Garden design

[Gem77]

Hi All

 

Can anyone shed some light on where to start with looking for someone to design our garden? Looking on line its just a mine field of people to choose from.

We are at the initial stages of our build and we don't currently have any budget to be able to landscape but would really like to get a good idea of what we can work towards with our garden eventually as it is quite a large area.

What kind of costs are we looking at to just design?

 

Many thanks

Gemma

[CC45]

where are you in the country?

[Gem77]

17 minutes ago, CC45 said:

where are you in the country?

In Surrey

[PeterW]

9 minutes ago, Gem77 said:

In Surrey

 

So you can add a zero to any price I give you.... ?

 

A basic garden plan will set you back £500-1000, and that's for the structure and generic planting. Want someone with a Chelsea heritage and a detailed planting scheme with nice pastel pictures, and you can seriously add a zero to that lot and double to price too.

[HerbJ]

We used a landscape/garden designer for our garden. Our site sloped up from front to back and side to side.  We could not envisage a way forward but the landscape designer developed a clear design that we incorporated in the PP  and in construction plans.  It was expensive but well worth it, as it provided a clear plan for groundworks and landscaping, which allowed us to utilise the heavy construction equipment  as part of our ground works contract. Broadly, they gave us a landscaape concept design, incorporating existing trees and shrubs and using the topographic survey daata. . SWMBO did the planting plans and did all the plant (with a little manual help from me)

 

 I attach the concept design, some early ground clearance photos and a couple of recent photos.

 

The company we used was PC Landscapes based in  Farnham.

pclandscapes_Concept_Design_a.pdf

Edited May 18, 2020 by HerbJ
further info added +typos

[Gem77]

42 minutes ago, PeterW said:

 

So you can add a zero to any price I give you.... ?

 

A basic garden plan will set you back £500-1000, and that's for the structure and generic planting. Want someone with a Chelsea heritage and a detailed planting scheme with nice pastel pictures, and you can seriously add a zero to that lot and double to price too.

That's great thanks for giving me a rough idea - from looking at the sites they all seem to differ with images that they offer so obviously need to figure out what is important for us in seeing the visual outcome.

[Gem77]

25 minutes ago, HerbJ said:

We used a landscape/garden designer for our garden. Our site sloped up from front to back and side to side.  We could not envisage a way forward but the landscape designer developed a clear design that we incorporated in the PP  and in construction plans.  It was expensive but well worth it, as it provided a clear plan for groundworks and landscaping, which allowed us to utilise the heavy construction equipment  as part of our ground works contract......

pclandscapes_Concept_Design_a.pdf 4.69 MB · 0 do

 

Thanks for sharing this with me, your garden looks lovely ? when you say expensive would you be comfortable giving me a rough idea of the cost for just the design?

[HerbJ]

@PeterW absolutely correct about pricing and how it ramps up if you require all the services, especially in Surrey and Berkshire, where we built..

 

For our concept design, the total cost was £3,500 (including VAT which could not be claimed back as it was design service). I will admit to being horrified at this but SWMBO was adamant that it would add value to our overall scheme - she was right, as usual.... The proposed costs estimate for the next phases, including detailed design and then supervision of construction (hard landscaping) and planting would have been £ 6 to 10,000 , depending on the cost of the landscaping works - see my post below

 

The photos I attached were last year. The garden is now looking great, especially with the lock down and all the work that SWMBO has been putting into the garden recently

Edited May 19, 2020 by HerbJ
To correct incorrect cost data

[Dan F]

Take a look at:

https://www.sgd.org.uk/find_a_designer/default.aspx

https://www.bali.org.uk/members/directory/

 

We met two types of garden designer:

- Local garden designers who weren't members of SGD/BALI charging around £1,200 for design.

- SGD/BALI designers, including some qualified landscape architects, who wanted to charge £5-10k+

 

But we couldn't really find anyone between the two extremes ?

 

In the end, because we we have level thesholds and we wanted to ensure all the drainage was properly done we hired a landscape architect and not the local garden designer.  It's costing more than we expected to pay on garden design, but I guess it's one of the things that seems secondary, but in actual fact is it's own project/profession and needs time/money if you want to achieve a good result.

 

1 hour ago, HerbJ said:

The proposed costs estimate for the next phases, including detailed design and then construction (hard landscaping) and planting would have been upwards of £35,000+  - without materials/plants.

 

When you say "proposed costs",  did you have someone else build it more cheaply in the end then?

