Garden designer/landscaper

[Littlemiss74]

Has anyone had someone design their garden layout for them & if so would you be able to give me a rough cost please? Did the designer then carry out the work or can you get someone to do the ideas and then do some of the work yourself?

We need to do some bits to our garden urgently ie decking as unsafe but looking at it I’d just like to do it all as it could be so much nicer. It’s tired looking.
Me & DH are not good at garden things & I find it hard to visualise things. I’m also terrible for researching things & will spend hours & days looking online only to be overwhelmed and do nothing!

Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

Yes I have, the cost was £450 +vat others I spoke to charged more from £800 up to £1k + vat. I get a completely new design for the whole garden and planting plan.

Its for the design and plans only. They usually know landscapers to recommend but beware they may get kickbacks from the landscaper for bringing them clients so itll be built into the lanscaping cost but you won't know.

Or you can just pay for a design and do it yourself.

If you have a simple idea like replace decking, rest is grass with some boreders around the edges you probably get away with not needing a design. Just find a picture as your inspiration and say thats what your looking for and you can work directly with a landscaper to sort it out.

If however you want a complete overhaul of your garden then get someone in to design it.

We had a complete design including plants, a deck and patio. As well as a guide for caring for the plants. Three landscape companies came out and looked at the area and then submitted bids. The designer was roughly £3k in the SE and the landscaping was another £15k.

I know of two people who have.
The first had several designs, then bought the plans they liked best, at just over £500. The construction quote was quite steep (£21K), so they got quotes from other landscapers, reducing it to £13K.

A few things to be mindful of...
The focus was on the hard landscaping, leaving the planting scheme to the designer/landscaper.
Although the original work looked good initially, the plants chosen and repeated around the garden and were limited in type; fairly cheap to buy; fast growing and vigorous; not fussy about soil; spread and self seeded very easily and quickly. They didn't provide much winter interest

Whilst this is ideal for a landscaper - plants are easily established, unlikely to die off, it's less so for an inexperienced gardener a few years down the line.
And so it has proved to be... they are forever having to relentlessly manage and cut back, weed self-seeders, stop some plants overwhelming others at a rapid rate.

I hope that helps!

Thank for all the replies, it’s interesting to see the varying costs.
@brambleberries yes that is very helpful thank you - I have no clue when it comes to plants but I do know I want low maintenance!