design
Garden design
£600 to £4,500 is the published range for a garden design, with £1,950 the average quoted most often. Designers charge £60 to £200 an hour, or work to 9 to 20 per cent of the build cost. Small layouts start at £600 to £1,200.
What this covers
What it costs. £600 to £4,500 is where most garden design fees land, averaging about £1,950. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Measured survey and a scale plan
- Layout, levels and circulation
- Planting plans with species and quantities
- Construction detail a landscaper can price from
- Staging a design so it can be built in phases
Worth knowing
Three bodies publish member lists that can be checked: the Arboricultural Association for tree work, and BALI and the Association of Professional Landscapers for landscaping. Membership is voluntary, so its absence proves nothing.
Arboricultural Association, BALI and APL member directories
What is involved
Design runs in stages, and you can stop after any one. A first visit and brief costs £100 to £350, buying an hour on site and an honest view of what the space takes. Survey follows at £150 to £500, measuring levels, drains, boundaries and trees worth keeping. Concept plan comes next at £300 to £1,000: layout, circulation, where you sit in the morning, where the bins go. Detailed drawings, the pack a contractor can build from, run £800 to £3,000. Planting plans alone are £200 to £800.
Two fee structures dominate. Percentage of build cost is the older: the Society of Garden Designers points at roughly 9 per cent on large projects rising towards 20 per cent on small ones, because a tiny garden takes nearly the same drawing time as a big one. Fixed fee by garden size is the alternative, at £30 to £150 a square metre. Published totals disagree sharply: one guide puts a small garden at £600 to £1,200, another the same brief at £1,500 to £3,500. London and the South East carry a premium of 20 to 40 per cent over the Midlands or North.
Drawings are not the object; the sequence is. A design that settles levels, drainage and services before a slab gets bought heads off the expensive mistakes: a patio that ponds, a shed no mower will fit into, a tree that undermines a wall in fifteen years. Managing the build is charged apart at 5 to 15 per cent, or £500 to £2,500. Many people take the drawings and run the build themselves, which works if the pack is detailed enough to tender from.
Choosing someone for the job
Concept only, or a pack a contractor can price and build from? That single question decides what the fee is worth. A measured survey at £150 to £500 is either inside the figure or outside it, and it should say which. How many revisions does the fee cover before extra charges begin? Build management at 5 to 15 per cent is a separate decision, and two finished gardens tell you more than a folder of renders.
Common questions
What does a garden design cost?
£600 to £1,200 for a small garden layout, £1,200 to £2,500 for a detailed design on an average plot, and £2,500 to £4,500 for a large or complex site. The published average sits around £1,950. Figures vary widely between guides, so compare what each stage actually includes.
Is the design fee part of the build cost?
No, it is charged separately and sits above the construction budget. Design commonly runs 9 to 20 per cent of what construction will cost, so a £30,000 garden carries a fee in the low thousands. Managing the build is a further 5 to 15 per cent if you want that too.