 

Edited May 18, 2020 by Dan Feist

[bassanclan]

The first question the designer is going to ask you is what budget you have for the work. For example the cheapest indian sandstone will be £17-20 per sq metre, with a subbase and labour on top. Turf might be £3 per sqm etc.

You really need to make a list of what you will want from the garden e.g. veg garden, football pitch etc etc

[Temp]

I'm sure there must be several good books on the subject, not to mention CAD programs. I gather some can show you what your garden design will look like 10 years down the line when plants have grown.

 

[SteamyTea]

Local college that does horticulture.  Students always need projects to do.

[HerbJ]

22 hours ago, Dan Feist said:

When you say "proposed costs",  did you have someone else build it more cheaply in the end then?

 

i have misleading info in my post above - I couldn't find the actual data when I respond and made a guess without checking ( we only had a paper copy of the original quote and I couldn't find it before I posted - apologies.

 

So in the interests of  providing good data, SWMBO has has now located the paper copy and the actual facts are:

 

1) Landscape Designers would seem to work like architects and their normal basis of fees is based on % of final landscape cost. I attach  a redacted copy of Appointment for Landscape Design Agreement, which sets out the expected % Fees, Their % fees vary from 17.5% to 10%, depending on the total costs off the work value.

2) We only used their service for stages A and B but on a hourly rate basis, as we had no intention of using their services for Detailed Design and other subsequent stages. Our cost was £3500 (including VAT). SWMBO still insists that this was money very well spent!

3) Landscape Designers do not undertake actual construction services but would offer project management and contract services to supervise/manage the actual works.  ( analogous to architects mode of engagement).

4) For completeness, I summarise the actual landscaping costs ( 2015/2016) , including ground clearance, regrading, retaining walls (both concrete block and wood sleepers), all foundations ( including garden shed, paths, terracing and drive), supply and lay terracing (210 m2), supply and lay SUDS drive (Marshall stone 110 m2) topsoil for planters, copings for walls, all service ducting for cables and water to various points in garden,  ACO drains in terrace  etc . 

 

Rear and side garden and terraces/paths/retaining walls - £45,311(% VAT rated)

Drive - £16,450 (% VAT rated)

 

5) On this  basis of these construction cost, the Landscape Fees would have been £4737 +VAT (as a minimum) though I suspect they would not have carried it out a efficiently as my contractor, as we utilised all the heavy machinery already mobilised to site for the main ground works and foundation preparation. So, I have probably been unduly critical of landscape designer fees......

6) SWMBO did all the planting design and planting, providing many of the plants from cuttings taken from this garden before ground clearance and previous garden. Much of this was completed before the house was completed, as the retaining walls provided a  garden separated from construction traffic and builders damage. Of course, we also retained and protected all of the mature hedges, trees and plants during the ground clearance, which provided a great basis for the landscape design/plan.

 

 

 

_Appointment for Garden Landscape Design Agreement_a.pdf

Edited May 19, 2020 by HerbJ

[rh2205]

Thanks this info is very helpful! Your garden looks amazing! I am wondering now what we can get done for 10k considering our sandstone paving is £33sqm that we’ve just bought and that’s a few pound from the cheapest that even exists right now. Hahaha I think ours is similar size rear portion is 750sqm?. Obviously we have no budget for design so maybe I’m hoping some crazy helpful people can give us some pointers.

[Marvin]

14 minutes ago, rh2205 said:

Thanks this info is very helpful! Your garden looks amazing! I am wondering now what we can get done for 10k considering our sandstone paving is £33sqm that we’ve just bought and that’s a few pound from the cheapest that even exists right now. Hahaha I think ours is similar size rear portion is 750sqm?. Obviously we have no budget for design so maybe I’m hoping some crazy helpful people can give us some pointers.

I think not so crazy SteamyTea already has...

[rh2205]

Oh I see this is a good point, though I’m not sure there are any local horticultural colleges but there are a lot of nice grounds and kings college runs a course locally but the focus is on planting and maintaining rather than ideas haha. In any case I am not sure we are after a high maintenance formal garden. It’s a hard balance though to make sure it’s a garden and not a yard of nettles ?.

[Haylingbilly]

Remarkably, I have someone in Farnham who doesn't cost the earth. She charges £36 an hour and I have only ever used her on an hourly rate so not sure if she would do a fixed price.

 

PM me and I will pass on her details.

 

Andy