Large Garden Designers – Make sure you hire a design expert
In a small garden design mistakes are relatively easily rectified. It is irritating to discover that the designer did not take account of the fact the sun in the northern hemisphere moves from east to west, but you don’t need to change the sun, just the position of the bench.
In a large garden, a designer’s mistakes can be catastrophic. Ripping out an old hedge could allow a sheltered garden to be flattened by gales. Felling trees without due regard to the effect on the water table could flood a carefully designed sunken herb garden. Earth-moving done without due regard to the soil could leave you with all the topsoil deep underground and a barren waste of subsoil at the surface. Garden and landscape designing has become a growth industry and it is vital to employ someone who has a proven track record.
Above all, judge your designer by what he has already done. Try to find examples of large gardens which he designed five or more years before and judge him by these. A freshly designed garden will look just that – fresh. It may have new lawn turf laid on a poor surface, which will look fine for a year, but not for five. In any garden design, large or small, the designer should have an awareness of the future development of the garden; he should have a plan for its five or ten year development; he should be able to provide artist’s impressions of how high the trees will grow, how wide the hedges, how quickly the bulbs will naturalize in the grass. A design is not an immediate answer; it must be sustainable.
If you would really prefer to give a younger designer who is just setting out a chance to show what he can do, make absolutely sure that he has served a proper apprenticeship with a well-known and experienced expert. Employing a younger and less experienced designer could be terrifically exciting and successful (how old was Lutyens when he started working together with Gertrude Jekyll?) but make sure that he is very fully qualified and has a strong understanding not only of horticulture but of geology and hydrology – these are the areas where the worst catastrophes can occur.
Above all, make every attempt to speak to other people he has worked for. If they have been fully satisfied, they are likely to be happy to talk about it!
For more exquisite designs and to view the work of one of the UK’s best garden designers click here – Garden Designers London
A designer who can transform your garden and outdoor space into something you couldn’t even imagine!
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