Design Tips

I spoke with one of my landscapers this afternoon because I’ve just sent over the drawings for my project near Muswell Hill.  He can’t get started on his quote until next week because he’s working on a tender for a large job in London and this will take him the majority of the week to pull together.

As it’s a tender process he might not even get the project, and that’s part of running a business of course, but this got me thinking that most people probably don’t know what goes in to preparing a quote for the build phase of a garden project – even the smallest and most straight forward designs take at least a couple of hours to prepare.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog then you’ll know that I am really passionate about producing a specification and full set of working drawings for each of my projects.  Anything I can do to help the landscapers to price accurately is worth all the effort.  Without them there’s just too much open to interpretation and it would be impossible to provide an upfront cost that wouldn’t incur “extras” along the way.

My Leatherhead project, which is half way through the build, is a complex site.  When steep levels are involved a good design will try, where possible, to utilise the soil on site so that waste is kept to a minimum.  Any spoil from a hole will double in volume so the landscaper quoting has to work through some complex quantity surveying in order to calculate just how much waste removal is required throughout the build.

They need to calculate cost of materials and man hours for the whole job so that they can be sure that the job can be completed within the project budget and on schedule.  Good landscapers will take the time to calculate this properly.  Any figures must relate to the complexity of the build so that when they submit their price, it will only be open to amendment if the client changes things during the build or they uncover something that couldn’t be predicted before the work was started.

So, I guess what I’m saying is that quoting is a complex and time consuming part of a landscapers job so if you’re embarking on the build phase of a project, try to be patient – time taken at this stage will most certainly pay off in the long run.

If you read my blog regularly then you’ll know that the construction phase has commenced at one of my projects in Leatherhead.  Sods law it rained the minute the garden was stripped out and this means that the conditions on site are now a bit challenging. Read more

Pathways are a crucial element to a well designed garden.  They take you on a journey from one area to the next so they need to be practical but also provide some interest along the way.  It’s therefore important to plan them carefully to ensure that they are fit for purpose. Read more

I went to The Garden Press Event a couple of weeks ago and one of the products that caught my eye were these flower seed collections by Nova-Flore, distributed in the the UK by Meadow in My Garden. Read more

I have been aware of outdoor fires for some time, but I came across Planika last week and thought it would be nice to share some images and details about their bio-ethanol fires that can be used both inside and outside your home. Read more

Over the past year I have worked with a lot of clients who have been tackling house building projects.  Most often I am called in after the work has finished when, inevitably, the garden has been rather trashed. Read more

My project in Oxshott is coming along really well and the landscaper is now making some headway with the back garden even despite the difficult conditions on site with the very wet weather we have been having. Read more

I went to the Futurescape exhibition at Kempton Park racecourse earlier this week.  It was a show for the landscape and horticultural industries and as well as looking around the trade stands I also attended a couple of the seminars. Read more

I have five planting plans to do at the moment, of which three are for large gardens that will easily need a few hundred plants to fill up the beds.  For many people it’s the plants that get them excited about the garden so it’s really important that this element reflects their personal style and ignites their desire to be out there amongst them. Read more

I spent a day last week putting together the Scope of Works and construction details for my project in Horsley so that I could present the final drawings to my client and also send everything off to the landscaper who is now putting together a full quotation for the build. Read more