The Design Process
My service can be tailored to your own skills, time and requirements. The project could include any or all of the following.
Concept Plan
This is a design for your garden, following on from surveys of the site and consultations with you about your requirements, using my questionnaire as a starting point.
Full Design and Planting List
This includes a concept plan but also plant selection and layout of suitable plants for each area, based on the site, soil & climatic conditions
Project Monitoring
I can suggest contractors to build your garden and work with them to monitor the project, and also source and supply plants, and lay them out in the correct locations ready to be planted by the landscapers. I can link you to my professional membership of Shoot Gardening that provides a maintenance schedule (including pruning information) for your new garden, so that you know how to best look after your plants over the seasons.
A Step-by-Step Guide to the Process
This is based on creating a full design and concept list, plus project monitoring.
- Before contacting me please take a look at my Online Questionnaire and my Terms and Conditions. The questionnaire will help you focus on what you want in your garden and will give me a clear picture of your needs and preferences. Please read my terms and conditions at they explain how I work and include some important information about how I work, my fees etc.
- Once you have completed the online questionnaire I will contact you to arrange an appointment for an initial conversation and visit to your garden. At particularly busy times of the year I may not be able to respond as quickly as I would like.
- During the initial visit, we can look at your garden, discuss your answers to the questionnaire and any other questions you may have. You can then decide if you would like me to design your garden. If so, we can then arrange a second visit
- Either during the second visit (or on the first visit if you would like to start straight away) I will do a detailed survey of your garden and take photos. This usually takes 2 to 3 hours, and dependent on the complexity of the garden, I often need to return for further measurements.
- With all the information from the questionnaire, survey, and our discussion, I will draw up a draft plan for your consideration. We may then have one or more further consultations before a detailed concept plan is drawn up.
- Once the concept plan has been finalised, and after discussion with you, I can draw up a list of suggested plants for the different areas of your garden to be planted once the hard landscaping has been completed. Once we have finalised the plant selection, I can source and purchase these from my suppliers. I can then place them in the correct positions for the landscapers to plant them. This is a popular option as it is more flexible than creating a to-scale planting plan, and a more economical way of creating a planting scheme.
- If you would like, I can monitor the project and source plants and materials, working with local landscapers that I have used for a number of years, or with contractors that you have found, or with you, if you have decided to do the work yourself.
