The garden design team at Cotswold Paving and Landscaping regularly speaks with homeowners who want to rethink the layout and practicalities of their outdoor space, but who are stuck for ideas or unsure what they can achieve within their budget – and don’t want to invest time into creating detailed designs if there’s a risk that these won’t be viable.
During the garden design process, it’s all too easy to find amazing transformations and want to replicate them, only to find that the cost would be prohibitive, the planting isn’t compatible with your soil type or level of garden sunlight or will look nice but require far more maintenance than you’re happy to commit to.
One of the top tips we always provide is to have a look through our design and project galleries. Why? Because you’ll find real-world examples of the outcomes and aesthetics we have delivered for previous clients, and can see how homeowners with similar gardens to yours have approached their landscaping design.
How to Use Cotswold Garden Design Examples as Inspiration
When we share the finished outcome of a landscaping project or garden makeover, we like to include as much information as possible, providing potential new customers with a genuine look at the process, from initial groundworks and clearance through to hard landscaping and the finishing touches.
This is really useful because, although it’s more traditional to share a before and after, this can be a little misleading. It’s never advisable to overlook the complexity of larger landscaping jobs where we need to deal with the practicalities of elements like drainage and clearing overgrown shrubbery before a beautiful new garden starts to emerge.
It’s also better for homeowners who are thinking about reimagining their gardens to be able to review a number of examples, where they can pick and choose the elements, colours, styles and materials they love, rather than having limited inspiration or a smaller scope of ideas where none feel quite right.
Browsing a gallery is ideal as you can stop whenever something catches your eye, scroll past projects that aren’t similar to your own style, or select properties of a comparable age and size to your own to see how others have used creativity to amplify a small space or created seating layouts to develop areas for dining and socialising.
If you have a specific feature that you want to keep, or that would be tricky to move, like an established pond, a large tree or an unusual wall shape, we’d also suggest you take a look at examples with similarities. While you’re less likely to find projects with an identical feature, it’s well worth absorbing as much inspiration as you can before you make any decisions!
Are AI-Based Garden Makeover Apps Worthwhile During a Garden Design Project?
Over the last few months, we’ve seen multiple new garden makeover apps come onto the market, and provided you’re conscious of the subscription costs, they can be a fast and simple way to see how your garden might look. Most ask you to take a photo and then enter a few parameters, such as:
- The theme of the garden, for example, classic, modern, paved, or zen.
- Planting options – whether you want ideas based around a kitchen garden, flowers, climbers or shrubbery.
- Features you’d like to include, such as stone pathways, patios, fencing, pergolas or a water feature.
The caveat is that AI-based apps are good for ideas, but the recommendations you see may not be realistically achievable and are produced solely from the input you give.
An app can’t know, for example, whether you have a chalky soil type, the sunlight exposure your garden gets, the existing drainage, and whether a new lawn, deck or particular kind of plant would be wholly unsuitable for your space.
Likewise, having ideas without a clear cost can be counterproductive. We suggest homeowners speak with an experienced landscaping and garden design team, especially if they have a tight budget or want to create a usable, bright garden that will look just as good in the winter as in the summer.
Why Should Cotswold Homeowners Seek Independent Advice During Garden Design Projects?
The main focus during your initial design stages should be about defining what you like and what you don’t, any big priorities or aspects that you’re not going to compromise on and looking at as many examples as you can, so you’ve got plenty of input.
You might already have a clear vision of how your garden will feel and flow, which we can build on. In contrast, you may start with a quick list of features you think will enhance the way you use your outdoor space, or a few ideas about the colours you’d like your planting to have that will complement the exterior of your property.
At this point, it’s time to consult a professional, because we can share specific examples we think will illustrate how your ideas can be brought to life, or suggest alternatives, such as locally sourced materials or design elements that will slot into your garden perfectly.
Having real photography can be more useful than digital mock-up designs, too, because gardens are 3D spaces rather than static, and even the most detailed, high-resolution render can’t give you the full representation of how your new garden will look.
We’re here to help every client achieve a garden design they love and can step in at any point to provide you with ideas, offer examples of past projects, or ensure you’re not setting your hopes on a garden design that’s unlikely to look quite as you want it too, or that won’t meet the needs of your family.
Please feel free to contact Cotswold Paving and Landscaping at any time if you’d like to chat with one of our garden design team or take a look at our project gallery at your convenience to start your design process in the right way.