How much do landscape gardeners charge?

[whereiscaroline]

I've two landscape gardeners coming this week. One of them wants to know my budget.

My garden is small (9mx5m).

It's dawned on me that I have no idea how much this is likely to be?!

I probably want a new patio, couple of raised beds and possibly a base for a shed. But if they design something WOW then I might want to stretch a bit.

Would anyone mind sharing how much they have paid for a garden redesign?

Bump

We had a quote for a slightly larger garden - maybe 9m long by 8m wide. New build so would have been lots of 'crap' to dig out. It was around £10-12k for patio, raised beds on both sides and turf. We were shocked. Did the beds and digging ourselves, hard work but Pre kids so we had time/energy! Then for someone to do the patio for £1k (driveway company!). A lot of our neighbours paid well in excess of this and it just seems to be accepted but gosh it's a lot of money! We are in a cheap part of the world too!

I understand in laws paid about £30k for similar.

I had this problem too, I got some gardeners round to see how much different options might be and they wouldn't give anything away until they knew what our budget was. One said that the garden budget should be min. 10% of the value of the house. Another said they don't take on projects under £30k. There's no breakdown of fees for design and project management, they just charge for the whole project. I was a bit surprised at the lack of transparency but they seem to have no shortage of work round here so they can do as they please, they clearly thought I was a time waster as no way did I have a £30k budget!

We have a similar sized garden, on a steep hill. Had it levelled into 3 terraces, with 2 patios, 2 sections of turf and some raised beds. We were clear about the budget from the outset and spent around £5k. We've got the not-quite-cheapest slabs, and it was hand-dug by the landscaper. But it is amazing.

I'm sure we could have paid more for better quality, but the landscaper was really sympathetic to our constraints and balanced this with maximum improvements on what was an unusable garden.

Keep looking. Ask for recommendations. It was the best thing we've ever done.

Ours was slightly bigger than yours.

We had everything stripped out (mini digger and skip hired). Then had half of it paved and half grassed. The gardener subtracted the paving to someone else. It was nothing too fancy as we put flower beds in and things ourself and saved the dodgy fence instead of getting a new one.

All in all it cost us £3k.

We did some garden design years ago (the costings are so out of date that they are not relevant) but had different people doing the design and the hard landscaping. It worked well - we felt that the designer was suggesting things because they were a good design, not because he could get extra work or mark-up out of it.
It makes sense to get a designer to design! If you are doing the whole garden then you can get the complete design now but pay for it to happen in stages when you can afford it.

I think you would, be better telling them everything you want rather than giving a budget. So much depends on the pavers you use, whether you want drainage, lighting and water features. A huge part of the cost is related to rubbish disposal. It cost more if they have no direct access to the street.

Once you have a figure, they should give you a break down of costs and then, if it is too high you can look at cutting out some things or buying cheaper versions.

We have a garden 14feet by 21 and we paid £16000. This included fencing , lighting and quite expensive pavers but no plants. I designed the garden myself with the help of a designer, who did the actual measurements. It is a stepped down garden so accurate measurements were critical. Based on what I wanted, she produced 2 plans and charged £400. I chose my own plants, but she would have included plant choices for no extra cost.

I ordered some very tall trees and the landscapers planted them for me. For the price they would have done all the planting, but I had it in December so wanted to wait.

Jesus Christ!

I was hoping to spend £3k and am now a bit embarrassed.

I have contacted a garden designer who I've found on Instagram and will see if we can do some of the work ourselves and get a company in for the rest.

We had 2 quotes between £25-30k and one for £10k. We went with the cheapest as he came recommended. That was for levelling lawn, new patio, raised beds and taking out quite a few trees. It was a lot of work but I love it.

Gardens are like kitchens and bathrooms aren’t they? Have a budget, add contingency, double it.

Ok so maybe I will get a garden designer to design, do what I can myself with DP's help and then get someone in to do the rest. And perhaps raise my budget a bit!

Watching with interest as its my dream to get my garden landscaped! Think getting design ideas is key,a lot of the planting you could do yourself .

I paid 6.5k for ours about 5 years ago. Garden approx 10m x 8m, decked the lawn, raised beds, L-shaped patio.

The company I work for has done landscaping from just below 2k (3x4m garden) to nearly 9k (8x 14m)

Get a few quotes, you might find that if you order materials and just pay for labour it comes in slightly cheaper too.

I've managed to find a garden designer who will do a plan for me for £300. She has gone very quiet since I told her my budget though...

We paid around £1k in our tiny front garden (about 2mx3m) to have the ground dug over and paved with a raised bed and short fence added on top of existing wall. Even for that tiny area, quotes ranged from £800 - £3k!
Do some research into the materials you are thinking of eg are you fussy about the patio paving or prepared to use whatever’s cheapest? Can you use reclaimed materials for the raised beds? We had ours made out of an old sleeper that was about £20 from a local yard. You may also decide parts of it can be done yourselves as labour is quite expensive, or do it in stages?

@whereiscaroline I'm sharing your embarrassment too! I thought 3k was a fairly healthy budget. How wrong we appear to be?

First quote is in, and that's just for planting three (admittedly, tall) trees. £1000. Who knew!

Will keep updating thread in case it is helpful for anyone else.

Someone else has just been round. Apparently £7k will get me a "wow" garden including raised beds, new patio, and a base for a shed.

I am over invested in this thread.

Would you regret it long run if you get it done for £3k and it’s nice but not wow?.

@Fluffycloudland77 that's exactly what I'm worried about. Spending 3k and wishing I'd just found the extra few thousand fuck knows from where to make it really amazing.

I’d second the ideas to spend the money on a design. Then do the work yourselves over time.

I have emailed garden designer lady no.1 again today to let her know that I'm aware I might need to raise my budget. The radio silence continues. She's been on Instagram a lot today (yes, I know, I sound like a stalker ) so I think she's not interested in my small garden and paltry budget.

The other garden design lady (no. 2) has quoted me £1350 for a design and planting plan!

Back to Instagram to search for another garden designer although I'm losing hope slightly.

£1350 sounds really reasonable for a design and planting plan.

One of my sil is a garden designer, she would charge £500 for a plan and planting ideas.