Landscape Design Cost

The Landscaping Design cost is often one of a client’s biggest fears when commissioning a landscape design plan. A well thought out landscape design cost is one of the best ways to minimise landscaping costs.

landscape design plans cost — Landscape design plans costs are a good investment in your property.

The Landscaping Design cost and Landscaping Infrastructure

The landscape design cost really pays for itself with the design of landscaping infrastructure. The infrastructure cost will include sub surface installations such as irrigation systems and agricultural drainage systems as well as garden lighting systems and good quality footings for retaining walls.

Landscape Design Cost and Swimming Pool Landscaping — Landscape Design Cost is a good investment when the cost of landscaping infrastructure is considered.

Landscape Design Cost and quality landscaping

The landscape design plan is the first step towards high quality landscaping. Often the important points are in the detail of the landscape design.

Landscape Design Specifications and Landscape Design Cost

By specifying the quality and depth of the landscaping topsoil, the landscape design plan helps to reduces the ongoing garden maintenance cost. The quality and depth of the topsoil often goes unnoticed. A quality topsoil of at least 150mm will give you a more sustainable garden in the long run, provided that topsoil is suitable for the plants selected. For garden beds, in areas with poorer topsoils, we will specify 300mm topsoils on our landscape design plan. The type and thickness of mulch can have a great effect on the appearance, maintenance and plant health of your garden. The mulch specification should also be part of the landscape design plan.

landscape design cost and mulch — Tactical planting of attractive cycads in a raised garden near a buildings main entrance. Plenty of mulch is provided to keep the moisture in the topsoil.

Another consideration for landscaping costs is site access. Often it is too difficult to get landscaping machinery in to a site or there is too much risk of causing damage. Another consideration is the difficulty in getting materials on to a site. All of these can add to the costs. A well planned landscape design can help with the planning phase of the landscape construction. For example, Our 2D landscape design package contains detailed plant schedules, quantities, spacings and placement locations. This is integrated with a set of irrigation and hydraulic drawings. The collaboration and synergy of these two documents is fundamental to your landscapes success, it will ensure that no plant goes through its establishment period without consistent daily watering.

The landscape design cost is a good investment when the cost of the landscaping infrastructure is considered.

Estimating Landscaping costs

Why is landscaping so expensive?

Most experienced landscapers will have some rules of thumb when it comes to landscaping costs. Things like paving can be estimated per square metre or retaining walls can be estimated per lineal metre. Most of these costs will be based on the assumption of a straightforward landscaping job on flat ground and the usual Melbourne soil and subsoil conditions. The landscaping cost estimate can also be affected by what is under the soil. Things such as underground utilities, old wall footings, old drains and old swimming pools can really wreak havoc with a rule of thumb landscaping cost estimate.

What does landscaping cost for new home?

For new building sites on the Melbourne allowing a budget of around 15% of the value of the property will normally give you a great result. This will be a little cheaper for small garden designs. To find out the latest landscaping costs, contact us and we will be happy to give you an estimate.

Quality Standards and Landscaping Costs

Building an exposed aggregate driveway or path with roadbase underneath will provide a quality product for many years. There are always ways to make paths a little cheaper, but cracks may open up if the correct design and construction procedures are not followed.

Paving Lawn and Potted Plants add value to a property. Copyright Red’s Landscape Gardening – Gardener Melbourne.

Saving money on the landscape design cost

One way to save money on both your landscaping and the landscape design cost is to get all of your landscaping ideas down on paper. You can start with making a list of garden features you would like to see in your garden. Then make photocopy of your house site plan showing the location of utility services and easements. Prioritise and sketch in some of your most desired features such as water features, retaining walls, pathways and swimming pools. This can be done initially with a pencil and a highlighter pen. If you are good with computers, there are a number of low cost or free software packages you can try including Sketchup. At Red’s Landscaping, we operate with very low overheads and our cost estimates are very accurate to ensure the minimum amount of wastage.

landscaping costs minimised by planning — *Sketching your Garden Design*

Plant Selection and landscape design cost

Choosing the incorrect plant types for your soil type or conditions can lead to disappointing results. A landscape design plan can reduce money wasted on buying plants that are not thriving under the conditions.

Visit some of your local gardens.

