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Our full garden design service covers all aspects of creating your new garden, from design ideas and detailed specifications to building and planting your garden.

Initial consultation

This consultation is usually free and lasts 1-2hrs. This meeting is to start to understand what you want from your garden. No doubt we'll come up with a few ideas on the spot. Once you decide that you'd like to go ahead, the design stages start.

Concept design

Our designs are bespoke, created from your specific requirements. Whether you need a space for entertaining, somewhere for kids to play or a haven for relaxing, your garden will reflect your personal style.

We will prepare initial drawings for presentation to you. This allows us to discuss ideas at an early stage, checking everything you want is there. We ensure that the garden will create the right mood for you.

Detailed design

Once the concept design is agreed, we move into detailed design work. My approach is to work collaboratively with contractors, suppliers and artists, bringing an expert team together to work on your project. I enjoy exploring ideas with the experts in their field – keeping up with latest developments or their specialist ideas.

We will prepare construction drawings and concepts for the garden details, collaborating to produce the best design-work that we can. The time that this takes will depend on the complexity of the overall design and managing your budget wisely.

Garden analysis

We will analyse the soil and garden microclimate for you. Using this information, we will give you easy-to-follow guidelines on the kinds of plants that will thrive in each area of the garden. This is called ecological planting, which is nothing to do with wildlife gardening or biodiversity! It is simply about making a low-maintenance garden that doesn't waste water and other resources. We will also make recommendations on how you can improve your soil.

To do the analysis we visit the site, take samples to analyse and investigate the microclimate. You will receive a written report, in non-technical language, to keep and refer to when your new garden is finished. This means that you or your gardener can continue to add new plants, confident that they are a good choice. You will avoid wasting time, money and effort on plants that will not thrive in your garden.

Planting plan

Using in-depth horticultural knowledge, we will design planting which will suit the specific conditions in your garden. The planting can even be designed so that once the garden is established, you shouldn't need to water it – ever.

We will always include plants which encourage wildlife. Planting for wildlife does not automatically mean a meadow - there are woodland plants, shrubs and trees which are also good for wildlife. We believe wildlife can be supported in any style of garden, it doesn't need to look rustic and quaint – it can look as urban and minimalist as you like. The proportion of the planting and design elements which are created for wildlife is up to you to decide.

Advice on growing organic food is entirely optional. We can give you an easy introduction rather than trying to go for full scale production on your first attempt!

Building your garden

As experienced project managers, we will make site visits and track the build against our agreed plan. This helps to ensure the project stays on schedule, within budget, the design is adhered to and any problems are ironed out. You gain peace of mind that the plan will become reality.

Sourcing and setting out plants

We source all the plants for you. This means you benefit from our expertise in checking the plants are healthy and free from pests or diseases.

Generally, we prefer to set-out the plants on site. The aim is to make sure the plants all go in the right places, and look their best in situ. Last-minute tweaking of the planting layout can be made as the whole design comes together.

Aftercare

To help your new garden to stay looking beautiful, we can create a simple monthly maintenance plan for you. This means you aren't left high and dry with a new garden and no idea how to care for it when we walk off-site. Alternatively, if you would prefer to have a professional gardener look after your new garden, we can help you to find the right person.

To arrange a meeting with us, call Louise on 020 8867 2667 or e-mail louise@zass-bangham.com

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