The Process

I will meet to establish how your garden is used at present how you would like to use it, i.e. for evening entertaining, for daytime entertaining. To relax at weekends, to help enjoy a glass of wine after work in the evening, or just to grow vegetables. Between us we will talk about styles, time available to maintain the garden, time to spend enjoying it, household needs, pets ...

• Do you work from home, would you like to work outside in the summer months?
• Do you enjoy cooking – would you like to grow fresh herbs and vegetables?
• Will it be a family garden? If so do the kids toys always get in the way?
• What do you like in the garden at the moment, what do want to keep, what annoys you about the garden, what do you want to lose?
• Are you happy with the privacy you have in the garden?
• Do you stop using the garden when it gets dark? Because of poor lighting?
• Or do you stop using it when the weather gets cold?



Once I have an idea of how you use your garden, how you would like to use it, how much time you would like to spend maintaining it or when you would like to enjoy it.

I can plan some ideas and put these into a concept design and with the help of mood boards and colour palettes we can agree on a design for your new outdoor space.




Budget

Once a budget has been agreed we can establish the priority of the work and split the landscape work into budgeted phases. This is a great way of managing the budget over a period of months or even years. Each phase will be completed in such a way that the garden won’t look unfinished between phases. These can be designed in such a way that at the completion of each phase the garden will not look incomplete, each phase is a garden project in its own right. I will draw up a working plan (electronically), which is flexible enough to accommodate tweaks and adjustments along the way.

Obviously completing a whole garden can run into many thousands of pounds, but by phasing the garden over phases of 3, 6 or 12 months, you can achieve a professionally designed garden on a manageable budget. The phasing process is completely flexible; each phase once completed will be a self contained design process. So if circumstances change between phases and you do not wish to continue, the garden will not look unfinished.

I have found that this process allows client to have a breathing space between phases, this allows for small changes and fine tuning to be incorporated. I.e. you may first like the idea of growing vegetables but during the landscaping process and decide that you would like the idea of growing fruit as well. My experience tells me that clients often start taking more of a hands on interest in plants once a garden starts its new life. So I feel it is essential that the process is completely organic and develops as the client develops.