Hiring a talented garden designer is a fantastic way to reimagine the way you use your outdoor space. A high-quality, sustainable and long-lasting landscaping scheme can add value to your home and ensure gardens, patios, walkways, water features, and planting look incredible throughout the seasons.
Landscapers approach each project individually, learning about your ideas and aspirations and paying close attention to aspects such as your budget, ability to keep up with garden maintenance, and whether you have children, pets or mobility concerns that may dictate the design features we suggest.
For many clients, the cost is a key concern; where homeowners want to create a beautiful, customised garden space that is perfect for their family but need to be mindful of their budget and ensure their ideas are realistic and achievable.
Today, we’ll talk about the variables, why garden landscaping costs depend very much on your requirements, and why an experienced professional landscaper will often be able to make suggestions to ensure your landscaping is cost-efficient.
Factors That Influence Your Professional Garden Landscaping Quotations
It is impossible to give an accurate ‘average cost’ of garden landscaping because there are so many elements of each project that will directly impact the budget required. Our teams are always happy to provide indicative, obligation-free estimates to help you plan ahead, whether you require garden clearance work, would like a new lawn or are intending to construct a paved patio in your garden space.
Some of the many elements that will affect your quotation are as follows:
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- The garden size or outdoor space you would like your landscaper to work on. For example, a large garden covering multiple different levels may require more time and materials than a simple lawned garden that needs some soft landscaping to offset concrete, patios and decking.
- The complexity of your landscaping ideas, from intricate planting schemes, creating hard landscaping and focal points around mature trees, or building retaining walls and other permanent features.
- The quality of the professional landscapers you choose to work with. A skilled, reputable landscaping team can transform any area into your dream outdoor space and will recommend materials and finishes consistent with your ideas.
Using lower-cost materials may save some initial cost but can mean your garden loses its lustre in the winter months or doesn’t retain the same year-round interest. There may also be several options that we will run through with you, such as deciding between artificial grass and planted turf and choosing between wired lighting for patio areas and garden rooms or solar-powered stake lights.
We can also offer comparable pricing for areas where you aren’t sure of the right way forward, such as adapting your garden design to include smaller flower beds or raised beds that are more accessible if you plan to manage your garden work and maintenance yourself.
Building in Long-Term Protection for Installations and Products
Our next point to consider is whether you would like the assurance of having installation and product protection against any assets or features you want your landscaper to fit, plant or construct within your garden.
As an award-winning garden landscaping team, we offer five-year installation and ten-year product guarantees as standard. However, if you are completing landscaping work yourself or purchasing a product from a builders merchants, this coverage may not be included.
In some cases, you may have the option of adding further product or installation protection to your garden landscaping, which means that should a product cease to function or you have any issues, you can draw on your guarantee to have the problem addressed and rectified at no additional cost.
Access to Your Property for Machinery and Equipment
Many garden landscaping projects require initial preparatory work to remove older shrubbery or fencing, dig out soil, and lay the groundwork for new soft landscaping schemes. We commonly use a digger and other commercial equipment to assist with larger hard landscaping jobs such as constructing walls, digging trenches, building patios or creating a dedicated office space, orangery or pergola within a garden.
If you have good access, often through a side return or rear entrance, the cost of this work is often lower since we can complete the work more quickly and efficiently. Homes with access challenges may require any digging out to be completed by hand, which can extend your time frame and affect your quotation.
Outdoor Lighting and Wiring
Lighting works well within modern garden landscaping, with clients often requesting atmospheric lighting placements to illuminate focal points, provide year-round usage of decks, dining areas and seating arrangements, or as a practical measure to keep ponds, garden paths and entry points accessible during the evening.
That might include adding spotlights to flower beds, lighting on a newly constructed patio, or soft up-lighters around trees and shrubs, as a few examples.
Cotswold Paving and Landscaping works with local electricians we know and trust who can provide full electrical installations and offer excellent value – you might also, as we’ve mentioned, use a lower-cost option that offers less reliability, such as a staked solar light or battery-powered outdoor fairy lights.
What to Expect From a Cotswold Paving and Landscaping Quotation
As with all of the above factors, it’s essential you understand your landscaping quotation before you go ahead and have the time to ask questions or seek advice if you have a few alternatives, different landscape design schemes or variable materials to choose between.
We offer all clients a project-based quotation rather than providing pricing based on a per-hour or per-day basis. That is because there are numerous reasons a project might be completed faster or take longer than anticipated – for instance, delays can be caused by adverse weather conditions, material availability or delivery lead times for locally sourced stone or paving slabs.
A per-project estimate is highly preferable since it ensures you know the total, inclusive cost of your garden landscaping work without any hidden expenses or additional charges. Within each quotation, we include a clear list of services, tasks and materials, outlining the project plan and procedures we expect to provide.
We always advise working with a garden landscaper who offers this level of transparency and price clarity.
For more information about the costs of garden landscaping or to arrange a convenient time to chat about your landscaping ideas and receive an indication of the budget you may require, please get in touch with Cotswold Paving & Landscaping.