Why do I Need a Garden Designer? A comprehensive guide
If you google ‘why do I need a garden designer?’, you’ll find a whole lot of opinions, some more helpful than others. In this guide, I provide my perspective as a professional landscape and garden designer in Devon and Cornwall. I’ve narrowed it down to 8 key reasons why you need a garden designer. I will of course be biased, but I’m well qualified to explain what I can offer - take a look and decide for yourself!
If you would like to hear a landscaper’s perspective, I would recommend an article by Paul Baker of Holland Landscapes.
What is a garden designer?
Before I begin listing the benefits of employing a garden designer, it’s worth noting that landscape and garden designers come in all shapes and sizes. Anyone can call themselves a landscape and/or garden designer.
In this article I will use the term ‘garden designer’ to refer to anyone who designs private/residential gardens, and has a qualification in landscape and/or garden design recognised by the Society of Garden Designers (such as myself) or sufficient professional experience to have accumulated the same range of expertise in providing:
Detailed designs (including specifications, layout plans, construction drawings, and planting plans)
Design realisation services (including support with the tendering process, CDM regulations, and project administration)
The above services should include the full range of landscape and garden design services as defined by the Joint Council of Landscape Industries.
So why might you need a garden designer?
1) A well-designed garden can increase your property value
A survey by Post Office Money found that improving your garden could increase your property’s value by up to 77%, way more than an extension (37%) or a new kitchen (26%). The post office suggest you may be able to invest as little as £2,750 to achieve a good result. It’s certainly true that a good professional gardener can often work wonders, and there’s a lot you can do yourself on a low budget.
It’s worth noting though, that the majority of gardens may require significantly more investment to achieve such a good return. Just as poor workmanship or design in your house can reduce your property value, the same is possible with respect to your garden. If you consider that you can easily spend £20,000 on a new kitchen, and that an average kitchen is typically much smaller than an average garden and doesn’t have to withstand the elements outdoors, it’s easier to understand the investment which may be required to achieve a garden which will significantly increase the value of your property.
The garden is sometimes an afterthought when we’re considering home improvements, but it is an important part of our living space and deserves as much attention as our house if not more! Investing in your garden makes a lot of sense financially, and in many other ways as described below. Professionals can ensure your garden is well-designed and constructed, so you can be confident of getting value for money.
2) A well-designed garden can increase your enjoyment of your home
Our gardens are an important part of our homes - it might well be the biggest room you have! People often understandably feel overwhelmed by the thought of improving their outdoor space. A garden designer can help you make the most of your space whether you’ve just moved in or are ready for a change to your long-term home. Invest in a holiday and you will hopefully enjoy the holiday, invest in your garden and you can enjoy it year-round forever or until you move!
A good garden designer will ask you lots of questions! A really good garden designer will be able to support you to find the answers when you’re unsure. A good garden designer will be skilled in drawing out your wants and needs, as well as your style and taste. They can help you decide on a realistic budget, and on factors such as what you want to use your garden for, practicalities like whether you need storage or somewhere to hang your washing, what you want to keep, and what you want to change.
A garden designer can suggest options you may not have considered possible - maybe your garden can be wheelchair accessible, maybe you can have a swimming pond! They can also help you think about the future; are you dreaming of a low maintenance garden that looks good year-round, or are you a keen gardener who wants work to do? How do you see your garden evolving over time?
A good garden designer will work from a site survey and carry out a site analysis. This will enable them to really get to know your garden and the surrounding area. They will see the opportunities your site presents (e.g. making the most of beautiful views) whilst gaining a realistic idea of potential challenges (e.g. tricky slopes or lack of privacy).
A garden designer will consider factors such as size, proportion, context (e.g. countryside or urban), history, existing building style (both interior and exterior), lines of sight, flow, climate, seasonal changes, light and shade, the contours of the land, drainage, soil type, existing plants and features, accessibility, building regulations and local restrictions, and much more. They will consider practical issues as well as the area’s distinctive atmosphere or the spirit of the place (genius loci).
The process will generate loads of creative ideas about what could work for you in your unique garden. A good designer will be able to bring all these factors together in a harmonious way which meets your needs practically, looks beautiful, and feels good to use and explore. We are all individuals, and all gardens are unique. A well-designed garden for you is a garden you enjoy.
If you love your garden, you may feel motivated to spend more time in it. An increasing body of research emphasises the importance of getting out in nature for keeping us emotionally and physically healthy. Who knows you might even want to do more/some gardening - there’s plenty of evidence demonstrating the benefits of gardening for our wellbeing!
3) Do it yourself may be false economy
I would always encourage anyone to do get involved with gardening and DIY if they have the inclination, it can be incredibly rewarding. However, there is a big difference between doing a bit of gardening or DIY, and professional garden design and construction. Do you love gardening and DIY? Do you have an artistic flair? Do you feel confident about managing safety, structural, and legal issues? Are you not too worried about the finished result, timescale or budget?
