Designing and developing a garden or landscape follows a 5 stage approach:
1. Assessment
Understanding the brief and the place, including both the land and the buildings, are paramount. This entails meeting the client face to face and seeing and experiencing the site in person, although elements of this first stage can be completed remotely.
This initial stage focuses on exploring and probing the client’s hopes and dreams for the garden: how they envisage using their outside space, what they would like to achieve and their preferences.
There is also research to understand the history of the place, the soil, aspect and any existing plants, structures and environmental considerations. The landforms and local vernacular, any opportunities or restrictions to incorporate into the brief and how the house or building relates to its immediate surroundings will also need to be considered.
At this stage, advice may be taken from 3rd parties such as land surveyors to obtain a topographical survey or planning specialists to understand the full possibilities available.
2. Concept Design
A follow up meeting involves testing ideas and opportunities with sketches, mood boards and concepts to maximise the space and landscape and understand timescales, budgets and priorities.
The output of this stage will be a masterplan which provides an overview of the garden design, 3D levelling changes and elevations, key structural plantings and plant schemes, plus potential features, finishes and sustainable solutions.
The masterplan is brought to life through a number of media including diagrams and illustration. It also sets out any requirements to be managed such as planning consents and environmental permissions to achieve the desired garden or landscape.
3. Detailed Design
Following sign off of the Concept Design, work will start on the technical drawings and detailed build specifications to bring the design to life. This will include a full work specification document, detailed drawings and plans to enable a landscaper to prepare their quotation.
We will also work on the plantings, illustrating with photos and mood boards. These will be developed into plant plans and plant lists with quantities to enable sourcing. We will send these plant lists to nurseries for supply costs.
This stage will also include identification of key trees or features to be incorporated in the final garden or landscape plus commissioning any bespoke features.
4. Construction
We will work with you to decide on your landscape contractor to build the garden. This may involve going out to tender, managing this process and associated liaison with all 3rd parties.
Once the landscaper has been selected, we will oversee them to ensure the garden is built to plan and as specified, proactively managing time, cost and quality to provide peace of mind.
We will use standard contract management tools to ensure transparent sign off of the project.
5. Maintenance
Once built and planted, and having delivered what we have said we will deliver, we hand-over the project. At this stage, we can provide a full annual garden maintenance schedule.
We like to revisit a project annually or more regularly to advise on progress and assist with developing the garden or landscape further as it evolves and grows.
Book a Consultation with Caroline
We take on a varied range of projects; from town to country, and from smaller gardens to large landscapes. We would be delighted to hear from you.