ᐅ Setting Priorities in Landscaping. Should the entire garden be planned at once?
Created on: 1 May 2018 19:20
R
R.Hotzenplotz
Hi!
We are slowly but surely preparing to get in touch with landscape gardeners – they said that once the ground floor shell is complete, it’s worth meeting on-site.
I’ve read that, based on experience, around 18% of the construction costs should be budgeted for exterior works and the garden. For us, that would be in the six-figure range. However, we only have about €50,000 (around $55,000) available to start with. So priorities will have to be set.
From your point of view, what are things that should definitely be considered and implemented from the beginning? What can maybe be planned for mentally but realized at a later stage?
So far, we have only made rough plans and want to ask 2-3 landscape gardeners for proposals.
Here’s what we have in mind so far:
Front garden:
- Driveway and path to the front door with large stone slabs
- Two small trees in the front garden, maybe a maple and another variety
- Lawn
- Possibly two strips of bark mulch to the left and right of the front door path with small mushroom-shaped trees
Garden:
- Terrace
- Mostly lawn, few flower beds
- Possibly a hedge at the sides of the property; a fence maybe later
- Due to the property’s topography, possibly stairs leading from the terrace down into the garden
- A kind of seating area at the far end of the property
- Possibly a spot elsewhere for our loungers with some of those yellowish grasses around them (I think they are called pampas grass)
- We are thinking of a green pergola – but we’re not sure yet if it should be on the terrace or at the seating area
- I dream of a large tree in the garden, but I haven’t researched that properly yet and haven’t found the final solution with just a quick online search; it probably requires professional advice
- In the longer term, a swimming pool or a hot tub could be an option (but we have no technical information on that yet).
I think it’s important to give landscape gardeners clear instructions from the start.
Would it make sense to have the entire final garden planned and then implement it step by step?
I’m looking forward to some tips on how to approach planning and prioritization, and on how to best communicate with the landscape gardener.
Top priority is of course the access path at the front and probably the whole front garden, so that we don’t start many things in different places but end up finishing nothing.
We are slowly but surely preparing to get in touch with landscape gardeners – they said that once the ground floor shell is complete, it’s worth meeting on-site.
I’ve read that, based on experience, around 18% of the construction costs should be budgeted for exterior works and the garden. For us, that would be in the six-figure range. However, we only have about €50,000 (around $55,000) available to start with. So priorities will have to be set.
From your point of view, what are things that should definitely be considered and implemented from the beginning? What can maybe be planned for mentally but realized at a later stage?
So far, we have only made rough plans and want to ask 2-3 landscape gardeners for proposals.
Here’s what we have in mind so far:
Front garden:
- Driveway and path to the front door with large stone slabs
- Two small trees in the front garden, maybe a maple and another variety
- Lawn
- Possibly two strips of bark mulch to the left and right of the front door path with small mushroom-shaped trees
Garden:
- Terrace
- Mostly lawn, few flower beds
- Possibly a hedge at the sides of the property; a fence maybe later
- Due to the property’s topography, possibly stairs leading from the terrace down into the garden
- A kind of seating area at the far end of the property
- Possibly a spot elsewhere for our loungers with some of those yellowish grasses around them (I think they are called pampas grass)
- We are thinking of a green pergola – but we’re not sure yet if it should be on the terrace or at the seating area
- I dream of a large tree in the garden, but I haven’t researched that properly yet and haven’t found the final solution with just a quick online search; it probably requires professional advice
- In the longer term, a swimming pool or a hot tub could be an option (but we have no technical information on that yet).
I think it’s important to give landscape gardeners clear instructions from the start.
Would it make sense to have the entire final garden planned and then implement it step by step?
I’m looking forward to some tips on how to approach planning and prioritization, and on how to best communicate with the landscape gardener.
Top priority is of course the access path at the front and probably the whole front garden, so that we don’t start many things in different places but end up finishing nothing.
S
SilentGalaxy12 May 2018 21:40To be honest, I'm starting to wonder if this is just trolling. 100,000 (no imperial unit needed) wasn’t enough, it became 200,000 (no imperial unit needed), and there wasn’t even dense planting along the fence. And if this is for real, anyone who is foolish enough to pay 100,000 or 200,000 (no imperial units needed) to a landscape gardener and then doesn’t end up with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon is beyond help and should consider getting checked out.
