Why Use Landscape Designers?
If you were renovating your house to cater for your growing family, perhaps extending the lounge and dining areas out or adding an extra bedroom because the twins want a room of their own, you would have plans drawn.
For small landscaping projects such as paving an area that was lawn, or adding a retaining wall to create two level areas, a formal plan may not be required, a sketch with measurements will suffice.
However, if you’re looking at a complete garden makeover consisting of many elements and you’re not sure how everything will fit together, a landscape design plan is the solution.
Landscape designers with over 35 years experience from Hand Made Gardens have designed thousands of residential gardens across Adelaide southern suburbs, east and western suburbs, helping people achieve their dream garden, within budget.
The first step, before calling, is to know what elements you’d like to include or have, essentially your ‘wish list’. You may want a pool, a raised deck, a garden feature, paved paths plus an area of lawn for the kids to play on, with plenty of low maintenance plants watered via an automatic irrigation system that are lit up at night.
Listing them in order of priority from ‘must have’ to ‘would like’ is also a good idea. Have a think too about the overall look you’re after, modern or country classic for example, as this will help combining materials and colours.
Next you need to know what amount of money you can allocate to the project. This is important to know because when you talk to your landscape designer, how each element will be constructed and the material selections will ultimately come down to your budget. Pavers, lights, plants and decking for example all vary substantially in price. The size of the plants, how elaborate the paving pattern will be, the number of lights and where they’re going to be located, how intricate the detail and what the garden feature will be all come down to price and therefore your budget.
After listening to what you’d like, knowing the budget to stick to and after measuring the dimensions of the area they’re working with, landscape designers from Hand Made Gardens will leave you and set about designing your dream garden makeover, coming up with a concept plan to discuss.
At this meeting, the layout and landscaping ideas incorporated are discussed to make sure you’re happy with the direction taken. Typically too a refinement of the budget can happen. Once you’re completely happy with the conceptual ideas, two plans are drawn up. A hardscape landscaping plan and one for all the plants showing their location and species, which is referred to in the industry as a softscape plan.
Upon payment of the plans, the next meeting will be the presentation of the final landscape design with accurate costings on completing all the landscaping construction work by licensed landscapers from Hand Made Gardens.
This is primarily why landscape designers are used, instead of going straight to a landscaper. Starting with a plan means you can see what’s possible for the money you’ve allocated. You may then say you’d like to spend less on the paving pattern and choice of pavers to allow for a grander looking garden feature like a stone wall fire pit with decking and bench seats or a feature wall with water cascading down it.
Because our landscapers build what we design, the whole process becomes seamless, saving you time and money. Another advantage is unlike many a landscape designer that doesn’t do any of the construction work, what can look good on paper may not turn out to be all that practical. With over three decades designing gardens and landscaping experience, you’re in good hands with the landscape designers and landscapers from Hand Made Gardens.
Most people, especially with larger projects, like to have everything drawn up, particularly when garden features, lighting and automatic irrigation systems for plants form part of the project.
Often too, many people cut pictures out of magazines to show what they’d like to have in their garden giving us a good feeling of what you have in mind.
To get started, simply contact Hand Made Gardens to discuss your next landscaping project, whether you have an idea of what you’re after or need some design ideas, we’re here to help you with a level of service second to none.
Note too, when designing the layout, thought is given to how the plants will look once they’ve reached maturity. Their full size is taken into account when deciding how many plants will be required to look effective and how far apart they should be planted. Sometimes people think they don’t have enough initially, but after a few years of growth, the spacing makes sense.
