Many people contact me to enquire about making a new garden without really having any idea of what’s involved. They are often surprised about how long it takes and, of course, by how much it costs.

So what does it take to go from this?

A blank canvas, with seven manhole covers…

To this?

First off, you’ve probably spent a lot of time looking at gardens and garden designers online. When you’ve found a garden designer you like the look of (or two or three) you’ll need to get in touch. Catriona, a career coach in Surrey, first contacted me in March 2021. After a phone call discussing the proposed project and, let’s be honest, a bit of sizing each other up, we met in April.

It was a long meeting, not just about the garden and what Catriona was looking for, but about what’s involved in the design, ways of working together, the fun of collaboration and some of the likely ups and downs of the process.

I prepared a proposal outlining all these things and referring to Catriona’s initial budget of £25,000. I knew it was going to be tight and, if you’re a fan of Grand Designs, you’ll know that’s usually just a starting point.

First off I carried out a survey of the garden. In Catriona’s case this was fairly straightforward and cost just a couple of hundred pounds. However, for more complex or larger gardens with lots of level changes or gazillions of trees I would use a professional surveyor and this can cost from £750 upwards.

This is when I discovered the back garden contained seven manhole covers.. what were the developers and builders thinking? I wanted the design to try and make these all disappear.

I prepared a Masterplan and some 3D sketches of how the back garden could look. In those days I did it by hand and kept the 3D sketches to a minimum. Now I use 3D software and produce as many views as is useful, and even 3D walkthroughs of the new garden. I think clients prefer this, particularly those who find it difficult to visualise the finished garden from a plan.

The cost of this varies according to the size and complexity of the garden and proposal but usally starts at around £2,000.

Catriona and I spent a lot of time discussing the design at this stage and I made some changes, getting rid of a proposed wildflower lawn and replacing it with a conventional one. This compromise did mean that one of the manhole covers was going to be slap bang in the middle of the lawn rather than hidden amongst the wildflowers.

This stage, which is sometimes lengthy and frustrating, is crucial to ensure the design delivers what the client wants and will still result in a beautiful and achievable garden.

After this I produced some detailed drawings with accurate measurements and a specification including choices of materials for the contractor. Clients tend not to find this bit very interesting but it is crucial to ensure the garden is built as designed and costed correctly.

One of the more detailed drawings for the contractor

Next up, I asked my contractor, Vlad the Landscaper, to visit the garden, look at the design, meet the client (more sizing up..), sus out any potential problems I had missed, and prepare a quote. Here, Vlad proposed filling a small dip along one boundary and raising the fence up to make the garden completely level. A bit more money but a really good suggestion.

Of course Vlad’s quote was a bit more than we hoped. There was some tooing and froing over some minor elements and in the end agreement was reached and a start date proposed.

Anyone who’s ever embarked on a building project will know you never know what you will find. Here Vlad found that the drainage underneath the builder’s patio was too shallow to put a properly installed terrace on top of it. It also explained why Catriona’s drains sometimes backed up.

Vlad is a resourceful chap and after some further negotiations he was able to re-set the drainage pipes at a lower level, resulting in a fab terrace and no more backed up drains.

Construction continues - two of the manhole covers are hidden in the paving

The rest of the construction proceeded without any further issues. In the meantime I had put together a palette of potential plants for the garden. Catriona and I discussed this, making some minor changes, and then I produced a planting plan. This is another drawing that clients find quite dull but it is important to work out how many plants are needed and where they will go.

Then I worked out an estimate for the cost of the plants. Thanks to Covid and Brexit the cost of plants has shot up substantially in the last four years. Catriona is a champion online shopper and managed to find a cheaper supplier for the seven new trees. I ordered the rest of the plants. The plants for this garden cost around £7,000 in 2022.

Luckily Vlad was around to plant all the trees, and the rest of the plants took a day to set out in position and then plant.

The garden was almost complete. The last element to go in was the waterbowl which took forever to be delivered. And later Catriona added a semi-circular bench to go under the Prunus serrula. She also tracked down a much wanted tree fern that you could not buy for love nor money for some time after Covid as Australia stopped exporting them.

All in all, it took 11 months for Catriona’s garden to go from first contact to completion.

You might think this would be the end of my involvement in Catriona’s garden but far from it. Although Catriona had had a garden designed before it was much smaller. She had a lot of concerns about how to care for the plants and I think initially found it quite daunting learning all their names and needs.

I have made many visits to the garden over the last three years. I have been back to take photos of course, but also to check on how things are doing. We did the spring cutting back of all the perennials together so that Catriona would know how to do it on her own next time.

We have also discussed replacing some plants which for unknown reasons have failed to thrive or Catriona has decided she’s rather have something else.

I think Catriona underestimated how much attention the garden would need, particularly in the first couple of years. However, she also underestimated how much she would enjoy getting involved in the garden - weeding, dead-heading, watering, mulching, pruning - just spending time in it everyday, even it’s just a quick look round.

And I definitely underestimated what an amazing job Catriona would do looking after it. She has since undertaken the planting design of her front garden and it’s turned out really well.

Catriona’s very proud to show the garden off to family and friends. I think the total cost was around £30,000 which she thinks was money very well-spent.

And what of that rogue manhole cover? First we painted it black, then green and eventually it was covered in artificial turf. Finally, an appropriate use for artificial turf in a garden…

See more of Catriona’s garden here.

Catriona Rogers - https://catrionarogers.com/

Comissioning a garden designer

Winter flowering plants

Nymans