Are you thinking about giving your garden a makeover? Do you want a completely new garden? Are you building a new house and will need to create a new garden from scratch?
Whatever your situation, you might be wondering, do I really need to get a design done for the garden before I start building it? Why can’t a landscaper just start working on the garden under my direction?
We have over 30 years of experience designing and creating beautiful gardens for our clients. Not once in the more than 500 gardens we’ve created, have we ever simply arrived at a person’s home and started creating a garden, even if our client had a very good idea of what they wanted beforehand.
Asking if you can create a new garden without designing it first, is like asking if you can build a house without an architect designing it first. Or can you build a bridge without an engineer planning it beforehand?
Your landscape design is both the aesthetic vision of how your garden will look and a practical guide to how it will be created.
Why your new garden does need to be designed.
Think about it - have you ever seen two gardens that look exactly the same?
The simple truth is that every garden is different. This is because there is simply no ‘template’ for garden design that you can follow, no matter how similar they might be.
Almost every garden has a different shape due to the layout of the block as well as the location and orientation of the house on the block. Then there's the varying layout and different aspects of the house itself. Plus almost every block's size and shape is different.
Even an identical house on a different block requires a different garden, due to all these variations.
If you think about it too, your needs will be different from your neighbour's or even another family member's. Because your family is different, your lifestyle is different and your priorities are different.
So each garden really does need to be designed from scratch before any work begins.
It’s not just a desirable way to start, it’s the only way the whole process of creating your beautiful new garden can begin properly.
What if I already have a ‘design’ in mind?
A lot of the confusion around the idea of ‘designing’ a garden stems from confusion around what the word ‘design’ means.
Now you might already have some pretty strong and clear ideas in your head about your garden. “I want the pool to go here, the deck to go there and the outdoor kitchen to go right here.”
In reality, this is a brief for a garden design, not a design itself.
All these elements still need designing because there may be factors affecting the location of each of these that aren’t immediately apparent. This could mean you may need to move or change any or all of them.
Additionally, before any realistic estimate of the cost of constructing a garden can be worked out, a design needs to be created first. From this, a more detailed Master Plan, working drawings and engineering estimates etc can all be created so that a more accurate estimate of the cost of the garden can be created.
Unfortunately, no one in the world can accurately estimate the cost of a new garden based on a plan that says simply “a pool here, a deck there and an outdoor kitchen right here”.
Inside your head vs in the real world.
Some people may have a pretty clear idea of what they want in their new garden. They can picture it already inside their head. Maybe this is you.
But however real the vision in your mind for your new garden might be, there is no way a designer can evaluate it, without getting it down on paper or onto a computer screen.
When we visualise things in our mind we tend to romanticise them or idealise them. And sometimes we can’t see the practical realities of them until they are down on paper.
When we do, we can take a ‘helicopter’ view of them. This can sometimes reveal flaws or challenges that need solving.
How will everyone get from the house into the pool, if you put the deck there? How will you get to your garden shed if the path goes here?
Sometimes it might be “Yes the pool would look lovely there but the council regulations would never allow you to build it there.” Or “heritage overlays mean you could never build a deck on that side of your house.”
Having a proper design done before starting work on your garden allows you to foresee the problems and solve them in advance.
But equally, it can open up new ideas that you never thought of. Because you can benefit from the designer’s experience and come up with new ways or new ideas to give you exactly what you want.
In this way, the designer can help you to make the seemingly impossible become possible.
I’ve already done a “design”.
If you come to us with some sketches for the overall layout of your garden, you might think you've already designed it.
No offence, but a sketch is not a design. In reality, it’s a brief.
Now a sketch or sketches can form the basis of a very good brief. There are many times a new client has come to us with some sketches and said “This is how I see my new garden”.
Your sketches can be a very good way for us to “see” the vision you might have for your garden inside your head.
But design is a much more evolved and cohesive plan than just a simple sketch.
It takes into account so many factors. Aesthetics. Practicality. Functionality. Building regulations.
Ultimately it’s the culmination of our response to the many desires you have for your garden and the specific needs of the landscape itself.
Remember what goes into each and every design is the experience your designer has gained over many years designing many different gardens for many different clients. Your designer uses this valuable experience to avoid costly mistakes, to maximise your enjoyment of your new garden and improve its aesthetics.
A design is much more than just a sketch of a garden. It’s a holistic, complete concept for a garden that has been designed in such a way that makes it possible for it to be created exactly as intended.
What if I have no idea of what I want designed?
Not everyone who wants a new garden has a clear idea of what they want.
In fact, most people come to us with more of a wishlist than a vision of their ideal garden.
It’s usually made up of phrases like “I’d really like a ....” “I’ve always wanted more....” “I’ve seen this garden idea for a....”
In these cases, a design for a garden is even more important because it provides a framework for what may be just a collection of loose, but good ideas.
The process of working with the designer helps to take all these ideas and draw them all together into a cohesive, working garden concept.
The discipline of the design process can often take what might be only a vague idea and make it more concrete and real. The designer might take one simple notion you have and transform it into a whole garden theme or concept.
Won't I save money by skipping the design?
No credible landscape designer can start working on building a garden, until they get briefed by the client and start designing the garden.
Naturally, there is a cost for this. What you are paying for is the designer’s time and experience in being able to take your brief and turn it into your ideal garden.
But more importantly, the money you spend on designing the garden is likely to exceed the amount you save by having a design done first, than if you had no design done at all.
And having a well-thought garden design that can be executed results in a great deal of stress reduction for you. (If you want to experience real stress, try building a garden without any design or plan for it!)
This is because the design for your garden also acts as a blueprint for the whole project. It provides a vision that enables you and the designer to foresee possible challenges and problems that may lie ahead. It gives us and you the foresight that enables us to work out solutions to problems before they arise. And it allows for the subdivision of works into various stages that can be done as one complete project or broken up so each stage follows a logical sequence.
If you simply start landscaping the garden without a design you are likely to discover halfway through creating the garden that something is preventing you from doing what you want to do.
You might not be able to put the pool where you want because it will not be compliant with Australian Pool Safety Standards. You might not be able to put the deck where you want because of an easement. You might not be able to put the outdoor kitchen on that side of the house, because it would violate building regulations, etc, etc
Problems like these tend to be very expensive to discover halfway through a project. If you know about them in advance, a designer can consider them when designing your garden and the problem is then solved in advance, before it happens.
Visualising your dream through design.
We know that one of the best moments our clients have is when they first see the design concept for their new garden.
Suddenly all those ideas and thoughts you’ve had floating around in your head for a while, have now taken shape into a cohesive concept for your garden.
What was once only a vision has now begun its journey to becoming a reality.
You wouldn’t want to rob yourself of that chance, would you? The moment you first see your ideal garden?
So there’s not just a practical side to the process of designing your garden. It’s also a joyful process when you first get to see that garden that you and those you love, will spend so many future happy days in.
A note of caution
Be wary of any “landscaper” who says they can create your garden without doing a design first. This type of landscaper is probably used to doing small jobs which may not require a design. If they tend to work by just creating a few garden beds, a rockery and a path, that’s not really the high-end level of landscaping work that we do for our clients.
If that’s all you need that’s fine, then we are probably not the right landscape design company for you. We wish you luck with your project but we urge you to at least get your landscaper to sketch out a plan of works for you, so you can see what they are going to create before they create it.
If you’d like to understand more about the design process that we use for all our clients at Whyte Gardens, please feel free to book a ‘no-obligation’ consultation with one of our designers.
