After a few years hiatus designing commercial landscapes, I resumed designing residential gardens again during 2020.
As a result of the Covid pandemic, there has been a massive demand for offices, bars, hot-tubs, outdoor kitchens, exotic planting and entertainment spaces in the garden.
I can help you plan a contemporary or traditional garden to include any or all of the above aswell as other garden design features, planting and hard-landscaping.
All of my designs are created using the latest CAD software and I can produce you 2D technical drawings, 3D imagery and photo-realistic renders so that my ideas are easily understood by yourselves and your landscape contractor/builder.
When it comes to actually constructing my designs, I do not undertake any "hands on" work myself (although I have many years experience of doing so) but instead would introduce you to a pool of professional landscape contractors that I have worked with who could price your build costs and implement the work.
With regards to project budgets, it would of course be great if you had a realistic idea of how much you would like to spend on your garden project and I could advise if that sum would likely be adequate or not.
However as material costs are spiralling and contractors have differing overheads and profit margins etc., it is practically impossible to design a garden to finite budget and so plans may need to be ammended accordingly to suit.
To keep things simple my charge out rate is £30 per hour to cover my wage, overheads and expenses etc. and I would invoice you for every hour I work for you but any fee I charge would be agreed in advance to avoid any potential confusion at a later date.
The Design Process:
- Initial Design Consultation - I would visit you at your garden to witness the garden, listen to your "needs" and "wants" for the outside spaces, suggest suitable design ideas/solutions and I would compile this information into a written "Design Brief" that I would forward to you soon after with a quotation for my "Design Fee". I would make charge for this consultation and it likely would last 1 - 1.5 hrs plus travelling time from Anlaby Common.
- Site Survey - Upon acceptance of my proposed Design Fee and agreeance of the Design Brief, I would visit your garden to take measurements of the existing garden features/property and take many photographs. Upon return to my office I would accurately draw up my survey using CAD software ready for the start of the design phase of the process. At this point I would invoice you for 50% of the total Design Fee to cover this time and the production of the "Sketch Design". *Note, if the garden was too large for myself to measure single-handedly, had many level changes/sloping ground etc. then you may have to appoint a land surveyor to produce a topographical CAD survey drawing on your behalf and you would be responsible for paying his invoices directly. I could introduce you to a qualified land surveyor if necessary.
- Sketch Design - Taking the survey drawing, photos and Design Brief into account, I would quickly produce you a Sketch Design drawing for your garden project and this would likely involve CAD work, hand-drawing, colouring and example photo mood boards to convey my proposed layout and it would be A1 paper in size. At this point you are invited to make comment on the design proposal and suggest any minor ammenments you would like me to make to the final Masterplan drawing for completion.
- Masterplan - I would eventually produce you an A1 sized Masterplan drawing which would include a scaled, annotated, technical, garden plan with optional 3D imagery or photo-realistic renders. This plan would be of a professional standard that any competant landscape contractor could interpret to construct the final design proposal. At this point I would invoice you for the remaining 50% balance of the Total Design Fee and present the drawing in person upon receipt of the funds.
- Contractor Handover - I would forward your Masterplan and contact details to 3 no. trusted local landscape contractors who could price the costs involved and implement the hard and soft landscape works to construct the design proposal on site.
As a rule, I do not produce full-blown planting plans for any of my design projects these days (although I am very capable of doing so), but instead show named images of suggested plant species on my drawings and leave plant choice ultimately to yourselves with help from your appointed landscape contractor and their plant nurseries.
I hope all the above is not too daunting and self-explanatory and I look forward to receiving your design enquiries and working for you.
Kind regards
David Beasley
(HND Landscape & Horticultural Technology)
