SERVICES

This is the most popular garden design service I offer. It is an ideas session, a 'big picture' session, which provides essential hard landscaping layout plans and a modicum of planting suggestions. We discuss your specific needs, any wild ideas, any particular problems and any limitations.

Then I work outside, surveying the site and drawing up a number of design options that will give you a garden that will meet your needs, be easy to maintain, and will look great throughout the year.

In the last part of this visit we work together, discussing these design options and selecting the elements you like best. By the end of the visit we have a master plan for your garden, showing: steps; paving; retaining walls; planting areas; any features such as a pergola or a pond; and some suggestions for focal points and structural planting.

If you are doing your own landscaping the drawings from this visit will be perfect for you to work from. In many cases they are equally satisfactory for a competent landscaper to work from, as the dimensions are accurately to scale and all the relevant levels are marked in. 80% of my clients work from the Primary Plans.

These visits are usually 3 or 4 hours long and charged by the hour plus mileage. They can be extended, on the day, should you want more detail, or if, for example, you decide you want both back AND front designed. Please call for a no obligations quote.

The second service I offer provides a set of very detailed plans for the construction and planting of the design you finally select from the Primary Plans Visit drawings. Because a Primary Plans Visit usually provides you with 2 or 3 alternative suggestions the ultimate choice for your garden may well be a selection of several elements from each of these options.

The detailed drawings are done in my office, where we can meet up, if necessary, to discuss or clarify any queries before each stage is finalized.

A complete set of plans comprises:

• a hard landscaping layout, with any relevant sectional diagrams;

• a planting scheme that includes trees, shrubs, perennials and bulbs, to give flower and foliage interest all year round;

• Notes on construction and planting;

• a complete plant list, presented bed by bed, so it is not too overwhelming;

• a hand drawn artist's impression of the garden a few years after completion.

The detailed plans are especially helpful if your garden is steeply sloping, or complicated in some other way, or if you feel uncertain about your knowledge of plant combinations and planting densities.

They are also helpful if you are having someone else - a landscaper, or a builder - to do the work for you. They make it easier for the landscaper to see exactly what you want, and ensure there are no misunderstandings.

The cost of detailed plans depends on the size of the site, and the complexity of the final design, so I can only give you a price for this service after the Primary Plans Visit.

The third service I offer is a site visit to help you identify plants in your garden. This is helpful if you become the new owner of an established garden full of shrubs you do not recognize that seem to be turning into triffids! I can tell you what they are, and show you how best to prune them so they remain under control and beautiful.

This service is also helpful in established gardens at 5 year intervals, by which time fairly major thinning of shrubs and perennials is often appropriate.

The cost is charged per hour, plus milage. Please phone for a no obligations quote.