Garden plans usually begin with a picture and end with a plant list. That order is backwards. The single most useful hour of any garden project is spent digging two or three holes and looking at what comes out, because the soil and the way water moves through it will decide which of the pretty options are actually available to you.
AMG Landscapes carries out landscape gardening alongside turfing and artificial grass, bricklaying and pointing or cement work. This is how to read the ground before committing to a design.
Find out what your soil actually is
Two simple tests tell you most of what you need. Take a handful of moist soil and try to roll it: if it forms a smooth sausage that bends without cracking, it is clay-heavy; if it will not hold together at all, it is sandy; if it feels silky and holds loosely, it is somewhere in between. Then dig a hole roughly a spade and a half deep, fill it with water, let it drain, fill it again and watch. Water still standing hours later means drainage is the problem to solve first.
Both results change real decisions. Clay holds nutrients and water well but compacts under foot traffic, heaves as it wets and dries, and drowns roots in winter. Sand drains freely and warms early but loses water and feed quickly. Neither is bad ground; each simply rules certain things in and out, and both are improved by organic matter rather than by being fought.
- the roll test for texture, done on moist rather than dry soil
- a drainage hole test in the wettest part of the garden
- how deep the topsoil is before you reach subsoil or rubble
- where water collects after heavy rain, and where it never does
- which parts of the garden are in shade, and at what time of day
- anything buried from previous work, such as old hardcore or slabs
Levels, access and the things that drive cost
The two factors most likely to change a quote are invisible in a photograph: how much the ground falls, and how you get material in and out. A sloping garden needs either terracing, which means retaining structures, or regrading, which means moving soil. Retaining anything more than a low step is structural work and should be treated as such rather than as decorative edging.
Access decides how the work is done. A garden reachable only through the house, or down a narrow side passage, means everything travels by barrow and by hand. That affects excavation, the delivery of aggregate and topsoil, and the removal of spoil, which is heavier and bulkier than most people expect once it is out of the ground. Mentioning access at the start avoids a quote that has to be revised on the first morning.
Match the planting to the conditions you have
Once you know your soil and your light, planting becomes straightforward, because you are choosing from the plants that want those conditions rather than fighting the ones that do not. A shady, damp corner and a dry, sunny bank are both easy to plant well and both punishing if planted from a wish list.
Two habits make new planting succeed. First, improve a whole area rather than a single hole: a rich pocket surrounded by unimproved clay becomes a sump that holds water around the roots. Second, plan for establishment rather than for the day it is finished. New planting and new turf both need consistent watering through their first season, and a garden specified with no thought about how it will be watered will look worse in a year than a plainer one that was.
- group plants by the conditions they want, not by appearance alone
- improve whole beds rather than individual planting holes
- plan how new planting and turf will be watered in year one
- leave room for the mature size, not the size in the pot
- decide what maintenance you will realistically do
Questions customers ask
Should I lay artificial grass over ground that gets waterlogged?
Not without dealing with the drainage first. Artificial grass is permeable, but it can only pass water into the ground beneath it, so laying it over ground that already holds water simply hides the problem and traps it under the surface. The base build-up is what makes it work, and on wet ground that usually means addressing where the water goes before anything is laid. If a quote for artificial grass over a boggy lawn does not mention drainage or base preparation, that is the question to ask.
What should I have ready before asking for a landscaping quote?
Rough dimensions of the garden, photographs from the house looking out and from the far end looking back, a note of how much the ground falls if you can tell, and a description of the access route. Say which existing features are staying and which are going, because removal and disposal are real work. It also helps enormously to say what you want the garden to do — somewhere to eat, somewhere for children, low maintenance — rather than only what you want it to look like.
Before anyone quotes, dig a couple of test holes, do the roll and drainage tests, photograph the garden from both ends and note the access route.
AMG Landscapes covers landscape gardening in Staines, along with turfing and artificial grass, driveways, paving and patios, fencing, bricklaying, pointing or cement work and restoration work.
Call 0800 654 6036 with those photographs and what you found in the test holes, and you will get a plan built around the ground you actually have.