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Landscape design · every photograph dated by year · maintenance designed to your hours
A garden isn't finished when it's built. It's finished in year five.
Everybody in this trade photographs a garden the week it goes in, which is the single week it will never look like again. So the pictures here are dated, the plan says what it looks like before it looks good, and the planting is spaced for a garden you'll have rather than one that photographs well on the day we leave.
The same garden, by year
Six photographs, one garden, same spot, same month. Put your own in — and if you don't have a year-three photograph yet, say so rather than borrowing somebody else's mature planting.
The same garden, by year
Year zero
Levels, hard landscaping and a great deal of bare soil. It looks like a building site because it is one, and it's the photograph nobody publishes.
Year one
Gaps. Everything is at nursery size and spaced for year five, so it looks under-planted — and it is meant to. This is the year people ring up worried.
Year three
It reads as a garden. The structure has closed up, the shrubs have met, and any mistakes are now obvious while they're still cheap to fix.
Year seven
The intended thing, and also the point where something has outgrown its place. That's a success rather than a fault, and it's what the maintenance plan is for.
The years it looks unfinished
Said in advance, because almost every unhappy garden client is a happy garden client eighteen months early.
Year one is bark and gaps — Correct spacing looks wrong for about eighteen months. Every garden that looks full in its first summer is over-planted, and by year four something in it is being strangled or dug out
The temptation is to fill the gaps — Do — with pots and annuals, which come out again. What you must not do is put more shrubs in, because those are the ones you'll be removing at your own expense later
Nothing flowers much the first summer — Plants spend year one making roots. It's the least photogenic and most important thing that happens in the whole project
Lawns take two seasons either way — New turf looks like carpet and behaves like carpet for a year. Seed looks worse for longer and ends up the better lawn — pick your discomfort
A tree does nothing visible for three years — And then does everything. A small tree overtakes a big transplanted one within about five years and costs a fifth of it, which is the clearest saving in landscaping
We photograph the same spot every June — And send it to you. It's the best antidote there is to the feeling that nothing is happening, because something always is
The temptation is to fill the gaps — Do — with pots and annuals, which come out again. What you must not do is put more shrubs in, because those are the ones you'll be removing at your own expense later
Nothing flowers much the first summer — Plants spend year one making roots. It's the least photogenic and most important thing that happens in the whole project
Lawns take two seasons either way — New turf looks like carpet and behaves like carpet for a year. Seed looks worse for longer and ends up the better lawn — pick your discomfort
A tree does nothing visible for three years — And then does everything. A small tree overtakes a big transplanted one within about five years and costs a fifth of it, which is the clearest saving in landscaping
We photograph the same spot every June — And send it to you. It's the best antidote there is to the feeling that nothing is happening, because something always is
Plant size, and why instant costs twice
Plants are sold by pot size, and it's the whole price — The same shrub at 3 litres and at 15 litres is the same plant two years apart. One costs £9 and one costs £45, and in three years you cannot tell them apart
Small plants establish better — Less root damage, faster recovery, and they overtake the large ones. This is not a cost-saving argument dressed up — it's the horticultural one, and the saving is a side effect
Bare-root is a third of the price — Hedging, roses and trees, lifted dormant in winter and sold by the metre. If you can wait for the season, it is the biggest single saving available in a garden
Where we do buy big — Two or three specimens, chosen for the spots you see from the house in winter. Concentrating the money beats spreading it thinly over everything
"Instant" gardens are hire, mostly — Much of what you see on television goes back on the lorry. It's a set, and it is fine to want one — just know that's what's being bought
What we'd never buy big — Anything fast-growing. Paying for four years of growth on something that grows a metre a year is paying for time you were going to get free
Small plants establish better — Less root damage, faster recovery, and they overtake the large ones. This is not a cost-saving argument dressed up — it's the horticultural one, and the saving is a side effect
Bare-root is a third of the price — Hedging, roses and trees, lifted dormant in winter and sold by the metre. If you can wait for the season, it is the biggest single saving available in a garden
Where we do buy big — Two or three specimens, chosen for the spots you see from the house in winter. Concentrating the money beats spreading it thinly over everything
"Instant" gardens are hire, mostly — Much of what you see on television goes back on the lorry. It's a set, and it is fine to want one — just know that's what's being bought
What we'd never buy big — Anything fast-growing. Paying for four years of growth on something that grows a metre a year is paying for time you were going to get free
When things can go in
Gardening is the one trade where the calendar outranks the client. These roll forward with the template — put your real dates in before publishing.
When things can go in
- Tue, Sep 8 · 5:29 AMBare-root season opens
Hedging, roses and trees, lifted dormant and sold by the metre or the whip. A third of the price of the same plant in a pot, and it establishes better.
- Sat, Oct 10 · 5:29 AMHard landscaping window📍 On site
Walls, paving and levels, done in the months when planting can't happen anyway. Nobody wants the garden dug up in June, and the groundworkers are quieter in February.
- Wed, Nov 25 · 4:29 AMMain planting
Containerised stock into ground that has warmed. Autumn beats spring wherever the site allows it — the plant gets a whole winter of root growth for nothing.
- Wed, Dec 23 · 4:29 AMTurf and seed
Last, always, and after every machine has finished. Turf laid before the builders leave is turf laid twice.
