Have you had your garden proffesionally landscaped?

[WhatTheFeckIsGoingOn]

If so, can you tell me how much you spent and what you had done?

We're in desperate need of some landscaping, unfortunately not work we can do ourselves as the garden has been so neglected it now requires rebuilding of walls, patios etc.

The problem is I have no idea how much any of this costs, £1000? £5000? £20,000? Obviously I'm aware costs will vary greatly depending on what needs doing, size of garden etc. but I don't want to get someone in to quote and be completely shocked. Also quite a few charge for the initial consultation, so want an idea of what work might be within our budget.

Thanks for any tips!

We haven’t, but are going to in the next year or so. Any quotes I’ve had in the past from companies or people who claim to be professional landscapers were extortionate -£10k To remove 30 m of hedge for example. If you know what you want doing you’d be far better hiring a man with a digger for the bigger ground work (a few hundred pounds a day including digger hire) and then a builder to do the walls etc.

Nobody should be charging to give you a quote, unless you are asking them to design your garden.

We're having our path plus patio and 2 lots of steps done in resin as well as the lawn reshaped at one end and the lot edging in stone. It's £7.5k and we're in West Yorkshire.

Thanks Yellow, to be fair those that charged do call it a consultation, so more of a design service. A builder might be the way to go.

Torvi, we're North Yorkshire and probably thinking twice that amount of work, so gives me an idea of cost, thank you

My friend had her new build garden landscaped and planted. Raised beds at the back, four large ones, new patio and all planting including trees. 8k

Thanks Anjo, that's helpful to know

For perspective; we spent £10k in an external wall rebuild, about £3k on fencing, £3k on patio (concrete poured at the same time as our kitchen floor).
In the process of having this work done the garden became in I’m useable though (a mud pit) turf, borders, planting all needed.
We used a garden designer and they proposed a better patio shape than we would have achieved if I’d planned it myself.
Getting the design right was worth the money and would be worth considering-a good designer will help you do it in phases too if money is tight.

Thanks Whattodowithaminute, that sounds a bit more the level of work we're thinking. Sounds like it could be an expensive project, eek

You just can't say unless we know the size etc. Our patio alone was £14k, large pond was about £1000 (but we did all the work ourselves), path area was £2k, planting requires full remortgage of the house...

Thanks HasaDigaEebowai, I am aware cost varies greatly depending on size, what needs doing, location etc. but this has given me a very rough starting point which is really helpful as I had absolutely no idea!

Yes, London here, was about 25k. Big garden.

I'm in London, had the garden redone about 5 years ago.
It was on two levels with a 5 metre leylandi and covered in gravel, the garden is about 7 x 7m.

It cost about £5K to remove the leylandi, make garden level, 3 panels of new fence with concrete posts and gravel boards, a 5 x 1m raised bed, patio and path all around the perimeter and a new lawn.

Thanks Sissy and Happy, so much variation. Guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get some people round to quote, and start saving!

One approach if you're not into design and don't feel able to do it yourself would be find a fairly recently qualified local garden designer/landscaper and ask them to make it as lovely as possible for whatever your budget is - say £15k but it must include a,b and c - eg a patio, an area of lawn and uplighting under the tree.

Then let them get on with it. Never underestimate the cost of plants though so I'd encourage you to try to work with what you have as much as possible.

I'd say avoid using wooden sleepers. I had my garden done 9 yrs ago and it cost £15K. All timber was pressure treated but is now rotting away due to aggressive fungus and mini wasp like insects that are burrowing in leaving piles of sawdust behind them. I'm going to have to get it redone with something else, it's a nightmare. No idea where to start with it, perhaps I'll start a thread & ask for advice.

Planting: I had someine to plan my garden & the planting. He quoted for the providing the plants but I sourced them much cheaper by sending the list to several nurseries. It saved £££.

We had it done twice. Our last home had a tiny garden and was over looked at the back so we spent a small fortune on importing pleated hedging.

The design work cost £500 and the actual work £15,000. Most of that went on plants. The result meant we got asking price when we sold a year later and made a decent profit. This was definitely down to the work we’d had done in the garden.

We are in the middle of landscaping our home now and it’s going to be double the cost of the first one. No design work this time as we know what we want. The biggest costs are the man power in levelling the garden - it’s a very awkward layout - and the patio tiles we’ve picked. It’s a huge budget for us but it’ll be worth it and I know will add value, although we’re not selling this time.

We’ve had unexpected pipe work to sort out so whatever you budget, add a decent contingency fund. Also, be flexible on timing. We’ve found that a gas pipe hadn’t been fitted correctly many years ago and it’s going to be another month before we can have it moved. That’s going to hold up what should have been a two month job.

It’s a brilliant process though, I love it. Especially the destruction phase. When it’s finished it’ll feel like you’ve added another room on to your home.

I spent £10k transforming my garden and it was worth every penny. I love it and it's so mature now. Photos are from 6 months after it was done but it's unrecognisable now. Can't even see the fencing for all the roses.

And this year..6 years on...

Your garden is really lovely Denman I agree with pp don’t underestimate how much plants cost try and retain as much as you can of the plants you like.

My garden cost £5,500 for shrub and tree removal, new fencing, new patio, raised flower beds and re-turfing. Lighting and plants not included. I had several quotes from builders.

How long is a piece of string?
You need to make a list of what you want doing, ideally get a designer in to do some drawings then get a quote from a few landscape contractors.

The cost will vary hugely, it depends on the size of your garden, how much you are building, lots of digging? Type of finishes, price difference for paving for example is anything from £15 p/sm to £150 and over.....are you building a shed? special features? .........

You can get your garden professionally designed for 1-2k. The actual work will really vary. Our garden went into tens of thousands but we’ve got water features, lightning, irrigation and the plants themselves cost a bomb as well over 1000 were planted and when it came to hedging and trees, we went with specimens as mature as possible.

If you just need walls fixed or the garden tidied, you don’t need a designer just a builder + a maintenance gardner. However, designers will do smaller jobs too eg redesign and planting of a couple of boarders to make them more attractive.

Nothing useful to add as I was just being nosey but my word I am shocked at the prices . I need to go sit down! Who would have known garden work costs so much

Also lovely garden @DENMAN03 . It looks unrecognisable!