When is the right time to engage a landscape designer?

March 6th, 2024

10 min read

Are you building a new home somewhere in Melbourne or the Peninsula? Have you started a 'knock-down/rebuild' project? Are you looking at your existing garden and thinking 'We really need to wipe this slate clean and start again!'

Whatever your situation or the motivation for a new garden, one of the most common questions we get asked as Landscape Designers is "When is the right time to engage you?"

As a landscape design & construction business with over 30 years of experience creating gardens for over 500 clients, we can tell you the answer differs according to the project and your situation.

In this article, we'll take you through some real-life scenarios we have experienced with actual clients to help you better understand the processes every landscape design company has to go through. We hope this will help you gain a clearer answer for each situation and hopefully understand more about which may apply to you.

In the end we hope you will then have a clearer answer for yourself of exactly when you should engage your landscape designer.

If you are building a new home

When building a new home, the typical answer to the question "When's the right time to engage you?" would be "You can't be too early but you can be too late."

The only exception to this would be if your house plans are not yet finalised as this can cause issues. (But more on that later).

Here's why we say this:

From a landscaping point of view, a typical new home will generally comprise many things. The front garden will perhaps have a pathway, a driveway, a front fence, some planting, etc. The rear garden may have a pool, some decking, a pergola, some paving, more plants, etc.

Let's say you've already started building your new home and you think it might be time to start thinking about the garden. You engage us to create a Concept Design for the new garden on February 1st. We meet, establish the brief and begin the process. On the 1st of March, we present the Concept Design to you. After the meeting, you ask for some more time to digest the design and discuss it with your family. You say you will get back to us.

On March 20th you email us asking for a few changes to the Concept Design. We email the revised design back to you on April 2nd and ask you if you are happy with the changes and if the design now more fully meets your needs.

You find life gets in the way of your plans a bit and on the 24th of April you finally get a chance to respond. You say yes, can we please move into the Master Plan phase now?

A month later, on May 24th we present the Master Plan and again, you say you need some time to review it. Again you ask for some revisions, and 10 days later we present a revised Master Plan back to you. It is now mid-June. Four and a half months have gone by and you now have a Master Plan and costing to construct your garden.

(In our experience, generally the time taken by a client to review and respond to the Concept Design & Master Plan tend to take as long as it does to develop them in the first place.)

The next stage of the process

After obtaining your approval for the Master Plan and costing, we now need to submit an application for a Build Over Easement as there is a retaining wall in the easement. This takes three weeks. Simultaneously we contact the Local Council and ask for a Written Advice, which lets us know what other applications we need to apply for. It's now the 7th of July and we receive advice that we need to submit a Report & Consent application as the proposed verandah is close to the boundary. 21st July we receive a Request For Information (RFI) from council asking for additional information from an engineer.

Now we already knew they might ask for information from an engineer so we had previously contacted one but they are busy and we are still chasing them. But as it turns out, what the council is asking for had not been considered by the engineer so he now needs a couple more weeks to do this. We are now well into August.

The engineer's report is finally sent to council but they ask for even more information (yes this really does happen!). Finally, we send them the additional information they requested and get the council approval on August 22nd.

Okay so you may be thinking - NOW we can proceed! Not yet! Now we need to apply for a Building Permit and on September 29th we finally receive the permit.

Meanwhile, the home has now been completed, handover has taken place and the client will be moving in soon. What they had hoped for all along was a nice finished concrete driveway for their removalist truck to back into to make the unloading process easier. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen because we've been busy working on another site while we were waiting for the Building Permit approvals to come through. (As always, we never know how long this will take with each different council.)

The point of this story is that some nine months after being engaged by a client to design their garden, we finally arrive on-site to start their project which will only take two months to complete. If we had been briefed earlier we could have had that driveway in place on move-in day and already have had the garden underway as well.

A clear case of when it would have been better to be too early than too late.

About to engage a landscape designer but wonder, "Will they include...?"

If you are building an architect-designed home

Here's another real-life example of what can happen when dealing with someone who has chosen to build an architect-designed home. And how it can affect the timing of when you should engage your landscape designer.

In July 2021 we were engaged to create a concept design for a client in Melbourne. Their architect (a very reputable company) was still working with them on finalising details of their new home but the actual shape and size of the home was all but confirmed*.

We created the concept design for the garden as briefed. This was approved after some minor revisions and by September 2021 we had begun to create the Master Plan.

Finalisation of the house plans drag on and on so it is not until October 2022 (more than a year later) that we are authorised to begin creating the Working Drawings for the approved garden Master Plan. This is the result of a long drawn-out process between the architectural firm, the pool builder, and us.

On 14th November 2023, we visited the site to see the builder excavating the ground. At a subsequent meeting with the client onsite we are told that the building of the house should be finished in 2025.

Are we saying that all architect-designed homes take this long? No. But this is a real-life example of what can occur.

We are yet to finalise the landscaping costs for this garden as the commencement date is too far away to provide an accurate quote. (Quotes are only valid for 30 days due to the fluctuations of materials costs). We have also not yet applied for a building permit as we need a signed landscaping contract for this first. The client cannot sign the contract without an accurate quote. So, this will be a 4 year long project for us to realise this client's dream.

*Whether your new home is being architect-designed or not, the only restriction to starting the process of talking to your landscape designer is whether or not key aspects of the house on the block have already been established. For example, what is the orientation and alignment of the house to the block? Where will all the key features be such as front door, back door, side doors, kitchen, bathroom/s, bedroom/s, living spaces etc? Once those have all been established in principle you can actually start talking to a landscaper about your plans for the garden, even if the final details of your home have not been settled.