What are your total construction costs? They really can get quite high. For a garden costing 100k or 200k, there must also be a house and a large double garage costing at least 400k on top of that, plus the land and all other expenses, right? Wow. Those amounts are really too high for me.
We have now spent just over 30k on the garden for 120m² (1300 sq ft) of paving, various walls, splash protection, and leveling with topsoil.
The terrace, lawn, and bushes will be done this spring with the money left over from the construction budget.
I guess others might be in a similar situation.
We have now spent just over 30k on the garden for 120m² (1300 sq ft) of paving, various walls, splash protection, and leveling with topsoil.
The terrace, lawn, and bushes will be done this spring with the money left over from the construction budget.
I guess others might be in a similar situation.
R
R.Hotzenplotz12 May 2018 22:44SilentGalaxy schrieb:
To be honest, I'm starting to wonder if this is just trolling. 100k wasn’t enough,The neighbors have invited me to come into their garden soon to discuss it in detail. I couldn’t see everything clearly through the fence. I only know they have about 1100m² (12,000 sq ft) of land, so quite a lot of space. It’s mostly stone, hardly any lawn. The whole area is spread over several levels. You can see something like terraced flower beds. During the construction, I noticed countless water pipes—probably irrigation hoses—laid throughout the garden. There’s also a water feature installed, which certainly wasn’t cheap. But as I said, I need to take a closer look to understand the details. I do believe it, though, as the house itself is absolutely top quality. High-end materials even on the exterior. Outdoor lighting on the building that is simply beautiful and flawless. The owner is a successful entrepreneur, and that shows in the house.
I don’t understand what is so unclear about the costs. Just Google, for example, Terwiege Garten. There you find projects with investment budgets presented. Looking at those budgets, it’s not trolling. There are small, unremarkable mini gardens listed at about €35,000, while a pretty large villa garden is shown with €250,000 — that property has a big plot and an elaborate water feature, but no luxury pool or anything like that. Just a nice garden.
You can also type “Was kostet ein Garten?” (what does a garden cost?) into Google and click on the fourth link from geldsparen.
They also say there that as a guideline you can calculate 12-18% of the building cost for the garden. So that puts it in line with what we’ve seen. I don’t really see the problem. For instance, we want a living pool in the medium term. That’s going to cost a lot. The lighting needs to be planned; irrigation might be desired... we’re still undecided about a stream feature... none of those things come for free. Even a nice tree can easily cost €2,000 or more—just the tree itself, that is.
That doesn’t lead anywhere... You can waste money everywhere, and in many areas you don’t immediately see where the money goes—especially in the garden, since you only see “the greenery” and the laid stones. But there is a lot of work behind it: terrain modeling, special stones, installed irrigation/lighting, and so on—it’s clearly expensive. If that’s something you want, fine. If you can’t or don’t want to do any of it yourself—well, that’s up to each person.
K
Knallkörper13 May 2018 00:06That may be true, but a few posts ago it was basically said: The neighbor has very little in their garden except for a water feature, not even enough for a few bushes, but it still cost 200k. So please...
We only got a tiny plot and spent 20k. On a large lot, I probably would have spent 50k as well. But for 200k, there really has to be something impressive! A bit of landscaping doesn’t cost much—a single hour with an excavator including the operator is very cheap, and even if you bring in 500 m³ (650 cubic yards) of topsoil, you’re still only in the low four-digit range.
Maybe not entirely comparable, but: I’ve just been involved in the landscaping of an industrial building. On an area of 20,000 m² (215,000 square feet), the site remnants were first removed, including storage areas and paved traffic zones. Roads, paths, and parking lots were constructed, drainage and irrigation systems installed, embankments built, hedges and trees planted, irrigation set up, lights installed, fences and gates erected. That cost about 200k!
We only got a tiny plot and spent 20k. On a large lot, I probably would have spent 50k as well. But for 200k, there really has to be something impressive! A bit of landscaping doesn’t cost much—a single hour with an excavator including the operator is very cheap, and even if you bring in 500 m³ (650 cubic yards) of topsoil, you’re still only in the low four-digit range.
Maybe not entirely comparable, but: I’ve just been involved in the landscaping of an industrial building. On an area of 20,000 m² (215,000 square feet), the site remnants were first removed, including storage areas and paved traffic zones. Roads, paths, and parking lots were constructed, drainage and irrigation systems installed, embankments built, hedges and trees planted, irrigation set up, lights installed, fences and gates erected. That cost about 200k!
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