Are you trying to find the right designer and landscaper for your new garden project? Are you wondering how to tell which one is the right fit for you? Are you concerned that your individual needs and wants may not be fully understood or met in the process?
After decades spent creating beautiful gardens for our clients, we know how important it is that you feel comfortable with who you choose to design and build your garden. It's often a very big investment, one you want to get right from the beginning. We understand that when it comes the time to decide who to go with, you want to do so with a great deal of confidence and certainty that yes, these people are the ones to create my ideal garden for me.
We've written this article to help you assess for yourself whether or not Whyte Gardens may be the right choice for you. We certainly hope by the time you get to the end of it, you will decide we are. But we understand you may not.
Whichever choice you make, we hope that in some way, this article helps to guide you a little further along your journey towards your ideal garden. And in the end, we hope you get the garden of your dreams even if we are not the ones chosen to create it.
Who are Whyte Gardens?
The simplest way to start is to just introduce ourselves.
Firstly I, Andrew Whyte, have been in this industry since 1992. I am a Registered Builder for Structural Landscaping. At Whyte Gardens today, we have:
- 2 landscape architects,
- 2 horticultural designers
- 4 landscaping crew.
We also have an Admin Manager and a Marketing Manager. I tend to operate as the 'conductor' of the whole team.
So that's probably a fairly predictable description, but who are we really?
Well, we are a group of people who together specialise in manifesting dreams - dreams of the ideal garden for you. We love to meet with and talk to people just like you about your goals for your garden. What do you hope it will bring to your life and your family? We love to help you develop your ideas and better articulate your vision. We do this by creating a concept design that serves as a roadmap for us, and you, to embark on a journey together towards that garden you may already be able to see glimpses of inside your mind. We hope to be your steady guide that helps you navigate your journey towards a goal you may not yet have even fully articulated.
We are not naive because our experience tells us that the journey can sometimes be fraught with challenges and even risks. But that same experience tells us the journey is always worth it for the destination we arrive at together.
Collectively we like to think that we have among us a great deal of hard-won wisdom gained from decades of experience. We've seen the pitfalls and disasters that have befallen others and learnt how to help you avoid them. We are a collection of individuals who share our experiences with one another to form a cohesive knowledge base you can draw on to guide you through the maze of options available.
If you do choose us, we hope that you will allow us to share that knowledge, wisdom and experience with you.
Most of all, we love to work with clients who are keen to discover the limitless possibilities for their projects. If you are prepared to take some risks, and perhaps even journey a little into the unknown, we will be excited to work with you. Because we strive for results that will inspire you to create a garden that you and others will admire and love.
If however, you are after the commonplace, the ordinary, the garden 'just like everyone else's' then perhaps you should read no more. Mediocrity holds no interest for us.
What does Whyte Gardens do?
As landscape designers and architects, as well as landscapers who build gardens, we see what we do as more than just taking your 'wishlist' for your garden and turning it into a workable garden design that we then build. (Although on a practical level that is what we do, there is more to it than that.)
Our job is to help you to better articulate your desires through the process of design itself. Design is a journey of discovery that we use to help you flesh out thoughts you might have had for years but have never been fully able to articulate before. Vague, maybe half-formed ideas that might have been floating beneath your consciousness for a while, just waiting to spring forth more fully formed. Something you saw once before in a garden, in a magazine or online.
We also like to challenge you to look beyond what you might have already considered and discover new ideas that could expand on your dreams further.
On a practical level we both design and construct gardens, handling the entire process from start to finish - giving you the convenience of only having to deal with one company at all times.
This means we take care of everything. We facilitate all engineering and organise all council and other permits required. We liaise with and manage other stakeholders such as the pool company or the outdoor kitchen installer, etc. We also landscape the whole garden, including managing all specialist contractors required. We do all this to take the worry and stress off you.
Ultimately what we do is design and build gardens that bring about increased enjoyment and improved wellness for you, your family and your friends. We create spaces that assist you to enjoy a life full of meaning and pleasure. Our gardens are designed and created to allow you to enjoy better connections. Connection to yourself, family, friends, and nature.
If you do select us, we promise to create you a garden that will reflect who you really are and what you treasure most in your life. One that will elevate you to a higher level of enjoyment of life. One that fulfils your hopes, your dreams and your aspirations.
What's it like to work with us?
If we had to sum up the experience of working with Whyte Gardens, we would have to say what our team focuses on the most is giving you complete confidence and peace of mind. At every step of the way we want you to feel like you are in the hands of caring professionals who desire to do a great job for you and have you absolutely delighted with the results.
We want the experience to be more than just one where you get 3 quotes for your garden and choose the middle one. We don't think that is the right way to engage someone who will ultimately be trusted with helping you create a garden that has the potential to completely change the well-being of you and others you care about.
Because in the end that is what any inspiring garden should do - it should increase the wellbeing of everyone who spends time in it!
Our focus is on elevating the way you live.
When you step into a Whyte Gardens garden you should feel like you are in a space where you can relax on your own and feel the stresses of life melt away from you. Equally, it should be a welcoming space where you, your family and your friends can connect and share wonderful times that will become treasured memories in the future.
We try to avoid the 'tick-box' approach to the process of creating a garden. We don't aim to just do this:
- Pool installed - tick
- Outdoor kitchen and alfresco area created - tick
- Garden planted - tick
For us, it's just too easy to design a garden that simply ticks all the boxes on your wish list. We believe you want, and deserve, something more than that. Because if your new garden doesn't have some 'magic' for you, if it doesn't inspire you and lift your spirits then it will not be a place that contributes to your wellbeing. It will just be a mediocre garden that is presentable but never holds any real worth for you. It will just be another garden.
