How to get garden designed?

[olivecapes]

I am terrible at design or coming up with unique ideas. We are wanting to get our garden landscaped but don't know exactly how we want it, but nervous at how expensive it is, so want to do it carefully. Ive had a couple of landscape people come over for quotes but found it quite hard work because they (understandably) wanted to be led by me as to what I wanted and I need to see some ideas, they had some suggestions but were more practical as opposed to creative, I'm sure if I could tell them exactly what I wanted they'd be great.

Anyway, how do I get some suggestions for what we could do with our garden? I struggle looking online because the gardens are so different to my own. Interested to know how others decided what to do with theirs.

Look for a garden designer rather than a landscaper? I’d assume one is more the equivalent of a builder and the other equivalent to an interior designer? 🤷🏻‍♀️

You need a a garden designer, not a landscaper, as PP said

Designed it ourselves with a little inspiration from something I’d seen at the Chelsea Flower Show on TV. Our builder put the hard landscaping in, we did the rest.

Thank you, sounds stupid but it didn't occur to me it was a different profession, will have a google!

If it's a standard garden and not grounds, post a picture and a diagram with measurements and some ideas of gardens you like, people on here can be quite creative.

Following for the same reasons @olivecapes I literally don’t know where to start. I bought a garden magazine which had a feature about designing your own layout but I realised I’m still no good at the design and need to be led by someone- so a landscaper or a gardener?

Look for local open garden events for charity - I found this really useful for seeing a wide range of gardens, all obviously suited to the local conditions/soil type. Some were tiny, others bigger, some done by designers, others by the owners. I had a chat with several owners about what they'd done and why.

Pictures in magazines are often of enormous gardens but this gave me a much better idea what could work in a smaller space.