I just had a garden designer come around today. He said for $1700 he would measure the yard and draw up a base plan and start designing. He would have meetings with us during the design process to discuss the progress of ideas. Once we're happy with the concept work and understand the details, he'll draft a final plan that can be used for quotation purposes and landscape construction. He said he'd suggest landscapers we can use and although he's not a supervisor, he can oversee the project and advise us if he sees that something is not being done according to plan.

So I guess I just want to know, does his cost sound reasonable? Has anyone else paid for a garden designer and if so, how much did you pay and what did you get for your money? And also, do you think it was worth it?

Hi I'm in SA. We spoke to someone the other day who said they would come out and look at our site and draw up a draft plan for about $300 including types of plants etc. From there we can decide if we'll do all the work or we get them to do it and then the price will increase. $1700 when you're not even sure if you'll use them seems fairly steep, however if this is his deposit for the work he's going to do, then it doesn't seem that unreasonable.

Hope some other people can offer advice for you.

Theresa,

Thats sounds about right even a bit less than the going rate. The services you are getting from a garden/landcape designer is similar to that of a draftsman/house designer. They are providing you with the ideas and design just like with a house, then somebody else constructs it. This can be yourself or landscape contractor. This process means you get the best design and construction. By getting a landscape contractor to draw your plan its like getting a builder to do a house plan, not that this can't work but you will a far far better result using a specialist.
Hope that helps.

I have just completed a garden design and landscape course and that price does seem quite steep, you can ask to look at there qualifications as there are people out there who dont have any training and a little garden knowledge and charging alot of money, I have worked in a nursery for 7 years and we get alot of people comming through that are doing up peoples gardens but they have no idea about the plants they are choosing , whether they are going to survive or not, so based on this I hope you do ask to see any photos of previous gardens they have designed and if they are with the landscaping association, which they should be charging that amount for a plan.

We got a designer out from a fancy garden design company, our reasoning is because we wanted to make best use of our small space and we had an issue with levels.

First he came out for a verbal consultation for about $100, we liked his initial ideas so we told him we would like him to do up a plan, from memory this stage cost us about $2000 for the proposed garden design and materials/planting palatte and a quote for all the works. However we felt the quote for works was a bit high ($120k) and got our usual builder to quote and he came in at just over half the price so we paid for the designs from the design company and got our builder to continue from there with the technical documentation and construction.

I don't know if the garden designer was worth it for us, we had an idea of what we wanted but this issue with levels was why we brought him in however he didn't really add much more to what we were orginally thinking and seemed more focused on the finishes and getting our money and we felt we were taken for a bit of a ride during the whole design process. Even if you do go with your designer for a plan I would still get other quotes for the contruction stage.

Good luck!