We want you to have the same outcome that one of our clients said to us a couple of months after finishing their garden. The client said to us as we strolled through their garden , "You know my husband was never really interested much in the design and creation of this garden and left much of it to me. But after you finished creating our wonderful new garden, he went out straight away and bought a comfy garden chair. Now he regularly sits out there with the dog and reads and he loves it."
Stories like this bring us so much joy. To create a garden that has meaning for you and elevates your way of living to a joyful new level is what we strive to achieve for all our clients.
What about costs?
The question of cost is important of course. And not one we shy away from.
When it comes to costs for both the design of a garden and the landscaping of it, they can vary greatly from garden to garden. It can all depend on whether you have a pool or not, which type of pool, how large your garden is and what additional elements like a deck, pergola, outdoor kitchen etc are included.
Where do we sit in the market for cost? Well, we aren't 'cheap' that's for sure. If you take a look at the pricing tab on our website, you can discover our design fees and typical costs for our landscaping service. You'll see we charge for what we are - a premium service that takes the right time to create something wonderful for you.
For example, it might take us on average 50 hours to design a garden for you and take it all the way to the Master Plan stage. Now we could charge half our regular fee and only invest half the hours on designing your garden, but we can guarantee the end result wouldn't be anything for you or us to get excited about.
While we are a premium landscaping firm, we are not wasteful or excessively indulgent because we recognise it is your hard-earned money. Being a Scot myself I often say to clients that I will "always be canny with your money". (Canny implies being wise and shrewd with how you spend money.) It doesn't mean we cut corners or use inferior materials or methods. But it does mean if you say you'd been thinking of having a paved path down the side of the house where no one goes, we might suggest you concrete it instead as very few people will ever see it. Then we can use the money we would have spent there to invest somewhere else in the garden on something else that will create a bigger impact.
So to be honest, if you've come to this page hoping to find a really cheap design and landscaping company that does work on a budget, we might not be the right fit for you.
Projected timeframes for a landscaping project
We've already outlined that a typical design may take up to 50 hours to create. But when you realise this will include visiting the site, a briefing meeting, doing research, working up the design concepts, discussing things with you and probably sending quite a few emails and messages back and forth, this time can actually be spread out over a month or more.
We prefer not to rush you at this stage as we are very aware you will need time to digest and consider what we have presented to you and discuss it with your partner, family, friends etc.
(Now if you are under deadline pressure and you do need to move fast, we can accommodate a much faster timeline if you need it. We do have the resources available.)
After we reach the stage of a signed-off Concept Design and approved Master Plan, we still have to go through the steps of engineering and council permits etc which can add a few weeks or even a few months to the project. (We may also have to call in other experts for things like soil analysis, arborists to assess existing trees, liaise with pool companies, etc)
Once all this is done and you've signed the contract to begin the landscaping work, we can commence the actual construction. While the actual work of creating the garden itself can take as little as 2-3 months, certain projects can be held up considerably by permit approvals. This can sometimes be the great unknown in landscaping and can mean project timelines can stretch up to a year! (We always do everything we can to reduce this but we are often beholden to the whims of the council.)
What is our key role in your new garden?
So in short, apart from the design and construction of your new garden, what is our other most important key role?
Well if you were climbing Mt Everest you may engage a Sherpa to guide you. Someone who's done it before, many times. Someone who knows the way and helps you avoid the risks and dangers of the journey. Someone who has the confidence and experience to get you from the beginning to the end, with great satisfaction.
Having created over 550 gardens for our clients over the past 30+ years we know the perils and the pitfalls. We know how to navigate the best path to reach your destination. And like the trusty sherpa, we will carry the load for the most part.
In a landscaping sense that means we will provide the ideas to bring your dreams to life. We know the materials and methods that go into creating a beautiful garden. We know the best specialists and suppliers to deal with. We can suggest the most suitable plants and other items to make your garden look stunning.
Of course, we do all the physical work and project manage the whole job from start to finish. All you have to do is stay in touch with us, answer our questions when we need clarification or access to anything and let us do all the physical work required. In the end, you get to stand in your new garden in awe.
Why being 'authentic' is so important to us
If there is one word that we would to define us, it is that we aspire to be 'authentic' in everything we say and do.
By authentic we mean, "true to one's own personality, spirit, or character".
Just like we strive to be authentic to you, we also aspire to create a garden for you that is authentic to who you are.
While in theory, we could probably come to your place, take a look around, go away and come back and create a garden for you that you would love, we wouldn't do it that way. Because it's essential to us that we work with you, every step of the way to bring your dream garden to life.
It's your garden. We want you to feel invested in every step of the journey. We want you to feel right about every small detail.
The exciting thing for us is that every garden we design and create is an evolving journey of discovery. We get to know you, your hopes and dreams and aspirations.
And we put everything we have of us into creating a garden for you that you can truly call your own.
A garden is grown through a process of dialogue, consultation, conversation and understanding between you, the client and our designers. It is from all this communication that will come the flow of your inner desires from you to us so that we can make them materialise into a garden you will love for life.
If all you have read so far sounds like how you would like things to be for you in the creation of your new garden, then please reach out to us. We would love to talk to you about how we can bring that dream garden of yours to life.
Simply click the link below to set up a discovery consultation with one of our designers. It's a chance for you to get to know us personally. To have your questions answered. It could be the first step of your journey towards your dream gardenIt's completely free and without any obligation.
Andrew Whyte
