Different gardens, different Design options.

Starting afresh…

Sometimes starting from scratch is the only option, for example if you’ve built your own home and are left with a sprawling ‘garden’ of mud! Or you have brought a house with a bare, empty garden.

Now that you’ve decided to invest some time, effort and money in your outside space and whether it’s a small space or many acres the same rules apply. You have to think of your needs, style, ultimate desires and aspirations aswell as your budget.

It’s important to have ideas of your tastes and visions listed. We would suggest that you look through magazines and books, visit open gardens collecting pictures and photographs of planting, features and hard landscaping materials that inspire you. Armed with this information we can then start the exciting process of planning your garden.

Firstly, we’ll spend sometime with you at your home discussing your likes and dislikes, and looking through the photo’s and pictures you’ve collected. Following this, with confirmation that you’d like to commission ljgardens having accepted our quotation, we will re-visit your garden and carry out a site survey and draw up a base plan to scale. Taking into account all the information gathered at our original meeting we’ll sketch some plans for further discussion, these will include ideas for planting and materials. At this meeting we can look at the sketch plans together and talk through any changes you may wish to make, it’s very important to have plenty of time and be very honest as any changes made later will be costly! Once we’ve altered the sketch plans and are happy with them a detailed master plan which will be to scale, labelled, and any specimen plants/materials named can be completed.

From the master plan we can then produce planting plans and working/construction drawings if necessary. ljgardens can also organise quotations from recommended landscapers if you don’t have a favoured contractor and project manage the build of your garden, something we recommend so the garden that is built is the same as the garden on the master plan! We like to supply and plant all the soft landscaping ourselves making sure the overall finish of the garden is both pleasing and beautiful. Further down the line we can also offer a maintenance service to keep your garden looking at its best.

Making changes…

Sometimes an established garden can need some care and attention. Gardens we inherit after a house move may need some re-organisation and additional features for asthetic or practical reasons. You may have had small children when you originally planted and laid out your garden, now they have left home you would like to reclaim your garden back as a haven for relaxation and entertainment. Another reason for re-designing your garden is the onset of later years, you may not want to be digging and mowing every weekend and now want a garden with easy maintenance that you can enjoy without any worries.

For these circumstances we find that a more ‘hands on’ approach works. For re-organisation and enhancement of a established garden we offer a service where by we’ll spend a short day with you in your garden talking through problems, additions and alterations you may wish to make, sketching plans as we go.

Once back in the office a report is written summarising the day including alterations and additions to be made, together with any sketches where appropriate. Formal plans can be drawn (at extra cost) if you require them.

This process also applies and works well with other parts of the garden; starting a vegetable garden, an overgrown border, a garden empty of plants or choosing the right plants for the right soil and location.