1. The consultation
Special offer for April & May 2024
Rachael will follow up with a written summary of her visit together with a list of her top recommendations of plants for your garden at no extra cost.
We like to kick off the garden design process with an initial consultation. This service comprises a meeting with you of up to two hours to tour your garden and have a detailed discussion of:
what you want from your outdoor space, your ideas and needs;
how your wish-list could be realised in the space through soft and hard landscaping;
how we can assist you to achieve this transformation.
The cost for this session is £250 +VAT for any size of garden, as long as you are within 15 miles of Nailsworth.
What you will need to bring along: Pinterest boards, mood boards or magazine cuttings. Pen and paper to scribble notes of our discussion.
2. Concept design*
*must follow on from Consultation
If you’re keen to progress following the initial consultation session, the design process begins with a concept design, including the following tasks:
organising the commissioning of a topographic site survey to be undertaken by others on your behalf (our fee does not include the survey itself);
site analysis;
creation of mood boards of materials and planting ideas, based on our conversations at the initial consultation;
design of illustrative concept garden layout plan;
advise on-site constraints including planning restrictions;
one meeting on-site to discuss concept design.
At this point, we often get asked if this will fit our client’s budget. This is always the best time to get a cost expert involved before moving on to the next stage.
3. Developed design
Based on the agreed concept design, we’ll then proceed with the developed design, which comprises:
production of full design package with enough information to allow a contractor to price, with the following documentation; master plan, planting plan for key specimens and matrix for perennials, plant schedule, hard landscaping specifications and hard landscaping ‘setting out plan’
One meeting on-site to agree on developed design and materials choices; we often bring hard landscape samples to this meeting
Please see our pricing schedule below for the cost of concept and developed design by project size.
4. Project management
From the selection of a contractor through periodic inspections, contractor liaison and final quality assurance, our Project Management Services ensure that your project is delivered smoothly. Maintaining regular communication with you as the build progresses assures you that your garden transformation is as stress-free as possible.
Cost on request subject to your requirements.
5. Plant sourcing & placing
Through our network of nurseries, we are able to source and install the full range of plants and trees specified in our design at a highly competitive price.
Our planting service includes the following:
optional detailed planting plan
illustrated plant list
sourcing and collection of plants from a local wholesale nursery
setting out the selection for planting on site
Cost on request subject to your requirements.
6. Maintenance
Once a garden is in the final stages of completion, it’s important to think about its successful handover to you and we can provide you with an Annual Maintenance Plan. This plan includes care instructions - against all specified plants and how to care for items such as woodwork and water features.
Cost on request subject to your requirements.
Your budget
It is important to set a budget you’re comfortable with from the offset. It is commonly accepted that a well-designed and maintained garden can add up to 20% to your property value, so setting a budget that is about 10% of your property value is a good place to start.
You can also estimate the construction cost very roughly with a cost per square meter; based on the figures given in the Society of Garden Designers Awards 2021, we’d recommend allowing for £300-£600 +VAT per square meter for a really beautiful space, depending on the size of your garden. We always recommend getting expert cost input based on the concept design.
Whether you base your budget on property value or construction cost per meter squared, these figures do not include the cost of your garden designer, which is where our cost framework comes in.
Please note that you can engage us from step 1 ‘Consultation’ up to any step in the process. For example, from step 1 ‘Consultation’ up to step 5 ‘Plant sourcing and placing’.
Cost Framework
We like to keep things straightforward, so we base the cost of our design work on the size of your garden.
The consultation session is charged at £250 +VAT per session, regardless of the size of the garden. The fees for design services vary by project size, however, as the principal of ‘economies of scale’ applies to garden design. You can measure the area of your garden using Google Maps; just right click on the edge of your garden, select ‘Measure Distance’, and click around your garden edge to enclose and generate a total area.
Sometimes our clients wish to appoint us to produce a concept design only so we’ve separated this service out to standalone if required. The developed design then follows on from the concept design exercise – we can’t undertake developed design until we have completed a concept design (the developed design fee does not include concept design).
Please note that the costs below do not include expenses or VAT.
If you’d like to bring us on board based on our cost framework, please complete this agreement and send it to info@austindw.co.uk; we’ll then get back in touch to book in the consultation.
Special circumstances
Just to note that there are also a couple of special circumstances that mean that we may need to deviate from the table above and create a tailored services and fee proposal. These include very steeply sloping sites, gardens of listed buildings or in a Conservation Area, and sites with swimming pools and lakes. We also cannot commit to the fees within the framework if your garden is outside of a 15-mile driving radius of our office in Nailsworth.
If your project has one or more of these characteristics, is further than 15 miles from Nailsworth, or if your garden is larger than 600m2, we’d love to put a bespoke fee proposal together for you; please get in touch here to begin the process.