Design Process

Special interests of the practice:

Design for biodiversity and sustainability including rain gardens, sustainable urban drainage for flood prevention and water conservation.
Naturalistic wildlife supporting planting schemes.
Habitat creation, survey and management plans.
Lush subtropical style green tapestry planting.
Bold, confident, modern Japanese influenced design.
Detailed historical landscape research and restoration projects including preparing for heritage lottery funding applications and creation of Conservation Management Plans (CMP’s).

We offer everything from a short consultation, where a bit of expert advice is required, right up to a full design service and everything in between. Our service is flexible and tailored to our client’s requirements, selecting from the services below.

A typical full design process can include:

An initial consultation to discuss requirements.
A written brief and fee schedule.
Site survey and analysis.
Liaison with architects and engineers.
Outline, concept or sketch designs, usually 3 options.
Complete design plan including materials and outline planting proposals.
Three dimensional design representations and views.
Detailed planting plans, specifications and schedules.
Hard landscaping construction drawings and detailing.

Other services which may be required::

Advising on tree choices including fruit trees and soft fruit.
Soil or climate consultations to aid in creating thriving planting schemes.
Design and/or selection of gates, fencing, railings, ironwork, sculpture, pots, planters and other bespoke features.
Front entrance design.
Quick high impact design changes for house sales or special events.
Design of lighting.
Watering systems.

The stages are explained more fully below.

Consultation only.

This might be a couple of hours and include short tour to talk over your ideas and how feasible they are, helping you avoid a badly planned investment of time and money. It could be discussion of materials and plants, where your budget will do the most for you or some advice about a problem with your site. This service is chargeable by the hour and if required can lead on to outline designs or detailed planting plans.

Design Service.

Initial Consultation.

We will visit you for a chat, look over the site and collect a brief, discuss budgets, fees, tastes and design requirements. This gives us the information we need about what you are looking for to get started and gives you the chance to meet your designer.

A written brief and fee schedule.

Based on the information given at the initial consultation, your requirements are written up and a schedule of work stages and associated fees are agreed.

Site survey, inventory and analysis.

Sites are measured up and the levels checked, the soil tested and issues like microclimate and drainage can be looked at by our team. An accurate plan of the site as it is now is produced as a basis for future design. This includes examination of constraints like tree preservation orders and the like. This stage is essential in moving forward with outline designs to ensure planting will thrive on the site and deal with site constraints and features. For larger or more complex sites, particularly where a lot of hard landscaping is required, it is sometimes better to engage a professional surveyor. The site analysis will always be conducted by us however.

Sketch designs to scale, usually 3 options.

These are outline designs containing key spaces, features and planting styles from which one can be selected as a starting point for progressing to the more detailed design stage.

Complete rendered design plan.

This scale plan shows the detailed final design. The layout and selection of materials, features, paths and so forth. It also gives an indication of planting area and types. This will be a reflection of the brief and take into consideration issues such as privacy, places to entertain or play, access issues, realistic maintenance requirements and budget.

Accompanying this is usually a ‘setting out plan’, containing dimensions from fixed points on site, which helps contractors to place features correctly within the space.

Three dimensional representations.

If desired 3D visualisation can be created to help understand the design. These can be created as brief sketches to outline the main features and spaces or detailed, high quality, photorealistic images for use in publications and presentations.

Detailed planting plans and schedules including quantities.

These are construction drawings, which together with their associated schedules, form a complete list of plants, where and how they are to be planted and detailed information on sizes, forms and quantities for the nursery. These can be created for as much or as little of the space as required.

Hard landscaping construction drawings and detailing.

These are drawings which can be given to a contractor so they can build exactly what is required. They include precise materials, like types of concrete, details of foundations, wood, paving, fixings, location of pipework and electrical cables.

Planting, Supply & Maintenance Schedules.

After the completion of any hard landscaping, we can organise the purchase, inspection and delivery of the plants in the scheme and can be on hand to set them all out for the contractor to plant. We can advise on soil preparation, topsoil and mulching in preparation for planting and make sure they are well planted and correctly spaced, thereby protecting your investment. We can also prepare maintenance programs to help you care for your plants and make sure they grow and develop as they should. We like to keep in touch every year to hear how things are in the garden and discuss any issues.

Project Management.

We can offer project management services on an hourly basis to help ensure that the design is constructed to plan. We can meet with contractors before and at key stages during the work, coming to site as required, and dealing with issues that arise.