Like house plans, garden plans can be adjusted in the early Concept Design stage and even up to the Master Plan.

If you are planning to sell your home

Deciding when is the right time to engage a landscape designer when selling your home is a very different scenario. But it's governed largely by what date you plan to have the house up for sale. Is it 3 months from briefing your designer, 6 months, 9 months?

Generally, we do not create designs or landscape homes that are up for sale as these projects tend to be of the 'low-cost quick dressing' variety. However, as another example of why you need to provide as much forward planning as possible here is another real-life case of an existing client.

We have a client who briefed us to design a new garden for the home they are selling. Their goal is to use the new garden to help maximise the return they will get from selling it. But just as they had approved the Master Plan for the garden for their existing home they decided they would buy another house and start a 2-year knock-down/re-build project on their new property.

So the design we originally created for their existing home had to be scaled back slightly to save on costs. But we still had to create a garden lovely enough to help maximise the ROI they would get when they sold the house.

(Note: Every client is different. Some want what they want and hang the expense. Some get very precious and don't want to waste any money. Most want somewhere in between.)

We gave them some advice to help them achieve a garden they will still love without the risk of over-capitalising it. So their amazing $25,000 outdoor kitchen could simply become a Weber. They could still build the pool but perhaps not spend the extra $10,000 on an in-ground pool cover. The steel custom-designed pergola we had in mind for $25,000 could be replaced with a timber pergola and vines for just $12,000.

(As both a garden design and construction company, we have the benefit of understanding not just the design requirements of a project but also the actual costs required to implement them. This allows us to easily advise clients on where to adjust the design and what to cut in the construction process to have a more sensible outcome.)

If you are rejuvenating an existing garden

This is perhaps the easiest question to answer regarding the timing of when to engage your designer. Because with perhaps a few exceptions, you basically can start anytime. Of course, the sooner you start, the sooner you will be able to sit back, relax and start enjoying your new garden.

If your garden is uninviting, drab, doesn't function well, or is even a little bit of an embarrassment to you, then the time to start your journey towards a new garden is probably right now!

We always feel a little sad when we hear people say, "Oh, I rarely go out into the garden anymore, it's just a bit sad out there. I haven't spent time out there in years and I never feel like inviting anyone to come spend time here."

We talk about the importance of a well-thought-out and well-designed garden in other articles we have written but to summarise here; Your well-being, and the well-being of others, can be monumentally improved by simply spending time in a garden you love that works for you.

There is a wonderful article written by the Royal Botanic Gardens: Nature for Health and Wellbeing that gives an in-depth review of the positive influence a garden can have on your happiness. If you have a moment, we strongly recommend you read it - Health & Wellbeing in Nature

So if you feel the urge within you to create a new garden that has meaning for you and will be a place you'll love to share with others, we simply say that the best time to engage a landscape designer is now!

If you are installing a pool

This is the easiest answer about timing to give you because there is very clearly a wrong time to engage a landscape designer and that is AFTER you have already installed your pool.

The reason for this is simple. As we often say, "Landscaping does not go around a pool, a pool sits within a landscape".

So in essence you need to design your garden first, with the pool incorporated into the design, rather than approach a landscape designer after you've installed your pool and ask, "Now can you please design something around it".

The pool of course can be, and probably will be, the focus of your new garden and many things are designed around it, such as the decking, paths, fencing, plantings etc But the overall design concept still comes first.

Regarding the timing of a typical pool project, here are a few things to consider. First, you need on average around 2 months to create a Concept Design and Master Plan for your garden. You need the Master Plan to send to the pool builder/installer for them to use to provide you with an accurate estimate for your pool. Each pool contractor will take differing amounts of time to work with you on finalising all your individual requirements for your pool and the likely costs involved.

Second from a timing perspective, a typical concrete pool project might take 6 months from the initial contract signing, through all the permits and engineering, installation, landscaping and finishing off. A fibreglass pool might take half this time. Considering most people installing a pool want it ready for Summer then to achieve this deadline you are best to start talking to a landscape designer at the end of the current summer. February is probably the best time.

If you haven't yet decided between a concrete or fibreglass pool and need some help deciding, you might find this article helpful - Which is better - a fibreglass or concrete pool?

Rarely too early, often too late

In summary, based on our decades of experience, we generally find that people err on the side of leaving their garden design too late. In many cases, this can lead them to having to compromise on some of the things they originally wanted in their garden because what they originally wanted is not now possible because of some circumstances.

We hate having to say to clients "If you'd briefed us before you did ........... or before ........ happened, we could have included that........ (garden feature you really wanted)."

So in short and in summary, the golden rule is you are rarely wrong to start talking to a landscape designer too early, but you will more likely be in error if you leave it too late.

This is simply because generally it takes much longer than most people assume to actually design and construct a new garden.

If you do start talking to a landscape designer well ahead of time, you can always get an initial Concept Design done and wait until your project is ready to go to the next stage. You don't lose anything this way and you are already one step ahead of the game when the time comes.

In our experience, this is much better than frantically trying to rush a project to meet another deadline and end up having to make compromises you don't really want to make.

Ultimately whoever you choose to design your garden, whether it's us or not, we want you to have the ideal garden. A place where you and everyone who's important to you can share wonderful times together.

Ultimately we would urge you to err on the side of being earlier rather than late.

You might also find these following articles helpful to your decision-making process.