When a Garden Designer can help you • Melissa Morton Garden Design

There are many reasons to seek help and advice from a garden designer. You may be a keen gardener yourself but you realise a bit of guidance and creative input is needed, to enhance your loved and valued garden into your personal outdoor space with maybe with better structure and more impact.

No time?

Perhaps it’s just you don’t have time to consider the planning process and investigate the daunting array of choices available needed to come up with a coherent design.

Don’t know where to start?

Alternatively, you are someone who doesn’t understand plants or have little knowledge, and you just don’t know where to start. An experienced professional would help you make the process easy and manageable.

Value for investment

A Garden Designer is valuable if you are considering fundamental changes to your garden, coming up with a plan on how to maximise the space as well as planting, lighting, furniture and maintenance.

Anytime

People often choose spring to rethink their garden when the nicer weather starts. However the design process can work all year round. A garden designer can give you advice and guidance at any time.

“Involving a Garden Designer with a landscaper you will get the garden you want. Working only with a landscaper, you are likely to get what we think you want”
Mark Nicholson, Landscape Contractor, The Garden Makers (Harrogate)

The advantages of appointing a Garden Designer

Property value

Having a well designed and maintained garden will increase the value of your property. There is general consensus that a well presented garden can add anywhere between 5-20% of your property value, the range depending on the amount invested. It’s not uncommon for garden enthusiasts to spend 5-10% of the property value. Features to consider include the feeling of seclusion and privacy, how easy it looks to maintain and of course plants and lighting; all contributing to your property’s desirability.

Gardens are becoming more and more important as extra living space and are now considered as an additional room and important space.

Expert View

There will be concepts and inspiration which you may have not considered before and these can be discussed whether it be seating, the best suited plants, containers or the visual impact.

Visualisations

You will be able to appreciate how your garden will look before any of the actual work begins. Plans, sketches and visualisations help to communicate the vision and design.

Bespoke

The garden will be designed for you – whether to create a haven for wildlife, a place for entertaining or simply a place to relax and escape. Your favourite colours and themes will be taken into account making the garden unique and bespoke to you.

You can decide on how much or how little input you’d like to be involved.

Spatial design and Sense of Place

Spatial design is organising your garden into spaces (outdoor rooms) defining and creating spaces with identity. This is also linked with Genius Loci (Spirit of Place).

A good Garden Designer understands and is aware of the spirit of place. He/she designs a garden to harmonize with its surroundings, considering how the garden suits its unique environment. How your garden blends with the house, the surroundings and with the views beyond your garden boundary (the borrowed landscape) are taken into account.

Valuable network

A significant asset of appointing a Garden Designer is the network of professionals and suppliers that they have access to, needed to realise the garden of your dreams. It takes time to develop these contacts through industry related networking events, conferences and social media forums.

Each new project can introduce a new challenge, no matter the Garden Designer’s experience. Having a network of designers, relevant trades and suppliers means that workable solutions can be found and proposed.

Help to oversee the build!

When it comes to the build and installing the garden, there is an option that I work with you and the landscaper to ensure the garden you end up with is the garden that best reflects the agreed design.

How much will a Garden Design cost?

As you will appreciate every garden and its owner are different so it’s impossible to give a definitive cost for a design without seeing the garden and meeting you, the client.

Building a garden is a financial investment and should be considered similar in value as building an extension or installing a new kitchen. A widely held view within the industry is that a well designed garden could add approx 5-15% onto the value of your property. As such it would be reasonable to invest up to 10% of the property value on your outdoor space.

To give you some idea, for a complete garden makeover, you should expect a Garden Designer’s fees to cost 5-15% of the value of the project; the larger the project typically incurring a lower proportion. A worthwhile investment considering the impact and difference it will make.

Your garden is an asset – it is part of your property. Value it for the personal outdoor space it provides and how best you’d like to enjoy it. Your approach to the house when coming home and the views of the garden are as important as being in it!