Why do I need a design for my garden?

Not every potential client we speak to needs a design and we will advise you straight away if we don’t believe a design is necessary.

For projects with more complex requirements – professional design is essential. It will open new possibilities for your garden space and will enable you to realise these possibilities in a coherent, organised and ultimately cost-effective manner.  It will provide a vision, a style and an achievable, accurately costed plan.

If you design our garden, is it advisable for us to engage you to build it?

We think so. Communication is key to successful project management and having just one point of contact throughout the whole design and build process can greatly simplify things. It eliminates the possibilities for misunderstanding between the designer and a third-party contractor and means that any issues or challenges that do arise are dealt with efficiently by just one team. It also makes it easier to control your budget from the outset.

I have ideas about what I want, but no idea how much it might all cost – can you help?

Most people don’t. With many years experience behind us, we can advise from the very first meeting whether what you have in mind for your garden might be achievable within the budget that you have. If we think it isn’t, then we’ll have an open discussion with you around what we believe is achievable and will build this into our design process.

I don’t really have any ideas, or any idea of what it might cost. Can you help?

It’s sometimes the case that a client has little or no idea about what they want, or the potential costs. This is absolutely fine and not unusual. We’ll work with you during the early meetings to tease out your ideas and establish your requirements – whilst keeping budget part of the ongoing conversation.

What happens if I engage you to design and build my garden, but the design I sign off comes in above my budget?

Designing to a fixed budget is not an exact science, but with many years experience behind us we know what is achievable and what isn’t. It’s therefore very unlikely that we’d design a garden that you couldn’t then afford to build. Some tweaking may be necessary as we go through the final stages of the design process, but we take care to keep a dialogue going with you throughout and there should be no nasty surprises when the build quotation arrives. This is another advantage of working with just one company for your garden project.

What happens if we have signed off the design, but decide we want to make additions during the build project?

This often happens and it is much more cost-effective to incorporate additions or changes during the build than afterwards. We will produce a quote for the additions or changes during the project so that you understand what the cost implications are and then, if your budget and our schedule allow, add these works in. But this would obviously have an impact on any timeframes previously agreed.

Can the garden build be split into phases to help with budgeting?

Yes, absolutely. We recommend producing a design for the entire site at the outset so that you understand how the different elements of the garden will relate to each other. But the actual build can be split into phases over an agreed period of time to suit your requirements and available budget. It’s worth bearing in mind, though, that phasing a project in this way is likely to cost more in the long run than completing a build in one go.

How are your garden design fees determined and structured?

We base design fees on the time we estimate it will take to produce the drawings and documentation required to enable the design to be costed and built. This can obviously vary considerably from project to project, but design fees typically account for 8-10% of the total budget.

Design fees are charged in 4 stages covering the main elements of the process:

1. Deposit payment
2. Production of the Concept Design and supporting material
3. Production of the Planting Plan and supporting material
4. Production of Construction and Setting Out drawings, the Schedule of Works and specifications and tender documentation if required.

Once the design is agreed and signed off, we will, if required, provide you with a quotation for your garden build, in line with your budget.

How are your garden build fees structured?

Once the build quotation has been accepted, we ask for a 10% deposit to secure your place in our work schedule. 2 weeks before the build starts we ask to a 40% ‘mobilisation’ payment to cover materials orders. A further 40% payment is payable mid-way through the project, with the final 10% payable on project completion.