Anyone had their garden landscaped?

[Rara]

Dh and I are USELESS when it comes to gardening. We have a nice medium sized garden which was really well-tended by previous owner but has much too much going on for us and it's getting out of control now. We want to simplify everything and create a play area for dd. Anyone out there have experience of hiring someone to do garden like this?
Oh, if only one of our friends would surprise us with an Alan Titchmarsh moment!

Rara I'm also interested in any tips on these lines. In fact we've got someone coming round tonight to give us a quote. We're not in quite the same situation in that we moved into a new house and so the builders had basically put 9 flags in front of the patio doors and bunged a load of turf over their rubble and called it a patio and lawns.

I'm quite happy to do the planting, its the hard landscaping that we need help with - especially because the garden slopes up away from the house. But am a bit wary about falling into any traps, not getting what I ask for etc. So any tips for me too?

We had ours done 7 years ago (due to large bonus and an inheirtance). It was one of the best things we did. The most expensive bit was the large patio for eating /roller skating/chalk drawing when the lawn is too wet. But its brilliant. The path is a circuit round the garden, which the kids loves racing round on their bikes it also means you don't have to fuss about edging it. But I wish I'd made it wider than the 18 inches. Also having the washing line nearer the house. We had a sample plan, then a technical specification and a planting plan for £250 , then we had to find some-one to do it. You really need personal recommendations but if not do follow up and visit their references.

I struck lucky when found the people that did ours, they were great and have been back to do more since.

A reputable firm will be able to show you photos and references from satisfied clients, and won't object to you checking them - our chap brought a display file to show me without even being asked.

If you can't get any recommendations from friends or neighbours then have a look for firms' boards or vans outside houses and nip round in the evening and ask the owners if they're happy with the work. This happened to us and I was happy to recommend the firm.

BUT, make sure you establish EXACTLY what your aims/expectations are and get a detailed quote. Again a decent firm will (eventually !) supply one. I used to work in the construction industry and it's really important to get this straight at the outset and understand that if you change your mind/ask for the path to be a bit wider/add an extra section of pergola etc it will cost extra !!

HTH, if not feel free to ask more questions

Bit the bullet and have had the garden done. Rang 5 people - only 2 bothered to turn up to give quotes - what is wrong with people?!!! The 2 quotes were fairly similar but one was only quoting for a paved path and one for a block path and yet this one was £200 cheaper so went with him.
He and his mate took just 2 days. They put in this block path all the way down the garden (about 30ft), lay a play area with bark and enclosed it, took all of the shrubs right back and generally tidied up. Looks loads better. But dh is now worrying that we've been ripped off: it cost £1400. Anyone agree / disagree? We live in the Midlands BTW (in case that influences the cost of having gardens done) I'd appreciate opinions if anyone has the time...

The paving was the expensive bit when we did our garden. Think how long it would have taken you to do, remember they do that kind of work every-day and have all the right tools and knowhow. Make the most of the rest of the summer and enjoy it without feeling guilty!!!

We've had two quotes so far. One was £4000 and one was £6000. But we're also having difficulty getting people to bother. Part of the expense for us (given we've got a budget of £3.5K) is that we're on a slope so need some levelling in order to put in a decent patio but because of access it will have to be done manually. So £1400 seems like quite a bargain.

i would be interested to know if anyone has used Theories Garden Design (based in London).

any comments/views appreciated.

tia