In the diagram shown you will see an overview of the five phases you need to travel. Let’s take a look at what each of these entails.
Your journey begins in a moment of contemplation. Whether that's looking out your window with a sinking feeling as you gaze upon an uninviting garden, or perhaps you are building a new home and have a blank canvas. Whatever the reason, the initial contemplation remains the driving force for change. Let us take a closer look at the makeup of this phase to see how it works.
After the initial contemplation comes the revolving wheel of Imagine-Research-Define. This step can take weeks, months or even years. This is a vital step where you carry out online research and discover a garden that seems to resonate with you. Or perhaps you spend time at a friends garden and realise you love fragrance. You may even have remembered the villa in Tuscany you stayed at and how their garden made you feel. As you imagine your garden having elements you have researched, you define what it is you like and also don’t like. Repeating these three activities should end up in you having clarity on what you want, although sometimes, this is when people will reach out for a designer because there is simply too many variables and you feel overwhelmed.
As you revolve around this wheel, consider these four aspects:
The question of feasibility is often back of mind throughout your journey. Once you know what you want, feasibility may become a barrier to moving forward until it is resolved. Often, this is a point where you contact a designer and discuss your ideas to:
The Discovery Wheel never really stops revolving. Even as late as being in the middle of landscaping, a client might announce “I just came across... and was wondering if we should include this too?” - So, Imagine-Research-Define and feasibility are a constant throughout your journey.
It is worth mentioning here a commonly spoken question, “How much will landscaping cost?
This to be fully answered would take a few pages but in summary, the right designer should be able to use their experience to help you navigate this.
When people are ready to engage a designer they tend to express similar words like, “I know what I want but don’t know how to put it together.”
The question is, “How do I know which landscape designer to engage?”
Let’s take a look at this further…
Now that you have engaged a designer, they will begin by formulating a brief with you. A site analysis is taken to better understand the conditions of the site and understanding of the architecture of the building and surrounding area that will influence inclusions within the design.
Your brief or wish list, is the foundation of your design and as such you should ensure the designer thoroughly understands your aims, likes, dislikes, concerns and any and all other aspects they need to consider.
This stage entails the creation of a Concept Design. There is no standard to which a Concept Design is held, so different designers include what they wish. What you should gain from the phase is an understanding of how your wish list looks on paper. Does it include everything? Does the flow and proportions feel right to you? Can you see yourself in it and does it function well?
Studying the layout of your future garden is what is important.
A word on Budget
Here is the perfect time to ask for an estimated cost for landscaping.
Although the design is still not detailed with materials and plants, there
is enough information to give a very good costing for each element to
arrive at a budget that will be close enough to make further decisions
with.
Too often designers complete the design and when the landscaper costs it, the client is left with a design way over budget and cannot be used. The solution is a costing at concept stage and if over-budget, this is the best place to make adjustments that will bring the budget down.
Having happily signed off that the concept is right, now is time to specify all materials to be used, colours, plan type, lighting, etc.
This step may involve visiting suppliers to physically see the materials, and feel the texture of the stone or clare that may reflect from materials. You may also visit a nursery to look at the plants suggested.
Where the previous phase may have stated 'Lawn', this phase requires you to ask yourself, "How soft do I want it? How will I use it?; how hard-wearing should it be? who will mow it?; and more" - This is about making decisions.
This is where a good designer can guide you on what questions must be asked and help you articulate exactly what you want for your garden.
This is about building confidence in your decisions and knowing you are happy with them.
This is where your Master Plan is created and details all the plants, materials, and finishes. Confidence follows if clarity is in place, and you will feel more in control of the journey and the final two phases.
A word on Budget
As with the concept phase, you should now have a revised costing
which will be much more accurate. It may be the final fixed cost or it
may require the next compliance phase to be complete in order to
finalise it completely.
This phase may not apply to you if the project is simple. However, projects are becoming more complex, and landscaping follows all the same regulations that building a house must follow, so expectations must be set appropriately. Generally, this phase is not done by you but by others. In this phase, any of the following may be addressed:
Will I need Engineering?
Do I need any Council permits (of which there are many)?
Do I need an Easement application?
Do I need a Building permit?
Do I need someone to liaise with a plumber or electrician?
What is covered in the landscaping contract?
Will my designer create the Working Drawings or do I need a draftperson?
Does the landscaper need to be a licenced builder who takes out warranty insurance?
This phase can be the most disruptive and emotionally draining of all the phases. It may take three weeks to have a council application approved. It can take a year. When you have an engineer take 2-4 weeks, then it goes to the council for six weeks, then to a building surveyor for three weeks, then timeframes get drawn out.
It is important to understand what your project may run into and how long this will take. It is also prudent to allow expectations to change. Only once you lodge an application do you sometimes discover your land or home has specific requirements with additional needs. These additional hurdles require more effort and time.
Setting realistic expectations is important. Having the right team working on your application is important. And sometimes, designing in a way to avoid needing permits in the first place, can be just as important.
This is the exciting phase of seeing it all come to life. And again, we point out that other phases may creep back in here, E.g. While excavating, you 'discover' an old concrete spa that requires the engineer to amend their documents for us to build from.
It is common for a client to say during the landscaping phase, "I just noticed that now our tree has been removed, I can see my neighbour's window is overlooking our new pool. Can we buy more mature trees to provide privacy quicker?" - This is where variations to contract occur.
Landscaping greater than $16,000 needs to be contracted with a registered builder who will take out warranty insurance for your project. This is your only guarantee should anything go wrong.
It is worth mentioning that gardens that stand the test of time and age gracefully and are admired need looking after.
Low maintenance is a request nearly all clients ask for, but gardens are alive and evolving and so need some degree of looking after. Factor in who will care for the garden and how much maintenance is required.
Last updated: July 30, 2017
Whyte Gardens (“us”, “we”, or “our”) operates the www.whytegardens.com.au website (the “Service”).
This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information when you use our Service.
We will not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy.
We use your Personal Information for providing and improving the Service. By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy. Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms and Conditions, accessible at www.whytegardens.com.au
While using our Service, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you. Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to, your name, phone number (“Personal Information”).
We collect information that your browser sends whenever you visit our Service (“Log Data”). This Log Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages and other statistics.
Cookies are files with small amount of data, which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a web site and stored on your computer’s hard drive.
We use “cookies” to collect information. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Service.
We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service, to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Service-related services or to assist us in analyzing how our Service is used.
These third parties have access to your Personal Information only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.
The security of your Personal Information is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100{ada318fc6dc2d41eea89b5a5b5dd2118a53fbf1b12e3e12da41e9bb7113fb0b0} secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit.
We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.
Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 13 (“Children”).
We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Children has provided us with Personal Information, please contact us. If we discover that a Children under 13 has provided us with Personal Information, we will delete such information from our servers immediately.
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.
You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us.
Get a FREE Copy of
We only send you awesome stuff
