17 Nov Is it too late for my garden to be redesigned for spring?
Do your plans for next year involve a garden makeover? This article explains why winter is the best time to hire a professional to get your garden re-design organised in time for spring.
3 Reasons to Design Your Spring Garden In Winter
- For landscaping work to start in spring, the garden design needs to finalised before the end of winter
- When your garden is in its winter coat, your garden designer can see its features much better
- Winter weather helps your mind to focus on how you want your summer garden to perform
Why Do I Need A Garden Designer To Help Re-Design My Spring Garden?
A garden designer is someone who can help you to really get the best out of your garden. You will already have lots of ideas about how you want your new garden styled. And you’ll know exactly how you plan on using it.
Pulling all of your ideas together into a solid, workable plan, takes training, experience, knowledge of landscaping materials plus a little bit of artistic talent. The trickiest skill to master, is designing the garden that fits with your landscaping budget.
To reach this stage in a garden re-design there will have been several ideas rejected by the designer. As well as lots of experiments with the layout and the proportions of each feature.
The final design makes the whole process look deceptively simple. There’s been a lot of thinking-time involved with this!
Designing your own garden potentially means lots of research, frustration, procrastination and possibly the occasional argument with friends and family. To say nothing of gathering prices for material and labour and continually tweaking to stay within budget.
Hiring a garden designer involves simply discussing your ideas and aspirations with your chosen garden designer. Then whilst you get on with your life, the garden designer works with your objectives, styles them to suit your character, researches suitable materials, and ensures that everything works beautifully together. Of course your garden will need to be measured and surveyed before the design can be finalised but the designer organises this. You have nothing to worry about.
At each stage of the design process you will be asked to comment and suggest changes – that way you can be sure of having the final say in what goes into your garden.
A 3D render of your garden design costs a little more but will truly help you to imagine what your new garden will look like and how you can use it.
How long does garden re-design take?
Garden design of course depends on the size and complexity of the garden but on average, it takes 6-8 weeks from the initial enquiry until the design is finalised.
What does garden design involve?
First of all, your garden designer will meet with you to discuss ideas and possibilities. Don’t worry if you feel as though you haven’t got a clue what needs doing – as you get chatting, you’ll find that’s not the case at all. Certainly when you chat with Katie at Tapestry Design Studios, you’ll find that she asks the kind of questions that really make ideas jump out of your brain.
A site visit gives Tapestry Design Studio’s garden designer Katie, an opportunity to learn more about the client’s likes and dislikes.
During the initial meeting, your garden designer will get an understanding of what you do and don’t like. How you want to use your garden. Which features are essential, which are important and which don’t matter. It’s also important to know whether there is anything already in the garden that you’d like to keep. And, of course, how much you would like to spend on having your garden re-designed and remodelled.
Next comes the site visit. The designer will take measurements and assess things like soil type, aspect, slopes, drainage and access (for landscaping machines and for material deliveries). We also take into account the property itself, the surrounding area and whether the views should be enhanced or hidden.
With measurements gathered, your designer can start to plan a layout that suits your every need.
After the layout comes the choice of materials (eg decking vs paving, lawn vs gravel, colour scheme A vs colour scheme B)
Finally, depending on the package you have agreed, comes the construction drawings and the specifications for your landscaper to quote from.
When should I start asking landscapers for quotes?
A landscaper needs to see the garden re-design in order to give you an accurate quote. So as soon as you have agreed and signed off on the design you will be able to take it to landscapers.
Tapestry Design Studios is very happy to liase with your chosen landscapers as the design progresses. If you’ve not got a landscaper in mind, we can recommend a contractor who we know and trust do a top quality job. Our sister-company Holland Landscapes have a well-deserved reputation for bringing a garden design to life. You can see some of their work here.
Garden designers don’t just focus on layout plans, if you want to transform your garden by refreshing beds and borders, we can create a planting plan for you.
How to avoid the queues to have your new garden ready sooner
The best landscapers are often booked up well in advance so the sooner you talk to them, the better. Especially if you need your garden makeover completed by a certain date.
Most of the landscapers we work with complete jobs on a first-come-first-served basis. Some are already filling their order books for spring. You may not be able to jump the queues, but you will get ahead if you start researching landscapers at the same time as commissioning your garden designer.
Ask your designer for recommendations, look at websites, read the reviews and check that they are bone-fide landscapers before making contact.
Here are 10 things you should ask your landscaper before signing any contracts
How to choose a garden designer
Garden designers are artists and as such they all have slightly different styles and slightly different ways of working. Looking at their portfolios will tell you if you like their style. Reading their blogs and chatting over the phone will give you an idea of whether you like their personality too. Personality is important. If you feel as though you may be harangued into accepting a re-design you don’t like, then that’s not the designer for you. Take your time, choose wisely, after all, your garden is an investment.
These links might help you
Why use a professional garden designer? 5 strong reasons to have your garden designed by an expert.
About Tapestry Design Studios: Who we are, where we are and how we work
What does garden re-design cost?
How could your garden be improved?
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