garden designer- worth it?

[Lobster12345]

Has anyone used a garden designer and was it worth it? How did you find one and what sort of cost was involved? I'd love to turn the garden from meh to great but don't really know where to start and looking at Pinterest and Instagram for ideas is making it worse! I'd love someone to come up with a few designs that we can get work with builders/landscapers etc to create. It's a mid sized garden if that makes any difference

I can't exactly help but my DH's friend loves designing gardens, he has done quite a few. He offered to draw us a plan for our garden.

We changed a few small things to suit us but the design he drew is something that I would never have thought of and works perfectly.

He listed material, suitable plants and everything you could think of. His ideas were so different to anything I'd thought of or looked at on Pinterest! I'm not sure how much it would cost for this part of the service but I would have gladly paid it for such a beautiful design.

So, if you can find someone, I would really recommend it.

We've used designers. With the current house, we had a rough idea what style we wanted (formal with limited colour palette) and what things we wanted incorporated (e.g. water features, entertainment area, lights, irrigation, wildlife friendly plants etc). We got designs done by 3 different designers (two of them with Chelsea medals) but in the end we continued with the designer that didn't have such accomplishments to his name. He did have some great ideas, was friendly and didn't seem like he was trying to squeeze us in between a gazillion other clients.
Price-wise it worked out about £30/m2 for a complete overhaul all in. (hard landscaping, all plant material, labour etc).

Oh, yes, totally worth it. It looks stunning and the plant seems thrive as they are perfectly matched to the soil, aspect and whatever else. The flowering plants are well thought out so it all looks amazing all year round.

Neighbours paid £8000 about four years ago for a small back garden. Next door neighbours spent £30,000 on an orangery and a garden that is hard landscaping with pots and a rill.

We did. Only reason was we had built our house, DH owes a house building company. We used the garden designer who does their showhomes.

We both wanted an entertaining space we weren't bothered about planting. He really did a great job it looked fantastic.
Fast forward and we have since had a surprise baby our garden now has chutes, swings and all the other crap kids collect.
He recently paid us a visit, I could see the horror in his eyes as he spotted Peppa Pig hanging from his perfectly planted trees😂😂

Just watching gardeners world and the butterfly brother's made an amazing garden. No idea of cost but it was beautiful. You can catch it on iPlayer.

I've done my zeros wrong... £300/m2 sound crazy money when I put it like that. But there were lots of mature plants, topiary, massive terracotta pots, water features etc.

Garden designer here. I’m totally worth it.

Thanks everyone. Sounds like it's definitely worth it. It is just the design part I'm after as we have builders that can do any hardscaping. I best bet googling to find one!

@VenusClapTrap based near Cambridgeshire at all?

Nope, sorry!

I think experienced designers will often have their own garden builders so asking your builder instead might not save you any money.

If you’re going to do your own planting, I’d hope you can get a detailed design + plant list for maybe 2k?

JoJoSM2

I nodding and thinking that doesn't sound so bad until your next post saying you had missed a zero out!

VenusClapTrap

Roughly what area are you in?

I think experienced designers will often have their own garden builders so asking your builder instead might not save you any money.

Most garden designers are happy to provide the design and let you engage your own builders if you prefer to do that. Sometimes my clients do this because they have their own tried and tested builders, or know someone they can get mates rates from. It’s up to them.

It can be a pain though, especially if they are builders not experienced in landscaping, or prone to short cuts, as they often go rogue and make their own alterations to my designs. It’s usually to make their lives easier, while telling the client it will be better for some spurious reason. It can then be quite frustrating when I’m standing in the garden after the deed is done, ready to do the planting, and I’m having to explain to the client why x, y or z doesn’t quite work now. The number of times I’m left with a crestfallen client saying “Oh, I wish we’d stuck with the original plan!”

So I must admit I prefer it when they use the landscapers I recommend.

ohdearmymistake I’m in Sussex.

Lobster it’s just occurred to me that an old boss of mine is based near Cambridge. I worked for him when I was starting out, to get some experience before going solo. Lovely guy, talented gardener/designer. Spike Jackson Garden Design.

Is there any average price per m2 at all. Wouldn't want to waster anyone's time if I can't afford it.