The first step is to come and meet you and have a look at the garden, or the area of the garden you want to change. In common with most qualified designers, I have to charge a consultancy fee for this visit to cover my time. My fee at the time of writing is £95 plus travel over an hour and a half. We’ll talk in detail about what you want and need, and I can make suggestions and I will always write a report for you about the best solutions to the design issues. This is sometimes enough for you to then carry on yourselves and get your new garden built or make the changes you need to your existing garden. That’s fine by me. I’m glad to have been able to help.

Usually, though, my clients want a detailed design. To do this I will need an accurate plan and level survey. I’ll either do this myself, or if it’s a large or complicated space I’ll arrange a surveyor for you. This normally takes about a day to complete.

On receipt of the survey, I will then complete the detailed design work, to scale. I will ensure that there are projection drawings, sections or perspectives if necessary so that the plans are easy to interpret. I’ll come and present the drawings to you in person and explain all my ideas and intentions. Usually, I will do a colour design proposal first with graphical rendering of plants and hard landscaping, so that you can see where my ideas are going before I have committed too much time and effort, and come and discuss this with you first. I can then turn this proposal design into a final drawing with all the levels and construction details to enable the contractor to build the garden.

Planting plans are intrinsic to the design – I will have been thinking about the planting all through the design process. Planting more than anything else dictates the feel, style and mood of the garden. The production of planting plans is the next stage*.

I can then produce construction drawings, construction specifications, lighting plans (I often enlist the help of an expert for these), undertake contractor tender or negotiation actions, and undertake a full construction project monitoring service if you wish. I have also negotiated trade discounts on supplying plants in bulk; I can supply the plants and pass the discount on to you.

*A note on planting plans: it is common in the business to produce a detailed planting plan with all of the plants numbered and named in latin and located precisely on the drawing. It is hardly ever the case that the plants are actually planted in that precise position in practice. Only in the most formal or minimal designs are the plants not rearranged on site to look better. I think that paying me to produce detailed lettered drawings is a waste of your money. Instead, I plant up from rough but detailed drawings. I have a very good idea of the feel that I want, and I can calculate the number of plants required perfectly accurately. Why do more?