If you answered yes to all these questions, you might understandably want to have a go at garden design and construction yourself. If you answered no to any of these questions, you might be wise to enlist the help of professionals. Our gardens are an important part of our homes. We understandably want them to work for us and bring us joy, not turn into a source of stress and a money pit. Professionals can help you make the most of your garden with the resources you have.
Having settled on a budget, a garden designer can help you work out what’s realistic. You may decide that you’d just like a planting plan for an existing border which you can plant up yourself. Alternatively, you may want an overall concept design/master plan for a garden redesign which makes the most of your budget and ensures the project works as a whole.
Once you have a concept design, a garden designer can help you decide whether you want to use your budget all at once or spread it out over time, completing the project in stages. You can spread your project over several years if you want.
A garden designer can also help you think about which bits you might be able to do yourself and which bits it would be wise to employ professionals to do. For example, you may feel confident about designing a planting scheme yourself but require a layout plan and construction drawings to enable the contractors to do the hard landscaping.
A garden designer can save you money (and keep you safe) through anything from knowing what plant is most likely to thrive where (and not die), to knowing what materials can be reused, to knowing when to seek advice from a structural engineer to ensure a retaining wall prevents soil from slipping onto your house. They can also provide a design that is low cost to build, e.g. by allowing access to get the necessary materials and machinery on site (e.g. avoiding the use of cranes).
A garden designer will also be able to help you save money by finding a reputable landscape contractor to build your garden. A garden designer’s drawings (essentially a clear set of instructions) will save a landscaper time (and you money) when constructing your garden, and enable them to provide a quick and accurate quote.
If it’s a large project a garden designer may advise and support you through the tendering process which will provide you with a number of quotes to choose from. For smaller projects, they may recommend a single landscaper they know and trust. A good garden designer will be motivated to recommend a competent landscaper as their reputation depends on client satisfaction, which means you can be confident you will be paying for quality.
4) A landscaper may not be enough
Put briefly, a landscape contractor is to a garden designer what a builder is to an architect. A good landscaper/landscape contractor is a highly skilled person. They will share skills with builders, engineers, plumbers, carpenters, horticulturalists, decorators, and more besides. They will also share some skills with a garden designer, but not all - the emphasis of their work is very different; construction rather than design.
If the work you want done is fairly straightforward, maybe you want a path resurfaced, a fence built, or a patio laid, it might be worth going straight to a landscaper who will likely visit your site and be able to provide a quote for the work based on your description of what you’re hoping to achieve.
However, a good landscaper is likely to advise you consult a garden designer if your project is more complex work with multiple elements which all need to work together, and/or changes of levels. This is because a garden designer can provide drawings for the landscaper to work from just as a builder works from an architect’s drawings.
Landscaper Paul Baker says, “Landscaping and garden design are two very different disciplines but the two are interdependent. Like the salt on your chips – without one, the other is next to useless. So yes, you do need a landscaper and a garden designer. But no – hiring both will not add to the overall cost of the project. In fact, you’ll probably save a fortune”.
5) A garden designer can translate your vision
You may have a clear idea of what you’re hoping to achieve, or you may at least have a collection of examples of the sort of thing you’re going for. Through consultation with you, a garden designer can transform your vision into a language that a landscape contractor will understand. A good garden designer will listen carefully to your ideas, and capture them in the form of a concept design. They will then be able to communicate the concept in the form of a detailed design using tools such as layout plans, construction drawings, specifications, and planting plans, such that it can actually be built by the contractor.
During the consultation, in the process of creating the concept design - a scale drawing and potentially a 3D computer model, you will be able to see whether your ideas will work as you envisage, e.g. whether there is enough space for a barbeque area and dining for eight? The garden designer will be able to help you problem-solve any sticking points. With fresh eyes and the benefit of professional expertise, the garden designer will also be able to point out potential pitfalls, e.g. ‘the plant you have planned may struggle to survive in the shade of that building’.
A garden designer will also be able to suggest potential opportunities, e.g. ‘we could save money and achieve a more visually pleasing result if we configure your parking differently, replacing some of the expensive hard landscaping with planting’. The garden designer will be able to provide a rough estimate of the budget required; you may want to scale back your ideas, or you may want to invest more for an even more spectacular result!
If you’re thinking of making changes to your garden, it’s helpful to contact a garden designer early on to help you develop and refine your ideas. Different garden designers can offer different specialisms. For example, I prefer naturalistic, wildlife-friendly gardens, and have specialist skills in designing ‘no dig’ kitchen gardens, forest gardens, accessible gardens, therapeutic gardens, and dementia-friendly gardens.
