Fees

Garden design fees : garden designer Keith Rowell explains how fees relate to the cost of the new garden and gives a few tips on how to estimate the cost of a new landscape design.

One of the first questions I always get asked is 'How much will my new garden cost me?  That's a difficult question to answer as the cost depends on so many factors - the size of the garden, the complexity of the works, access to the site and so on.

The design fee varies with the size of the garden, starting from a few hundred dollars for a simple sketch design or planting plan. We work in much the same way as a building architect and our fee scale is based on a percentage of the contract costs and range from 15-33% depending on the size of the project.

As a rule of thumb you should consider that building a garden requires at least as much work as adding an extension to your house – 4-10% of the property value is a realistic investment figure.