March 14, 2019
One barrier preventing people from designing and realising their dream garden is cost. That’s why at Dewlands Garden Design we offer flexible solutions to our clients so that you can design your new garden in a phased approach, allowing you to undertake a comprehensive garden design project without the need to compromise.
Just like building a house, building and developing your garden is an investment – and, just as the needs of your home change as you move through stages in your life, the demands of your outside space will change too. But you don’t have to arrive at the perfect house and garden in one day; this is something you can do in a step-by-step approach, so as your house develops, so can your garden.
The benefits of planning
The key thing to consider when designing a garden – as is the case with all projects – is to have an overall plan in place. If you can’t afford to go all out and have a comprehensive garden design in one go, then it’s important to make sure that the portion you’re working on now will prepare your garden for the next steps. If you have a complete vision of what it should ultimately look like, each phase will take you one step closer to that end goal, which ideally is not just a vision for your garden but for how it works with your house.
Planning ahead can also bring cost advantages in giving you insights into ways to effectively reuse and recycle existing materials. This can be extremely useful and cost-efficient if your house is being extended or parts of your garden are being removed and replaced.
The dangers of a piecemeal approach
By contrast, working without a plan has a lot of pitfalls – your plan is your sanity check, it helps you to make sure what you’re doing now is going to be beneficial in the long run; it might feel tedious, but it will definitely be worth it. It’s easy and cost effective to make mistakes and rectify them on paper, whereas it’s very expensive and time consuming to rework solid structures once you’ve already spent the time and money assembling them. For example, you don’t want to have to knock down a wall you’ve laboured to build when you realise a year down the line that it blocks the ideal space for your garden pathway. A lack of planning might also mean you miss opportunities to make your house work functionally or aesthetically with your garden.
Planning your plan
Your starting point for your plan should be your end vision, but you then need to break it down into logical phases that can be carried out effectively and sequentially to achieve that. Your plan should be a step-by-step approach, with each stage adding value to what exists from the previous work. This means that your first stage should address problems that devalue your home for any future buyers, and future steps should build on existing work, each time adding value to your home and your lifestyle. This means that if you decide to move to a new house, you’ll get the right return on your investment.
Small-scale projects
Many of our customers have smaller gardens or may just be starting out. If you have a smaller project, you may simply want some professional input on the right structure for your garden design, including an idea of what sort of costs you should expect. One way of keeping control of these costs it to invest your own time and energy into undertaking the build yourself, sourcing all your own materials and plants and nurturing your own space. If this sounds like you, our fixed-price design services – based on the size and complexity of your garden – will give your project the kickstart you need with a quick, but effective, turnaround.
Large-scale projects
On the other hand, there are a multitude of people out there whose homes have tremendous, sprawling gardens, and the resources to create something ‘wow’. If that’s you, you may think it prudent to break that realisation up into stages, carried out over a number of years. To ensure your garden progresses smoothly over time, we offer a complete solution, including a budgeting and phasing element which is implemented into our master plan. For on-going projects, we add value step-by-step to ensure you can get the best return on your investment at all stages.
Bespoke garden design solutions
Of course, there are many customers and projects that lie somewhere in between the large- and small-scale gardens; at Dewlands Garden Design, we maintain a professional and creative approach which allows us to work with whatever we are presented with, working with you and for you to achieve your ideal outdoor living space. And that applies whether you want a complete, turnkey approach – requiring design, detailing, tendering and project oversight to make it all happen – or just expert design to give you a blueprint to work towards in your own time.
So, if your budget isn’t quite ready for the full-scale package but you have ambitions for your garden to realise its full potential, get in touch with Dewlands Garden Design. Our careful planning and garden designing expertise will produce a solution that will make you fall back in love with your garden in a way that matches your wallet.
