Every week we get a call that starts the same way. “I want to do something with my backyard.” And when we ask what that something looks like, the answers are often just as vague. A nice space. Somewhere for the kids to play. Maybe a pool one day.
Now there’s nothing wrong with starting there. But if that’s where you still are when you finally sit down with a designer to brief them, you’re essentially handing them a blank page and hoping they guess right.
A good landscape designer or landscape architect can help you find your vision for your new garden. But the clearer you can bring that vision to them, the further your first conversation with them will actually get you.
After 35 years of having these conversations with literally thousands of people, I’ve noticed there’s one particular type of client who usually gets the most out of a design consultation. And who ultimately end up loving the garden they get. It’s the client who has usually done these three things before they even pick up the phone.
1. Start with a list of what you want
This is the easy part. Most people have already done a version of it in their head. But it’s even better when you write it down as an actual list. Do you want a new driveway? Paving? A deck? A pool? A pergola? Write it all down.
You’re not trying to design the garden at this stage. Just making a wish list of what you would like in it. You don’t have to be specific about what size pool, the type of deck or what anything would look like. Just what it is. That’s all.
2. Now ask yourself why you want those things
This is the point where most people stop. Which is a shame as it’s exactly where the real insights live.
Take the driveway for example. On the surface, that‘s simple: it’s somewhere to park the car. But think a little deeper. Maybe you only park two cars today. But is your daughter a few years off getting her licence? If so, then there’s a third car coming. That’s a different driveway to the one you’d design for two cars.
The same goes for entertaining. “I want a space for entertaining” tells a designer almost nothing. Is it for 10 people, four times a year? Or 40 people, every long weekend over summer? Those aren’t just two completely different entertaining spaces, they are two completely different gardens.
Ask yourself: how do I actually want to use this space? How many people, how often? What time of day or what time of year? Is this your forever home, or are you likely to sell in a few years? Do you need privacy from a neighbour, shade in summer, sun in winter? What month would you love to be sitting out there the most?
The reasons why that lay behind each element in your garden, are what turns a wish list into a brief a designer can actually work with.
3. Finally work out how you want it all to feel
This is the part people find hardest to put into words, and it’s the part that matters most.
What style of garden most appeals to you: modern, coastal, native, formal? What do you love about your current garden, and what do you actively dislike? Most importantly, how do you want to feel when you’re standing in it?
I’d push this further than most people think to. How far do you actually want to take it? Is this simply a backyard, or is it your own small piece of paradise? Is this somewhere you want to feel proud to walk into, somewhere you’d genuinely love for family and friends to admire? There‘s no right answer here.
Some people want a garden that quietly does its job. While others want one that stops people at the back door. But you need to know which one you are. Because it changes everything we will do for you, including the level of craftsmanship and quality of materials that will actually satisfy you.
If the idea of anything looking or feeling substandard bothers you, that’s worth your designer knowing before you start. Not after you’ve signed off on a quote built around the cheapest version of the job.
Put it together and you’ve written your own brief
What you want. Why you want it. And how you want it to make you feel. Put those three together and you’ve written the first draft of your own design brief. It won’t be perfect, and it isn’t meant to be. But it will be yours.
A good designer’s job from here is to take that vision and bring it to life, adding what you haven’t thought of, and defending it through every decision that follows. Not replacing it with their own.
