What should I ask a landscape designer before I engage them?

Are you considering getting a new garden designed for your home? Are you considering different landscaper designers or landscape architects and wondering which one to choose? 

We’d like to share with you the most important questions we think you should ask any landscape designer or architect before you engage them. These questions come from the experience we’ve gained by having designed and created over 550 new gardens for our clients over the past 30 years.

By the time you finish this article, we hope the answers to these questions will help you choose the right people to design your garden for you.

Please note, our goal in writing this article is NOT for you to get to the end and decide to choose us. If we’re not the right landscape designer for you, we’d rather you go and find the one who is. We only want to help you make an informed decision, so you understand exactly what you are getting yourself into when you take on designing a new garden.

It’s not an easy job but the rewards can be incredible. And they are even more incredible when you choose the landscape designer who is right for you.

Do you just design gardens or do you build them as well?

You may not be surprised to know that some landscape designers only do just that – design gardens. This can also apply to landscape architects.

While many of the larger landscape design companies will both design your new garden and build it too, some of the smaller, one-person landscape designers are only interested in designing it.

Sometimes this is because that’s all they want to do. They love designing gardens. It’s a creative joy for them. They love the whole experience of creating something wonderful and beautiful for you.

But if they are a one-person business, often it’s not practical for them to get involved in the actual construction of the garden. This is particularly true if there are many “built elements” included in your project such as a deck, pergola, pool or spa, outdoor kitchen, etc, etc 

Not only don’t they want to do that work, mostly likely they are neither skilled nor experienced at it either. Also, there are building regulations that determine who can and can’t construct these “built elements” of your new garden. (For more information please see this article “What type of landscaper will I need for my new garden”)

The upside of choosing a landscape designer who only designs gardens could be that you end up with a beautifully designed garden that is exactly what you want. The only challenge is now you have to go and find someone to build it for you.

In this case, you need to ask if the designer will help you find a landscaper to build your garden. If they do, what role will they now play in the process of your garden being built? For example will they ‘stay on’ the project for the duration of the landscaping to monitor it and ensure it is built as they designed it? And/or will they be available to make changes to the design if needed as construction progresses?

Have you designed a garden like mine before?

Finding out if a landscape designer or architect is right for you can often boil down to what their previous experience or speciality is. 

If you have a particular style of garden in mind, like a Coastal Garden, a Native Garden or a Modern Minimalist Garden, each of these has a very distinctive style.

If you are really into modern, minimalistic gardens and you engage a landscape designer whose preference is for old-style cottage gardens, you might find your garden design doesn’t turn out exactly as you expected.

It’s not that landscape designers and landscape architects can’t work in various different styles of gardens, because most can. (A good landscape designer should be able to switch design styles according to their client’s brief.)

But there can be lots of ‘tricks’ to working in one particular garden style vs another. And if your designer hasn’t designed a certain style of garden before, then they might not know some of these tricks which can lead to issues.

The simple solution if you have a particular style of garden in mind, is to ask your landscape designer or architect if they have done any similar styles of gardens before. If they have, they should be able to show you a portfolio of their past work that includes the same style of garden you are considering.

Do you quote or estimate your designs?

If the landscape designer or landscape architect you are considering says they only design gardens but not build them, then you need to ask, before you even begin, “How do you quote or estimate your designs?”

The reason for asking this question is because you might go to your designer with a budget in mind - let’s say $250,000. 

You brief the designer on the ideal garden you have in mind and you ask them to design it for you. They come back to you with a garden design you fall in love with.

Now if they can’t even give you a ballpark estimate for a design, how will you even know if the garden they’ve designed for you could be created for the budget you have in mind?

It’s OK to design in theory. But ultimately someone has to build that design and this is where the real costs will apply.

If your designer won’t give you some sort of ballpark estimate for their design, the only option you have is to go to a landscaper who does build gardens and ask them to estimate it. You might then discover, that without any guidance from your designer, your ideal garden is actually going to cost you $500,000 to build instead of the $250,000 you had in mind.

