Fees & questions
The things people ask before they ring.
Money and timing, mostly — so they are at the top rather than buried at the bottom.
Fees
- How are your fees worked out?
- Per garden, never per square metre. What moves the number is size, complexity and how many of the four stages you want: a flat rectangle needing borders rethinking is a very different piece of work from a sloping site where every level has to be resolved on a drawing. You get a written, costed quote after the first meeting and before any design work begins, so nothing is a surprise.
- Is there a rough starting point?
- Dawn publishes one, and it is worth reading as a guide rather than a price. For a medium garden of roughly 30m by 15m, taken through to a working plan with a planting plan and a lighting plan, the starting point is around £2,500. A full, free quote is drawn up after the initial consultation, once the garden has actually been seen.
- Do I pay for the first meeting?
- The first meeting is an informal visit: we walk the garden, talk about how you want to use it, and I assess what you have. It ends with a costed quote for the design work. You are under no obligation to take it any further, and plenty of people go away and think about it for a season.
- What will the build cost?
- That depends entirely on what gets designed, and anyone quoting a build figure before seeing your garden is guessing. What I can do early is tell you honestly whether the brief and the budget are in the same conversation, and shape the design accordingly — rather than drawing something lovely you then cannot afford to build.
Timescales
- How long does the design take?
- It is measured in weeks rather than days, and most of it is not drawing time — it is the gaps in between, while you live with two layouts and decide which parts of each you actually like. Rushing that stage is the one false economy in the whole process. Survey and layouts, then the 3D model and revisions, then the working plan, with a conversation between each.
- When should I get in touch if I want the garden built next year?
- Earlier than feels necessary. Good landscape gardeners are booked months ahead, design takes the weeks above, and if you want autumn planting the drawings need to be finished long before the good planting weather arrives. Autumn and winter are the quietest time to design and the best time to be ready — which is exactly why they are the best time to start.
- Can I build it in phases?
- Yes, and plenty of people do. The trick is to design the whole garden first and then phase the build, so services, levels and drainage are right from the outset. Phasing a good plan is sensible; building a garden in unplanned instalments is how you end up lifting a terrace you paid for last year.
Before you start
- Do I need a designer, or just a good landscaper?
- If the garden is broadly the right shape and it is the planting that has run out of ideas, a planting plan and a good landscaper may be all you need — and I will say so. Design earns its keep where there are levels to resolve, a layout that fights the house, a build of any real cost, or a garden that has simply never worked and nobody can say why.
- What is the difference between the two?
- A designer works out what should be built and draws it so it can be priced and constructed accurately. A landscape gardener builds it. Keeping the roles separate means someone is on your side of the table when the quotes come in, and that decisions get made on a drawing board rather than improvised on site with a digger idling.
- How do I brief a designer well?
- Talk about verbs rather than nouns. “We want to eat outside with eight people”, “the dog needs somewhere to tear about”, “I want to see something from the kitchen sink in February” are far more useful than “we want a modern garden”. Photographs of gardens you dislike help as much as ones you love. And say the budget out loud — it is the fastest route to a design that can actually be built.
- Will I need planning permission?
- Usually not for planting and paving, but it can come into play with outbuildings, raised decking, boundary heights, anything in a conservation area or affecting a listed building, and work near a protected tree. It is one of the things looked at during the first visit, so it surfaces at the beginning rather than after something has been built.
- Which areas do you cover?
- Dunton Green, Sevenoaks and the surrounding Kent villages make up most of the work, and projects further afield — including in London — are taken on too. If you are not sure whether you are in reach, the quickest thing is to ring and ask.
Question not here?
Ask it. Dawn answers her own phone and email, monday to friday, 9am – 2.30pm.