Hard and Soft Landscaping
Garden design and landscaping for larger Essex gardens
Complete garden schemes with a full design service: levels, terraces, walls, lighting, planting and lawns.
The approach
Designed on paper first, then built to last twenty years.
Large gardens rarely need one thing doing. They need levels resolved, drainage sorted, a terrace that relates to the house, retaining that will not lean in five years, and planting that looks deliberate in February as well as June. We offer a full design service so the whole garden is thought through before the first sod is cut.
You get a measured survey, a plan, material samples and a costed schedule. Then the same firm builds it, which removes the usual argument about whether the design was buildable in the first place.
Typical cost
Design and planting plans from £1,800, porcelain terraces £160 to £260 per square metre, complete schemes commonly £45,000 to £150,000. Guide figures only, because levels, access and drainage decide the final price. Every quotation we issue is fixed and itemised.
Design and survey
Measured survey, concept layout, planting plan and material palette, presented with costs before any commitment to build.
Hard landscaping
Porcelain and natural stone terraces, steps, retaining walls, sleeper and rendered planters, pergolas, fencing and gates.
Levels and drainage
Terracing on sloped plots, land drainage, permeable surfacing and soakaways so a new terrace does not push water at the house.
Soft landscaping
Topsoil, cultivation, specimen trees, structural hedging, deep borders, turf and irrigation, with an aftercare schedule.
Who this suits
Substantial private gardens where the whole space is being reworked. We are not the right firm for a small patio replacement or a single fence panel.
- Full design service
- Levels and retaining
- Planting and lawns
Read before you commit
- What does a designed garden actually cost?
Survey, plan and build costs for substantial gardens, and the elements that carry the budget.
Covering 30 miles of Colchester, including Colchester, Chelmsford, Ipswich, Braintree, Witham, Maldon, Sudbury, Clacton-on-Sea and Halstead.
Request a consultation
We take on new build contracts and substantial driveway and garden projects. Give us the detail and Matt will come back to you personally.
Questions we are asked
Hard and Soft Landscaping: your questions
How much does a designed garden cost?+
Most complete schemes we build land between £45,000 and £150,000. Sloping plots needing engineered retaining sit at the upper end, level gardens with a generous terrace at the lower.
Is the design charged separately from the build?+
Yes. The survey, layout and planting plan are priced on their own, so you are free to take the drawings elsewhere. Most clients ask us to build what we have drawn.
Can the garden be built in phases?+
Often the sensible approach. We design the whole garden, build levels, retaining and terrace first, then return for lighting and planting later without the result looking phased.
When is the best time of year to start?+
Hard landscaping runs year round. Turf and planting establish best in autumn and early spring, so we frequently sequence structure through winter and planting as the season turns.
Do you offer any aftercare?+
You get a written aftercare schedule for planting and lawns, and we return in the first season to check establishment and settle anything that has moved.
Also worth reading
Other things we build
Demolition and Site Clearance
Controlled demolition and full clearance that hands over a plot ready for setting out, not a mess for someone else to sort.
Foundations and Groundworks
Dig, drainage and concrete set out to the engineer's drawings and signed off by building control without argument.
Extensions and New Builds
Full build packages from footings to finished shell and beyond, backed by our ten year structural guarantee.
Breaking Ground. Building Trust.
Planning a project worth doing once?
Tell us about the plot, the property and what you want the finished result to be. We will visit, survey and quote properly.
Ten year guarantee / 30 miles of Colchester / New builds and substantial projects