Initial Visit & Fee Estimate
The process starts with a visit to see you and your garden. You can tell me what you want done or what you think is wrong with the current garden. What sort of gardener are you? If you can tell me how much you plan to spend it helps but most people don’t know what a garden costs. Once I have a feel for the the scope of the work required, I will send you a fee estimate for the work and a summary of your brief up to that point.
What happens next depends on what you want done and how involved you want to be. You may want to share the whole experience or just tell me to pick some plants.
Site Survey & Analysis
Most jobs start with some sort of survey. I generally do this myself (you can help if you want) but for trickier jobs it’s cost-effective to use a professional survey company as their equipment makes the job much faster. For very large, mature gardens I can help you commission a tree report which helps us decide what’s worth keeping.
The analysis includes working where the sun and shade will be at various times of the day and year. Soil, topography and drainage are also important. All these factors together can create a dozen different micoclimates even in one small garden. Add in how you use and access your garden, what you can or don’t want to see and you have a recipe for what goes where.
The Design Process
I’ll spend as long as you want to chat and learn your tastes. What do you love or hate? How much time do you have to look after it? Since gardens are visual not verbal, I use images and your reactions to them. Don’t worry if you think you’re not making sense – I will probably see some pattern emerging. After this, I can then complete the written brief for you to approve.
Materials selection is often the first practical step if you need paving or other hard landscaping. It’s vital to pick materials you really like because they’re the most lasting and expensive part of the garden but they must also work with your house. I feel it’s important to see and feel the real thing in context not just choose from brochures so I can bring samples to your house. The design often evolves from this choice.
If you want to be involved in plant selection I can send you a shortlist of names for you to look up if you have a plant encyclopedia or are comfortable with the internet: the images available on it are getting better all the time. You have a choice of what sizes to buy plants in. Woody plants – shrubs and especially trees – grow more slowly than herbaceous plants so it can be good to give them a head start if your budget runs to it.
I’ll involve you with all major decisions unless you say otherwise. In the early stages I might produce several design roughs for you to pick from. Once the basic plan is agreed it’s up to me to turn your ideas into instructions to build and/or plant through the relevant drawings and documents[LINK].
My Fees and Terms
For most jobs my fees are a mixture of fixed fees for deliverables, hourly fees for services and costs. I don’t charge for the initial visit if it is local. I don’t explicitly offer different levels of service but by picking what you want you can tailor my services to suit yourself.
The cost of the fixed fee elements varies according to the brief which takes into account the challenges you and your plot set me such as adjusting levels, fitting lots of functions into a small space, working around problems. This is why an initial visit is required. Which deliverables you want depends on your project and how much you want to control or make life easy for your landscaper. It may not be possible to predict which drawings are required for building until the basic design has been completed but prices will be proportional.
The services are where you can let me take the hassle out of your new garden – if you want. I understand clients’ reservations about hourly charges especially for those with an eye on the budget, so I only do this when someone else is involved (consultation, meetings, site inspection etc) or when you are able to see me working (labelling or setting out plants) not for time spent alone in my office.
iFAQ?Engineers might think my hourly rate is very healthy but bear in mind that only 50% of my time is billable over the year.
For larger projects I use a percentage fee based on the SGD Scale of Fees [LINK]
I use the SGD Terms and Conditions (Scotland).
Timing
Decide who will build your garden and when, then work backwards from that. Planting is best done from autumn to spring: summer requires lots of watering. Construction of hard landscaping can be done any time it’s dry and the ground isn’t frozen. Landscaping contractors are always busy and in the summer, their waiting list can be 4 months or more with little time for visiting new clients. The design process usually takes two to four months depending on complexity.