If so, you might have wasted all the money you spent on the design. (This is an example where talking with a landscaper who both designs and builds gardens, is more likely to get you a design that can be built within your budget.)

What will I get for my design fee?

It’s important to understand that different landscape designers work in different ways and can vary in how they present their designs.

Most designers will produce what they call a ‘Concept Design’ for your garden. This will be an overall plan and design for the garden detailing where all the key elements of the garden will be and what those elements are. 

How they present that Concept Design to you can vary from designer to designer. 

Some produce only an overall plan view (looking down on the garden) usually on a computer, but sometimes printed out on paper as well. They may add a few 3D design elements like a fence or water feature for example.

Some may include 3D drawings to go with the design, particularly if your garden has multiple levels to it. This can help you to better grasp how your new garden will look from the ground level than from the plan view only above.

Others may even produce the entire concept in 3D and may offer you the option of a 3D video of the whole garden design, which can be quite expensive. 

Generally, it’s better to judge the quality of the garden design itself and how closely it suits your needs rather than how spectacularly it is presented to you. (Try not to be ‘dazzled’ by the presentation itself rather than the design.)

The detail of the Concept Design can also vary from designer to designer. Some will simply indicate on a Concept Design that there is a path made of pavers. Others will specify the exact type of pavers, their size, colour, etc. Some Concept Designs may state that there is a row of small trees to be planted along the fence line while another designer will detail not only the exact type of tree but the height they will grow to.

So it’s important to ask right from the start how the design will be presented to you, in what format and exactly what it will cost. Knowing what and how they will present can also help you understand their fee structure.

You should also ask the landscape designer or landscape architect how many revisions to the Concept Design are included in the initial design fee. Then ask at what level of revisions will they start charging you. This can be a source of disagreement if it’s not clearly explained right from the start. You want clarity around this issue, for example ‘Our fee includes 2 rounds of minor design changes, but beyond that, we charge for any major design changes’.

For more information on what a Concept Design, Master Plan and other elements of a landscape design entail please see this article - What is a Concept Design in landscaping

What exactly is included in your design fee and what additional options do you offer? 

Typically, a landscape designer or landscape architect’s service and fee will be to create for you a Concept Design and/or Master Plan. As explained above, these are the essential beginning steps for any landscaping project. 

The Concept Design lays out the overall design for the garden, where each of the key elements will go and gives you both an aesthetic and functional overview of how the garden will both look and function. A Master Plan adds a great deal more detail to the design of the garden, adding ‘a lot more meat to the bones’ so to speak. It addresses many important factors such as how big various garden elements are exactly, how many of them will there be, what size, type, quality, they will be etc

This is all your designer may do for you. Or they may go several steps further.

Some may offer to provide a modified version of the garden design to accompany a Town Planning Submission for your garden on your behalf and make the submission as well.

Another may include construction drawings that are required for use by an engineer, for council permit applications, for ‘Build over Easement’ applications or for a building surveyor to use in issuing a permit. Of course, these construction drawings will also be needed by whichever landscaper is going to actually build your project if your garden includes such built elements as a deck, verandah, pergola, gazebo, outdoor kitchen, etc

As you can see there’s a lot more to the landscape design service than just designing the garden itself. It’s important you clarify all of this with your designer before you engage them so you understand what is included in the fee, and what are optional extras available to you at additional cost.

Whilst all these additional services are very good, again they can leave you with only a partial solution to your garden meaning that you then have to find the right people to create your finished garden.

Will you handle all the council permits, engineering, easement applications, and sourcing a building surveyor?

If you haven’t yet already realised, there are many additional steps between getting your garden designed and getting your garden built.

Some of these involve engaging other professionals such as engineers or building surveyors. Other steps include a lot of paperwork and applications to council and other relevant authorities. 

