Use a garden plan to estimate the cost of your design

Garden Plan

When laying out a Garden Plan thought has to given initially as to who will use the garden.

Do you require wheelchair access? play areas for the children, and do you have pets.

How much time are you prepared to put in to maintain the garden when it is finished, and cost, what is your budget.

Who builds your garden will greatly effect the overall cost. Hard landscaping will eat into most of your budget with the expense of paving, fencing, patios and brickwork etc, including any labour that is required to help in completing these jobs.

Clearing the site of rubble, concrete paths and anything else that is not needed is a job that requires little experience. All that you do need is a skip, a shovel and a wheelbarrow.

If the site wants re - grading then hire a mini excavator. If the garden design requires shaping the garden to different levels then you may have to hire the expertise of a contractor.

If you want a paved patio, in your garden plan then this is a job that warrants a bit of know - how, but if you are confident then this is where you can save a lot of money on labour.

If you can do this then laying paths and building small retaining walls is a lot easier.

Boundaries can be constructed from :
A) plants to form hedges. B) wood paneling or ranch type. C) stone or brick.

Your type of garden will depend on which of these you will choose.

Dividing a garden, even a small garden can be a good idea, putting up trellis work to separate the chidren's play area from the rest of the garden, to disguise the garden shed, to add interest and intrigue or to supply a getaway corner for you to relax.

Get a sheet of paper and jot down all the objects,(patios, sheds etc), that you would like to see in the garden.

Measure your site and transfer the size of your garden plan onto some graph paper. Cut out pieces of paper to the sizes of the objects and juggle these around on the graph paper to see if you can make a pleasing effect.

When you have done this, work out the cost of materials, and change them accordingly to meet your budget i.e. a patio made from wood decking will be cheaper than one made from stone paving, an aluminium greenhouse is cheaper than one built of ceder wood and so on.

Add up all the costs plus another 10% for contingencies.

If you have a very tight budget, split the garden plan up into sections, doing one section at a time until the finances become available.

Grass over the area that you wanted for a water feature until a later date.

The maintenance depends on if you are an avid gardener who loves to out into the garden mowing, weeding, dead heading etc, or if you just enjoy relaxing in a maintenance free garden.

Low maintenance usually means less plants and more hard landscaping, but you can still have gravel paths meandering through flower and shrub beds, packed with plants to stop the weeds appearing.

For gardeners in wheelchairs or with back backs or bending difficulties, then raised beds will bring plants up to a height that is comfortable.

If young children are wanting a paddling pool or a sand pit, then these can be designed so that they can be turned into raised beds or fish ponds when the children grow up.

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