Garden Design - The Process
First Inquiry
This usually takes the form of a couple of conversations where we start the process of understanding your needs from us. If we are looking at providing a garden design to you we will then have an Initial Garden Design Meeting.
Meeting- Initial Garden Design Consultation
We will usually come to your site and ask that we meet all the decision makers for the project where possible. It is important for us to understand the different demands of the project and begin to build an idea of the site as a whole. We will discuss the aspirations for your space, the needs and challenges it provides. Where practical we will walk around your space. This meeting often takes approximately 2 hours and will form the basis of our Design Brief.
Survey and Site Analysis
On a simple site this can be done in house, otherwise a specialist garden surveyor should be engaged. We will carry out the site analysis ourselves which will give us the opportunity to understand the site better, spend some time in the space to gather any further impressions or information needed to create the design. This is also how we calculate the fee for our services. After the Survey and Site Analysis we will provide a Quote, Letter of Engagement and Contract for your design.
Garden Design Process
Meeting- Layout Drawings
These drawings will explore options for rough placement of design elements within your space. This is by no means the final design, but it makes sure that we are on the right track. This will also include a mood board(s) for the space- indicating materials, colours, themes and aesthetics.
Meeting- Master Plan
This is where the Landscape Design is provided. At this point we should have almost everything decided upon. We will talk through your Master Plan- a 2D Plan of your space, and discuss the design as a whole. This will often come with samples of hard landscaping materials and/or mood boards for planting. It may be necessary at this point to engage a specialist for certain elements of the design to ensure best implementation and we will discuss this at this meeting.
Lighting Design
Where a Lighting Design is required we prepare this after the amendments and changes. Lighting extends the use and appreciation of your space adding the final touches to your investment.
Planting Design
We provide detailed planting plans, drawing on our discussions regarding the planting, mood boards, and your plant preferences. We work to your requirements and preferences, and with many clients asking for low maintenance planting, attention is paid within the overall design to best accommodate the practicalities of you and your new space.
These plans are provided towards the end of the design process after appropriate amendments and changes are made to the landscaping design. Where Hine Garden Design have supplied and planted up the design we also provide plant maintenance documentation.The Plants
Plant Supply
We more often than not will supply the plants for our designs. We have a handful of suppliers that we work with to make sure your plants are strong, healthy and true to type when they arrive.
There is sometimes a need to make changes to the plant list to best supply your plants, often these are small choices that we make on behalf of our clients, any larger impact decision we will discuss with clients before committing to them. This happens as stock levels and supply levels change throughout the year and the seasons.
Planting
This usually takes two- three separate sets of planting, as we will often include bulbs and plants best sited during bare-root season in designs, and they have specific times of the year that they are best planted. We will almost always suggest an appropriate kind of soil preparation and a mulch which is usually applied at the time of planting.
Interested to hear what we can do to make your outdoor space dreams come true?
Give us a call, ping us an email or fill out our contact form and our team will get back to you shortly.