Garden Design Services

As a garden designer I can advise on a variety of areas including:

A general assessment of current planting, troubleshooting and potential changes in your garden.
Developing a seasonal, low-maintenance garden.
Incorporating containers, structures and art into your garden.
Writing a care and maintenance schedule to help manage the plants in an existing garden.
Incorporating successional planting and re-designing existing beds and pots.
Introducing new design concepts and providing a full design service - detailed below.
Adapting the garden to your lifestyle - children, outdoor living, accessibility and productivity.
Developing sustainable environmentally friendly gardens and reviewing gardening products & practices.
Providing research and advice for historical gardens including Conservation Management Plans.

We like to follow a series of defined design stages so that we can be accountable at all times during the project. Whilst we are always flexible and do not wish to 'over-engineer' our engagement, we have found this helps all parties:

1. Initial consultation

We arrange an initial visit to look at the site and discuss your requirements, your lifestyle, your budget and if you are a gardener or not. It's always helpful if I can see some photographs of the garden beforehand . I follow up this initial meeting with a detailed brief, a summary of our services and a design fee estimate. We charge a fixed fee for this visit which is refundable on the Sketch Design and Planting Plans

2. Site survey

Once we have agreed to proceed the next step is a measured site survey. I measure up smaller gardens myself taking note of site position, utility services, existing trees and plants, views and sightlines, slopes and levels, soil type and prevailing winds. For larger and more complex sites, a land surveyor may be required. An existing site plan is always welcome. We charge a fixed fee if measuring ourselves.

3. Outline plan: Sketch Design

An outline sketch design plan is prepared showing landscape features, hard landscaping and planted areas. This plan may be all that you require. For the sketch design stage we charge a fee based on estimated time to prepare, which is payable on delivery of the plan

4. Detailed layout plan and construction plans

The Layout Plan incorporates changes agreed with you and are the plans sent to landscape contractors to prepare cost estimates and quotes. The detailed final drawings consist of a suite of plans including a Setting Out Plan giving detailed measurements and Construction Details of specific features such as ponds, retaining structures and hard landscaping. We charge a fee based on estimated time to prepare. We are happy to review quotes and project manage the landscape construction and our fee for this is usually calculated as 10% of the total construction cost.

Based on the agreed sketch design, we prepare a detailed Planting Plan which shows the position and quantity of all the plants in the design and is accompanied by a detailed plant schedule. Plantings plans can be designed as part of a full design project or as stand-alone if your garden simply needs additional planting to refresh or update an existing scheme. We charge a fee based on estimated time to prepare ,the plan payable on delivery of the plan. We can recommend nurseries and local growers and also provide a planting service ourselves for smaller gardens, for which we can provide a separate quote which is based on time and materials.

5. Planting plans