Questions answered
The things people ask on the first phone call.
Answered here so you do not have to ask them — and so you can tell, before you ring, whether we are the right practice for what you have in mind.
- When is the best time of year to start?
- Earlier than most people think. Design, survey and drawings take time and happen perfectly well in winter, and hard landscaping is far easier to book in the quieter months. Planting itself is best in autumn and spring. So if you want to be sitting in the finished garden next summer, the conversation wants to happen this autumn — not in May, when everyone suddenly notices the garden.
- How long does the whole thing take?
- It depends entirely on scale and on how many rounds the concept goes through, so nobody honest will give you a number down the phone. What we can do is set out the sequence — consultation, brief, survey, concept, master plan, planting plans, build, planting — and give you a realistic timeline for your project in the written quotation, before you commit. If you are working to a fixed date, say so at the first visit; it changes the order things are done in.
- Do I really need a measured survey?
- For anything with a slope, a level change, retaining, drainage or a building involved, yes. Levels are the single most common reason a garden that looked right on paper does not work on site. On a small, flat, straightforward plot a survey is sometimes not needed and we will tell you so rather than sell you one.
- What is 3D visualisation actually for?
- For seeing the garden at eye height before it exists. Plans are read from above and gardens are experienced from a doorway, and the gap between those two things is where expensive misunderstandings live. On complex, steep or large sites a 3D model lets you check sightlines, step heights and screening properly, and lets two people who thought they agreed discover cheaply that they did not.
- Will I need planning permission?
- Usually not for planting and paving, but it can come into play for garden buildings and structures, for boundary heights, and for anything in a conservation area or attached to a listed building. Protected and preserved trees are the other common one. These are all flagged at the first consultation so they can be dealt with early rather than discovered halfway through a build.
- Can you work with my own builder?
- Yes. Plenty of clients have someone they trust, or a main contractor already on site for a house project. The master plan and specification are drawn so that any competent landscape contractor can price and build from them. We will happily answer their queries as the work goes in — and if you would rather we ran the build with our own team, we do that too.
- How do you choose the plants?
- From the site first: soil, aspect, exposure, drainage, and how much attention the garden is realistically going to get. Then structure — the evergreen and clipped shapes that hold the garden together in February — and only then the seasonal layers over the top. Stock is hand-selected rather than ordered blind, because a good plant at the right size on day one is worth two of the same name in a smaller pot.
- What happens once the garden is finished?
- You get a written aftercare plan at handover, and six weeks after planting we come back and walk the garden with you. Beyond that there is an optional monthly aftercare and feeding programme, set out month by month on the aftercare page so you can see exactly what it covers before deciding.
- Do you work on commercial projects?
- Yes — planting schemes and irrigation for commercial and landscaped public spaces as well as private gardens. The process is the same; the brief tends to lean harder on maintenance, robustness and how the space looks in its worst month rather than its best.
- How far do you travel?
- Dorking and the Surrey Hills are home, and much of the work is within easy reach — Guildford, Godalming and across Surrey generally. We also work into Greater London, Berkshire, Petersfield, Chichester and East Hampshire. If you are outside that and the project suits, ask anyway.
Still wondering something?
Ring Kate and ask. The first consultation is complimentary and there is no obligation attached to it. Rated 5.0 on Google.