A great way to develop your garden design ideas, is visit some of the open gardens in the area. Here you can see some of the best garden designs in the area. Another way to help with the garden design is to visit the local botanical gardens or visit some of the regular garden shows on the Melbourne. This will give you the opportunity to see the latest landscape design ideas and assist with plant selection and grouping. Take a note pad and pen to take note of the plant species and garden feature you like.

Our Botanical Design Package is uniquely tailored to your preferred colour pallet, style of plants, whilst also maintaining symmetry/consistency with existing buildings and architecture.

landscape design Balwyn North — pool alfresco, seating turf 3D render

Our dedicated horticulturalist will ensure the plants selected will work with your soil and weather requirements and will sustain growth for years to come. This package comes with 2 snapshot renders detailing how the planting scheme will look once established in your landscape. This package also features an installation guide and care guide, these guides will help you understand water, shade, fertilising requirements of each plant and will help you spot early warning signs of stress/disease. These guides will ensure that you have the knowledge to understand each plant specific requirements, and maintain it to maturity.

Can using an experienced Melbourne landscaping professional reduce the landscape design cost?

In a similar way to an interior decorator or stylist can save you money on paint, there are many ways an experienced landscape gardener and experienced landscape designer can save you money. No-one wants to see large puddles of water in their newly installed garden, or even worse, water flowing into the house. Planning the drainage of the water by slotted agricultural DWV pipe, spoon or French drains and subtle use of gradient will prevent these problems. Irrigation systems need to be designed to take water where it is most needed and to use water sparingly. Irrigation systems also need to be low maintenance.

landscape design cost minimised by useing an experience landscape designer. — Landscape design cost minimised by useing an experience landscape designer.

Garden Design and Construction

Some landscaping companies do not offer garden design as part of their service. Often, in these cases they will outsource the design to a specialist garden design company or mark the design out on the ground. The advantages of a landscaper having in-house design facilities results in much better planning in the construction phase.

A Professional Horticulturist can reduce your landscape design cost.

With the horticultural aspects, there is a lot that the professional horticulturist can do to save you money in the long term. For example, plants with similar needs should be grouped together. This means plants with similar sunlight, moisture and even fertilizer (especially phosphorus) should be grouped together. This is especially true of the soils chosen. For example, lower cost soils could be used for some garden beds, but not for lawns in high traffic areas. Some plants prefer an acid soil, so these should not be planted with plants preferring neutral or alkaline soils. Also plants should be chosen with ongoing garden maintenance in mind. If you are looking for outdoor pool landscaping ideas, it is best not to plant palms that require regular cleaning and pruning nearby. The use of select native or indigenous plants can save a lot of money in garden maintenance and watering.

computer generated landscape — Computer landscape design and horticultural plant selection. Screening plants are chosen to improve swimming pool privacy.

Landscape Design Cost and property values

When selling a property, first impressions go a long way. A professionally landscaped property will help increase the selling price of a property much higher than the cost of the landscaping. If you take note of some of the commercial landscape designs in your area, you can see how businesses use this strategy to create a positive impression of their business.

3D landscape — 3D Render Formal House and gardens

Working Landscape Garden Designers

A consultation with a landscape garden designer will involve going through the points discussed above and getting a feel of the property. The landscape designer will then develop your ideas into a rendered 2D sketch of your property and landscape garden. Once this rough outline is approved, the Landscape garden designer will develop detailed 3D CAD models of your property to help you visualise what the finished garden design will look like. Usually this will include the larger plants, retaining walls, water features and any fast growing screening plants or hedges. The next stage is create all of the schematics for irrigation, drainage, garden lighting and plantings.

Minimising Landscaping costs begins with a Bespoke 2D Garden Design Plan. — *Bespoke 2D Garden Design Plan*

Garden Maintenance and Landscape Design.

Another advantage of having a garden professionally designed, is facilitate the creation of a low maintenance garden. With 3D design tools, it can be established if there are any difficulties accessing lawns and hedges with maintenance equipment. It is also possible to arrange plants with similar needs in groups to ensure that they receive the necessary irrigation of sunlight.

For help with the design and development or your landscaping ideas, contact one of our experienced Landscape Gardeners. We can help with small garden design all the way up to Commercial Landscape design. Our specialities include fast growing screening plants, plant health and horticulture, garden lighting and outdoor pool landscaping ideas.