How much do I need to invest in the garden?

Working out how to budget for a garden is a tricky subject. There are a lot of factors at play so in this article I’ll let you know what influences the cost, where its important to not scrimp and some rough guidelines to work out how much it will cost you.

Firstly we need to address the elephant in the room. There are certain daytime programs that suggest you can remodel a garden for a few thousand pounds. What are they missing? 1. The labour costs and overheads for the landscaping teams, the folks on the programme are there for different reasons but its not to get paid to make the garden. 2. The materials they use are very often gifted or heavily discount. So I’m sorry they aren’t a realistic bar to compare your garden project to.

How much work are you happy to do? The more you can do yourself the more labour cost you can take out. There are some factors to consider here; how much time do you have and what are your skill set? If you can do some prep, digging, get rid of the waste then you can focus the resources on the tasks you cant do. For our patio we knew we could do the sub base (which still took time and £) but brought the skilled guys in to lay the paving slabs.

Hard Landscaping

In garden builds the project is normally split into two areas; hard and soft landscaping. Hard landscaping are all the elements that are not plant based i.e. patios, decks, paths, drives, garden buildings etc. Soft landscaping is your lawns, borders and plants. Let talk about hard landscaping first. This is generally where you need a skilled landscaper to come in so what influences the cost of hard landscaping?

• Landscaping Overheads

Unfortunately anyone can set up as a landscaper but not all landscapers are equal. If you are investing in your garden you want to make sure that you are selecting a landscaper that is professional. Professional landscapers will have costs that they need to recover on jobs. These include insurance, training, professional body membership. In terms of investment they have significant costs tied up in their equipment from diggers to cutting equipment which they also have to maintain. These give a flavour of what a reputable landscaping company will be covering in cost.

• Your Ground

What ever garden work you are having done there is a lot of cost in getting the structural elements right. Your ground can have a huge impact on this. Patios are a building element that you want to be build correctly so that you don’t get cracking from movement. Sub bases need to be built on subgrade soil. This is the compacted subsoil so not top soil or rubble, its the stable sub base. Generally 100 to 150mm of soil will need to be dug out and removed to facilitate this. It maybe that they need to dig deeper to get to the subgrade. Sub bases require digging, removal of waste and a filling with hardcore.

• Materials

As with all building materials the cost of landscaping materials has increased hugely. Selection of materials is really important to give the right finish of garden, longevity, maintenance and quality all have an impact on their cost. In my designs I will specify items like stainless steel fixings for timber to ensure that what is built will stand the test of time. Its important to not scrimp on some of the element that you wont see.

• Access

Access into your garden for machinery, deliveries and waste removal will all have an impact on the cost. If its easy then it will take a lot less time, whereas man handling everything down a lane, by wheelbarrow, is a significant drain on manpower.

• Slopes

Slopes are always more challenging. If you are looking to flatten areas out then there will need to be retaining structural features. This is always much more expensive that a garden that is flat.

Hard Landscaping: A good approximation for budgeting is £350 per square meter.

Soft Landscaping

Soft Landscaping does not require any where near the same amount of equipment and can be the cheapest way to change your garden. With a half moon spade you can change the shape of your lawn yourself and create borders. So what makes up the cost in soft landscaping.

• Soil Preparation

If you are going invest in plants it is a pre-requisite to invest in the medium that you are going to grow them in. This may involve rotovating but more often than not it will mean bringing in some fresh topsoil or compost for your beds. This can be a big job and investment (if you don’t have access to your own compost) and a good idea to get done before planting comes in.

• Edging

If you are creating shapes in the garden its important to keep them crisp. Edging maintain the boundary between lawn and borders, making it easier to cut the grass and know you are not impacting the design by re-edging every year. There are lot of materials you can use to edge. If you are putting in curves not all flexible edging is equal. I specify edging I know can create the right curves. I have seen alternatives used in their stead and it has compromised the finish.

• Structural Plants (Trees/ Shrubs)

Creating focal points with trees and shrubs can make a huge impact so its worth investing in those of a bigger size, especially if they are slow growing. This is really dependant on your budget but if you can its great to get them from wholesale nurseries, rather than a tree you can fit in the back of your car from a garden centre. Make sure they are planted correctly and are staked and irrigated as necessary.

• Plants

Other plants you can get smaller and wait for them to grow. There are various options for getting plants so ask your garden designer as its worth discussing how much you are happy to nurture your new plant babies,

• Irrigation

Irrigation can be fitted by your landscaper. Watering is key to establishing your new garden so be prepared to invest in time if you are watering by hand or a system that can be fitted to water automatically for you.

Soft Landscaping: A good approximation on soft landscaping is £150 per square meter.

Budgeting Summary

When looking to invest in your garden its work working out how big the area and budgeting to give you a rough idea how much it will cost. You will be hard pushed to get a reasonable sized patio for less than £5k. As a reminder hard landscaping estimates can be £350 per square meter and soft landscaping £150 per square meter. You also do not have to make your garden in one go too. For hard landscaping there are advantages in getting work done whilst equipment etc are on site. If you are phasing make sure that you plan for how to protect areas from getting wrecked by following phases. I hope this article is a good starting point to allowing you to invest in your garden. If you want to get a more personalised idea then discussions with a professional landscaper are invaluable.

https://www.landscaper.org.uk is a great place to find a landscaper that is accredited by the Association of Professional Landscapers.