The wrong month costs more than the wrong plant — A hedge planted in July needs watering all summer and may still fail. The same hedge in December needs nothing at all
Design in autumn, build in winter, plant in spring — That is the sequence, and starting it in April usually means waiting a year for the good half of it
We won't plant into a building site — However much anybody wants it finished. It is the commonest way a good scheme gets wrecked in its first month
Design in autumn, build in winter, plant in spring — That is the sequence, and starting it in April usually means waiting a year for the good half of it
We won't plant into a building site — However much anybody wants it finished. It is the commonest way a good scheme gets wrecked in its first month
What decides a garden, and almost none of it is taste
The soil decides first — Clay, sand, chalk or made ground, and what the last owner buried in it. We dig three holes at the survey and half the plant list is settled by what comes out of them
Aspect decides second — Which way it faces, and what the sun does in February rather than in June. A south-facing garden with a three-storey house on it is a shady garden
The neighbours' trees decide third — Shade, roots and leaves, none of it yours to change. A tree next door with a preservation order on it is a permanent fact and it belongs on the drawing
Water decides everything after that — Where it goes when it rains hard, and whether anything can reach the far end with a hose in August. Both are fixable and both are much cheaper before the paving goes down
The council decides some of it — Walls over a height, decking over a height, anything at the front, and any work near a protected tree. They decide, not us — we'll say which parts need consent and give you an honest read on the odds
What taste decides — Which of the plants that will genuinely grow there you would like to look at. It is a real choice, and it is the last one rather than the first
Aspect decides second — Which way it faces, and what the sun does in February rather than in June. A south-facing garden with a three-storey house on it is a shady garden
The neighbours' trees decide third — Shade, roots and leaves, none of it yours to change. A tree next door with a preservation order on it is a permanent fact and it belongs on the drawing
Water decides everything after that — Where it goes when it rains hard, and whether anything can reach the far end with a hose in August. Both are fixable and both are much cheaper before the paving goes down
The council decides some of it — Walls over a height, decking over a height, anything at the front, and any work near a protected tree. They decide, not us — we'll say which parts need consent and give you an honest read on the odds
What taste decides — Which of the plants that will genuinely grow there you would like to look at. It is a real choice, and it is the last one rather than the first
Maintenance is the design, not what happens afterwards
The most useful number you can give us is how many hours a month you will really spend out there. Not the aspirational one.
Two hours a month is a design — So is ten. They are different drawings, and a garden you won't maintain is a design error rather than a failure of your discipline
Low maintenance never means none — It means fewer, tougher, slower things and more hard surface. Anybody promising a no-maintenance garden is selling you a car park with a shrub in it
The first two years take the most work — Watering, weeding and staking, and then it drops away sharply. Budget the effort front-loaded rather than evenly
About one plant in ten won't survive year one — That is normal, it's expected, and it's covered — anything that fails in the first twelve months from a fault of ours or the stock is replaced free, once
Pruning is a question of when, not whether — The plan says which month each thing is cut, on one page. Most bad pruning is well-intentioned pruning done in the wrong season
We'd rather you had a smaller good garden — Half the area, done properly, beats the whole plot half-done every time — and it's usually the same money
Low maintenance never means none — It means fewer, tougher, slower things and more hard surface. Anybody promising a no-maintenance garden is selling you a car park with a shrub in it
The first two years take the most work — Watering, weeding and staking, and then it drops away sharply. Budget the effort front-loaded rather than evenly
About one plant in ten won't survive year one — That is normal, it's expected, and it's covered — anything that fails in the first twelve months from a fault of ours or the stock is replaced free, once
Pruning is a question of when, not whether — The plan says which month each thing is cut, on one page. Most bad pruning is well-intentioned pruning done in the wrong season
We'd rather you had a smaller good garden — Half the area, done properly, beats the whole plot half-done every time — and it's usually the same money
★★★★★
“Year one I genuinely thought we'd made a mistake. Year four I stopped noticing anything except that we're always out there.”
A client, fourth summer
What it costs
A first visit, charged and deducted — Two hours on site with a spade and a tape. You get an honest read on whether the garden needs designing at all, and the fee comes off if you go on
Design fee is fixed after that visit — Because by then we know the site. Quoting a design fee from photographs is guessing, and the guess is always corrected upwards later
The build is a separate contract, with a contractor — Their price, their programme and their guarantee. We tender it to three, compare the exclusions with you, and never take a cut of it
We don't take a percentage of the build — It rewards the wrong thing. A designer paid on spend has a quiet reason to prefer the expensive paving and you shouldn't have to wonder about that
Planting is priced per plant, at cost — You see the nursery list with the sizes and prices on it. Our fee is our fee and it doesn't move because you chose a bigger tree
What a garden actually costs — Hard landscaping is most of it — usually two thirds. If your budget is mostly going on plants, something has been drawn wrong
Design fee is fixed after that visit — Because by then we know the site. Quoting a design fee from photographs is guessing, and the guess is always corrected upwards later
The build is a separate contract, with a contractor — Their price, their programme and their guarantee. We tender it to three, compare the exclusions with you, and never take a cut of it
We don't take a percentage of the build — It rewards the wrong thing. A designer paid on spend has a quiet reason to prefer the expensive paving and you shouldn't have to wonder about that
Planting is priced per plant, at cost — You see the nursery list with the sizes and prices on it. Our fee is our fee and it doesn't move because you chose a bigger tree
What a garden actually costs — Hard landscaping is most of it — usually two thirds. If your budget is mostly going on plants, something has been drawn wrong
Ask about your garden
A reply within three working days, including an honest answer about whether it needs designing at all and whether this is the right month to start.
Ask about your garden
The hours question is the one that changes the drawing. "Almost none" is a perfectly good answer and it produces a better garden than an optimistic one does.
Live preview — every color, word and block is editable after you pick it.