worst enemies as they create extra mess, slow work down, can damage the soil structure and make it hard to lay certain materials. Climate change means we are now seeing extremes of weather, so prolonged periods of rain could happen at any time of year.

The build can be done in stages. This tends to happen more with larger gardens, but it is perfectly possible to phase the completion on any garden. The important thing is to be clear on the design - producing the overall design masterplan, so the entire garden is cohesive. Once this is in place we can obtain costs for building separate parts of the garden and agree a phased build, based on your priorities and available funds. Building the garden in phases can increase the total cost slightly, partly due to inflation, but also because it is more efficient for a contractor to set up what they need once. It is important to consider phased builds from the start of the design process to ensure that subsequent build work does not damage anything that was finished earlier.

For smaller investments, less than £20,000, consider having less landscaping and more planting. From a cost point of view, hard landscaping is usually more expensive than soft landscaping. Soft landscaping can greatly enhance your garden space and your enjoyment of it without having lots of hard landscaping. Also consider using more cost effective materials such as gravel instead of paving.

If you are a confident and skilled DIYer and plan to build your garden yourself, we can offer a design only service.

We understand that caring for plants can be daunting. We discuss with you during the planning phase what tasks you feel you can do and how much time you have available. When your new planting is settled in we offer a plant care session to show you the best way of watering and caring for your new plants. If you would like us to we can also offer a written maintenance plan.

We do between 1 and 2 follow up visits to check on the plants, give you reminders for plant care and check you are still happy with your new garden. We also use these opportunities to take a few photos so our future clients can see our work. We can also offer further follow up visits if required, as due to the nature of gardens, they are constantly evolving.

We offer a full range of services from consultancy advice on a particular problem, ideas for planting, planting plans through to a full end to end service from initial garden survey to project monitoring your landscaping. We also hope to have a few Planting Plans which can be purchased direct from the website for you to implement yourself in the near future. Please check back again soon.