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?

£1350 quote from designer no. 2 doesn't feel reasonable when designer no. 1 quoted £300. Maybe no. 1 was a very cheap quote though. I seriously have no idea!

You could save up and have it done next spring. It doesn’t have to be done now.

It would give you longer to plan, and buy supplies because garden things often get reduced right down when retailers accept that no, it’s not going to be a heatwave and no, it’s not going to be an Indian summer in September either.

Woohoo, have heard from garden designer no. 1!

I know the idea of waiting and saving up for longer would be more sensible. But I am expecting £2k back for a holiday that we're unlikely to be able to go on this year. So if I add that into my original budget then I'm nearly there.

I'm convinced we're all going to be spending a lot more time than normal in our homes this summer, so I'd really, really like somewhere nice to sit outside this year.

Will see what the garden designer says - perhaps if I let her know that we're likely to be doing a lot of the work ourselves she might be able to make something relatively easy for us to DIY. Not scared of a bit of hard work, it's the imagination that I lack completely.

How much? You must be joking. I will never have that much money.
I'm getting a new patio, a pergola put in, pathways through the garden and a big central seating circle and I'm having it done by a local guy with a good reputation for 2k. I've bought all the bricks and components myself bit by bit as I could afford it.
I had the very large driveway in my last house brick paved for 4k and it looked amazing, was still amazing 5 years afterwards when I sold the house.
I never accept the first quote I get, I'll ask round, get recommendations, buy paving online and so on and always get a great job done for very little money.
It is possible.

And this was both ends of the country - south east which is very expensive and now the south west where I live now. There is a recession coming, people will not be charging top dollar any more.
I had 5 massive shrubs dug up yesterday by a local gardner for £70.

@madcatladyforever I'm going to wait for the garden designer to put something together and then approach a few different people to ask how much to create it. Think it will be easier than doing it the other way round and having to disclose my budget (or lack thereof!) first.

In the meantime, I'm having a go at painting my patio tiles à la Hayley Stuart (her photo, not mine!).

I found my landscaper through Marshall’s catalogue. If you look online they have section for landscapers and you just put in your postcode for a list. I went out of area a bit for mine. You don’t have to use Marshall paver s even if you select o e of their recommendations. My guy took me to few different yards to Make my selection,

He stopped me making an expensive mistake with the pavers I chose originally, as he said they deteriorated quickly and needed constant hosing.

I was shocked at the charges too. I was thinking about it. I thought about £5k.

Why not get a good garden design book, research on internet and do it all D.I.Y. Pintrest is full of ideas. Its good fun

That’s what i did and my garden always get compliments..

You can find sample shed base quotes online to give you an idea. We got slightly burnt this year as we went with a garden designer that was too high end for us. While I’m sure the final product would have looked good, the process was just really arty farty and costs just kept rising and were well above budget so we pulled out. The focus seemed to be on the vision rather than on some of the practical things we were worried about.

If I was to do it again, I’d go for a designer that contracts work out and doesn’t use their own team. I was never sure whether the costs were fair or not (some were definitely not). I’d also be really clear on asking what can you do for x budget and not let the designer go a bit crazy.

We paid for the design work which has given us ideas. We then did some of the more practical jobs with a local guy and felt far happier about value. We don’t have a stunning show garden but we have done some of the boring clearance work and have a good base without bankrupting ourselves.

Our garden is about 13m x 7m and we had a lot of clearance, two big raised beds built, the lawn returfed and a path put through it, and then a new seating area paved at the end of the garden with a pergola put over it. Had some fencing repaired and added an extra bit of height to an existing wall.

Total cost (in London) was 4500. (Tho no big patio to pave and we did the planting ourselves). So I don't think you need to pay loads - - ours is made lovely through the plants rather than the landscaping, but I'm very happy with that!

@tangelo would you recommend your company

@Plural yes, he is great! It's William Frost Gardens

Apparently £7k will get me a "wow" garden gosh, I think I'd run a mile from anyone who promised me a "wow" garden. Sounds like hype from a one-size-fits-all salesman.

Thats my garden staying like it is then.

We are doing it in stages - first year new fences and a lovely new gate £1500, next year 2 raised beds - ordered and built ourselves from WoodBlox another £1k. This year a patio in the sunny area and a new path running through the garden 2k. Plants on top of that - we didnt need a designer as if you pinterest enough and read enough books then you kind of know what you want and the individual local fence/patio people say what you can and cant do. I do like a garden to grow organically.

Planting plans for borders are in every gardening book - you just need to decide whether you are going tropical/cottage/modern etc and a lot of that will be dictated by your garden situation and soil and appetite for upkeep.

Just coming back to update. Garden designer no.1 is actually rather fab.

She's sent me four different designs today and has put up with me not really knowing what I want.

Once I've decided which of the four I want to go for then I'll get in touch with three local landscapers for quotes and report back!

Oh, and I have also completed stage one of the patio stencilling project - now have a bright white painted patio until I can get some black masonry paint to do the stencilling. It's... interesting

Our garden is around the same size - it’s a slight slope with hideous fake grass atm. We’re having a patio (inc side return), 2 full width steps up and the top half levelled and turf laid. Will then do all beds and planting ourselves. We got quotes for between £7k and £14k. I was absolutely shocked as well, I had no idea it cost that much. We’ve gone for £8.5k and he estimates it will take a week...

@crabbo do you live in my house?! Also had a sloped garden which we levelled ourselves and added full length steps to a couple of years ago. Also have hideous fake grass! Are you in an expensive part of the country? Sounds like a lot especially if you're planting yourselves. Scared to receive my quotes to be honest.

The worst thing about ours is that before we bought the house it was rented out and the tenants had a nice garden - still a slope obviously but real grass, a raised bed and some borders. The landlord ripped it all out to sell
We’re in London yes so I probably should have expected it but I thought the quotes were going to be about £4-5k. Luckily the first one to come back was by email so I could hide my shock!

Hi

I am looking to get my garden landscaped as well. I am in London, and the garden looks like it hasn't been touched for 20 years (I bought the house last year). It's full of weeds and stinging nettles.

My garden is 20m x 7.5m and I am getting the garden re-turfed, patio re-done (4m x 3m), raised beds built and shed base built for a 10ft x 8ft shed.

I have had quotes and its coming in between £7500 and £9000. I wasnt sure if this was a good price, but maybe its OK?

My garden is 9m x 24m and we've had quotes over the last month or so ranging between 16-30k plus vat

My original budget was about 12k, so we scaled back and are having a patio(£5.5k) entire garden levelled out, shed base and new fencing. Plus a step from the house to patio. And a path.

Everything else will be done very slowly by us, which I'm looking forward too.

Holy shitballs this really is an expensive game isn't it!!

I'm still torn between the designs I've been sent so no further progress from this end....

First quote is in! £4.5k.

That's for a tiny extension of existing patio, two raised beds made of sleepers, two trees supplied and planted and putting in a new border where there is artificial grass at the moment, and putting up some posts for some screening. It's supposed to include 2 new sleeper steps to replace 3 existing sleeper steps but not sure if he's missed that part.