Before the first line
Everything thedesign needs to know
One form. Fill in what you know, skip what you do not, and upload photographs — of the garden as it is, of material already lying there, and of images that speak to you. What is here already is what we do not have to work out on site.
The only question that really matters
What do you want from this garden?
Describe a moment rather than a style. Where are you sitting, what are you doing, which season, which hour of the day, and who is with you? One paragraph is enough. Everything else in this form exists to sharpen this answer.
Photographs say more than a moodboard
Four categories. The last is the most useful: what repels you tells us more than what you like.
As it is now
Stand in every corner and photograph towards the middle. Plus every window and door from the inside out, so we know the view from the house. Film if it moves — water, a draught, a puddle that will not drain says more in ten seconds than in four stills.
Material already on site
Paving, tiles, brick pavers, kerbs, fence panels, stone in storage. Put something of a known size beside it — a tape measure, a hand, a sheet of A4 — so we can judge the format.
What draws you in
Gardens, plants, materials, atmospheres. From the internet or photographed yourself, it makes no difference. Write one line per image about what exactly attracts you — the form, the colour, the calm, the use.
What repels you
This is the most valuable part of the whole intake. Gardens you find ugly, cold, dull or restless mark out the design more sharply than any wish can.
Which atmosphere comes close?
Several may be chosen, including contradictory ones. A garden is often two atmospheres taking turns. Choose nothing at all if nothing fits.
Atmosphere
Planting picture
This decides what the garden looks like in July, and whether it still has anything to offer in January.
Water
Water is the strongest ecological move per square metre. Even a basin of one square metre counts.
What you walk on, what you sit against
Select what appeals to you. Everything can still change — this gives direction, it is not an order.
Paving
The less sealed paving, the better the garden absorbs water and the cooler it stays. Half-paving and open joints do a great deal for that.
Edges and level changes
Boundary
A green boundary is nearly always cheaper over time than a wooden one, and it provides somewhere to nest.
Who uses the garden, and for what
Functions that have to fit
People
Three choices that steer the design
Nothing here needs to be socially acceptable. An honestly low number produces a better garden than an optimistically high one.
Budget, planning and execution
Without a budget and a timeline every design is a guess. A range is enough; an exact figure is not needed.
Existing situation and earlier plans
Reuse is almost always cheaper and ecologically better than removing and buying new.
Drawings and earlier plans
Earlier designs, quotations, a planting list, a cadastral or building drawing. PDF is ideal; a photograph of a paper drawing is fine too — shoot it square on, in daylight, with all four corners in frame.
Nothing leaves this page until you press Send.