It’s important to find the best garden designer for you, someone you feel is on the same page as you, that you’ll feel comfortable working with. Creating a garden isn’t about the end result, I believe it’s important to enjoy the process too. In fact, with garden’s there is no ‘end result’ they continue to grow and evolve - you may want to keep in touch with your garden designer for future consultation!
6) See your garden before it’s created in reality!
A key benefit of employing a garden designer, is that they can help you visualise your garden before it is created in reality. Different garden designers will use different communication/presentation methods. I, and many other garden designers will use mood boards to help give you an idea of the sorts of materials and style that is envisaged. Some will provide hand drawn work, some use computer aided design (CAD) software and sometimes additional rendering software.
As a minimum, a garden designer should provide you with a 2D plan (top) view sketch. Many people find it difficult to imagine how this might look and work in reality on the ground no matter how beautiful the drawing. This is why most designers will be able to provide some sort of perspective drawings, showing how the garden will look from various angles. Some, such as myself, will create 3D computer models which enable the garden to be seen from any angle.
If you chose a garden designer who has ‘built’ the garden already in 3D ‘virtual reality’ you will know that in principle, its possible to create it in ‘actual reality’. Myself and some other designers, can also provide photorealistic images with specialist rendering software, and videos/animations/walk throughs as well as interactive files to help you get a feel for what is being proposed if required.
When choosing your garden designer, it’s important to be clear about what they will offer to help you visualise your garden. Will it be enough for you personally to feel confident about taking the next step and investing in creating the garden in reality?
7) A garden designer can ensure vision becomes a reality
A garden designer can support you through the process of creating a beautiful garden from initial contemplation to project sign off and beyond. As part of the process of creating a concept design in consultation with your garden designer, and working this up into a detailed design (the instruction manual for the contractor/s), your garden designer may already have assisted you with practical issues such as applying for planning permission.
You may wish to enlist more of the garden designer’s design realisation services to get your project created in reality. Depending on your needs, this can involve; assisting you to fulfil your responsibilities under the CDM 2015 regulations, assisting you to appoint a contractor and any other professionals required, monitoring progress (overseeing the work) and liaising with the contractor/s on your behalf, or just acting in an advisory capacity.
The garden designer’s well thought through, well communicated detailed design helps to ensure that your garden is constructed efficiently, in the way you want, and minimises the chances of unforeseen expenses. Having the garden designer on board throughout the construction phase enables them to provide clarifications where needed, and to spot opportunities for improvement on the design and/or cost savings as the build progresses.
If the unforeseeable does arise, your garden designer can draw on professional relationships to ensure the right people are involved in finding a solution, and they can ensure that solution is in keeping with the overall design.
8) A garden designer can help you help nature
The environment needs our help. Everything we do has consequences for the environment, and it is sometimes very difficult to know whether we are helping or hindering in the long run. A good garden designer will understand the wider ecosystem that your particular garden is a part of.
A garden designer can support you to navigate this complex situation, minimising the negative impact your project has on the environment whilst maximising the positive impact, without compromising on achieving a beautiful garden that works for you. If this is important to you, ask prospective garden designers how they can help you help nature.
I try to practice in line with The Society of Garden Designers Environmental Action Plan and Manifesto for Sustainable Landscape and Garden Design. Sustainability is about ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ according to The United Nations Brundtland Commission. Adopting a sustainable approach to garden design means thinking carefully about the materials used and having respect for what already exists rather than adopting a bulldozer approach.
A sustainable approach has multiple benefits for wildlife and for you including; 1) adding instant maturity to your garden (e.g. by keeping existing trees) and maintain as sense of history, 2) avoiding disturbing wildlife habitats more than necessary and hopefully create new ones, 3) futureproofing your garden by using plants that have a good chance of surviving as our climate changes, 4) potentially saving you money by reducing the amount of new materials, hard landscaping, and earth movement required.
A garden designer can offer you advice on taking a sustainable approach to the aftercare and ongoing development of your garden too as the ecosystem evolves naturally over time. Often this means a relatively low maintenance approach - less intervention is often more as far as wildlife and the environment are concerned!
Summary
A professionally designed garden can increase your enjoyment of your home and the value of your property. It’s worth taking time to find the best garden designer for you, one you’ll enjoy working with. By working with a garden designer, you are gaining creative ideas, practical knowledge and skills, and access to a network of other landscape professionals. Whether you want a one-off consultation, a planting plan for an existing bed, or support to create a whole new garden from scratch, a good garden designer will be able to save you money, time and stress and deliver beautiful results that work for wildlife and for you.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have a garden design project you’d like to discuss or if you’d like to book me as a speaker. I’d love to hear from you!
If you have any questions, if you think there is anything missing from this guide, or if there is anything else you’d like to see included, I’d welcome your comments below.
