Plans
Maintenance plans, design fees and what each includes.
Looking after it afterwards
A planting scheme is a plan for ten years. It needs someone who knows what was planted and why.
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Seasonal
Four visits a year
£840 per year
Established gardens that mostly need the right job done at the right moment.
- One visit each season
- Pruning to the correct timing
- Border edging and mulching
- A written note of what we did and why
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Fortnightly
Twenty-four visits a year
£2,980 per year
Planted gardens with lawns and borders that want keeping on top of.
- Everything in Seasonal
- Mowing and lawn care through the season
- Continuous weeding and deadheading
- Pots and containers maintained
- Priority on storm damage
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Estate
Weekly, plus project days
£7,400 per year
Larger plots, or gardens still being developed year on year.
- Everything in Fortnightly
- Weekly visits March to October
- Two project days a year for new planting
- Annual review and updated planting plan
- Direct line to the designer
All plans include the same team each visit. Nobody arrives who has not seen your garden before, which matters enormously the first time somebody has to decide whether a plant is dying or dormant.
What actually happens, and when
Garden maintenance is not one job repeated monthly. Each season has its own short list, and doing them at the wrong time is worse than not doing them.
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Spring
Mar – May
Everything wants doing at once, and half of it can wait.
- Mulch borders before growth closes them in
- Cut back grasses and perennials left for winter
- Divide congested clumps as they wake
- First mow, blades set high
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Summer
Jun – Aug
Mostly watering, deadheading and standing still looking at it.
- Water new planting deeply, not often
- Deadhead repeat-flowering roses
- Trim formal hedges after nesting ends
- Feed pots fortnightly
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Autumn
Sep – Nov
The best planting season, and the one everybody misses.
- Plant trees and shrubs into warm soil
- Lift and divide herbaceous perennials
- Plant spring bulbs, late in the window
- Clear leaves off lawns, not off borders
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Winter
Dec – Feb
Structural work, while you can see the bones.
- Prune apples, pears and wisteria
- Renovate overgrown deciduous shrubs
- Repair fences, paths and edging
- Leave seedheads standing for the birds
The single most common mistake we correct is pruning at the wrong moment — cutting spring shrubs in winter removes the flowers, and cutting hedges in late spring disturbs nesting birds, which is also an offence.
Before you get in touch
Mostly about time and money, which is reasonable.
A concept plan for a typical town garden is £1,200 to £2,400 depending on size and complexity, and includes a site survey, a scale drawing and a planting plan. That fee is deducted from the build cost if you go on to have us do the work.
Six to ten weeks for design and drawings, then the build. We book construction roughly three months ahead. If you want planting in the autumn window, which is the best one, start the conversation in early summer.
No. It is offered because a planting scheme is a ten-year plan and most schemes fail in year three from well-intentioned wrong pruning. Ninety-two percent of clients stay on one, but nobody is obliged to.
Usually, and often that is the better job. Mature structure is worth a great deal and takes decades to replace. We would rather keep a good hedge and rework around it than clear a site for the sake of a clean drawing.
Anything we supply and plant is replaced free in its first two years, provided the garden has been maintained — by us or by you following the plan. Plants die, and after two years it is usually the conditions rather than the plant.
The best planting window is autumn
Book a site visit now and there is time to design, draw and plant before the soil cools.