Again, if you are engaging a landscape designer or landscape architect who ‘only designs but does not build gardens’ then you need to get a very clear understanding of whether or not they include some of these interim steps or not. 

Often they are the ones best suited to handle many of these steps but you want to be sure your designer is not leaving them all to whoever is going to actually landscape the garden itself. The issue here is that the landscaper may not include these services in their fee and these important interim steps can fall into a sort of ‘no-mans’ land between the designer and the landscaper. If this happens they could all end up falling into your lap.

Again, it’s important to clarify WHO exactly is handling all these steps and whether or not they are included in the design fee or if they are an extra cost. (The only trick to all of this, is that you might not discover you need another interim step until you do one of the first steps. For example, you have an easement on your property and you apply to build over it and only when you submit the application do you discover that you need to get a plumber in to precisely locate where the drain goes so it can be allowed for any in any works.)

What role, if any, will you play in the construction of my garden?

Once again, different landscape designers and landscape architects can play different roles in the process of constructing your garden.

Some will simply hand over the concept design for your garden and say “There you go, it’s all yours. Good luck!”

If you ask them to recommend someone to construct the garden they might informally refer you to a landscaper they think might do a good job of building your garden.

As outlined in the previous question, some designers might have some involvement in the Town Planning Submission, Permits or Construction Drawings.

Others may go a step further and become involved in a tendering process for your garden. For this, they require things like Construction Drawings. They then send these drawings to their preferred suppliers/contractors and ask them to submit tenders. They then review the tenders and appoint the contractors.

Now here is where things can get tricky. Having engaged the contractors they may NOT want to get involved in the building of the garden itself directly. As in, they may not want to project manage it and may leave you to become the de facto project manager which can be a nightmare if you are dealing with multiple suppliers – paving contractors, a pool installer, a deck builder, etc

So IF your landscape designer or landscape architect does say they will go through this tendering process, make sure you clarify with them whether or not they will SEE THE PROJECT THROUGH TO THE VERY END. This is absolutely vital that you get this clarified before you begin any project because the last thing you want is for your garden to be left half-done because the designer has contracted the suppliers but is not taking full responsibility for the final result.

At Whyte Gardens we take the stress of all these additional steps away from you. We offer the complete package, taking you from concept design all the way through to a fully finished garden with every step along the way taken care of.

Are you a member of the Landscape Design Institute or Landscaping Victoria?

Last, but not least, we think it’s important that you ask your prospective landscape designer or architect if they are a member of the Landscape Design Institute of Australia or Landscaping Victoria.

These are the professional bodies for the landscaping industry. 

You will find that all reputable Landscape Designers and Landscape Architects belong to one or the other body or even both.

These organisations take responsibility for the industry and help to ensure their members have high levels of professionalism in the way they work with clients. They can also assist you if you have problems dealing with any of their members and offer complaint resolution processes to help you if something goes wrong with your landscaping project.

Whyte Gardens is proud to be a member of both the Landscape Design Institute of Australia and Landscaping Victoria.

The answers you were looking for?

So there you have it. The top 8 questions you must ask your landscape designer or landscape architect before you engage them. 

We hope these questions and their answers have helped clarify some important points for you, and given you some understanding of how these professionals work and what processes we in the industry tend to follow.

We think it would be great if all landscape designers, architects and landscapers all followed the same procedures and used the same standardised processes and terms but they don’t unfortunately. So it’s vitally important to get absolute clarity on all these questions before engaging your landscape designer or architect.

If you do get positive answers to all your questions and feel good about the person or company you have chosen, then please go ahead and proceed with your garden. We wish you well and hope it turns out exactly as you’d hoped.

If you still have any more unresolved questions or you’d like to know more about how our ‘complete from concept to construction’ landscaping service could bring your ideal garden to life, please feel free to contact us by phone or email. 

We trust you will find the right path for you that leads you to your ideal garden.