I would request a breakdown of the quote, and see where all the money is going. If the back patio is paved in fossil limestone for GBP 50,000.. perhaps look for a less expensive surface. How many hours of labor do they anticipate? Etc.
I have to say that 'award-winning' is an bit of alarm phrase for me. It doesn't much matter which field it is, people bandy the phrase around much too much. It doesn't actually mean anything. 'Award winning' novelists, chefs, poets, business leaders. Awards from the National Society of Royal Masters. Or in this case "Best Use of Marshalls Ethically Sourced Fairstone". (!) Seriously?
I also looked closely at some of the renovations and felt the before and after shots were rather deceptive having been taken from very different viewpoints. He also appeared to use the same design techniques across many projects and the finished look was a bit Bradstone-y.
Our back garden was completely redesigned a year ago and the total bill was just shy of £25,000. For that we got a horrendously overgrown herbaceous border about 120’ x 12’ cleared and turfed. An overgrown vegetable garden cleared and replaced with raised beds and a cottage garden area. This patch of ground was about 50’ x 15’. An old garden pond filled in and a new one, 15’ x 13’, dug and positioned further from the silver birch trees and finally, a three level terrace was built incorporating a large, top of the range summerhouse from Scott’s of Thrapston, a new path to the back door and to the garden shed, and wide steps connecting the various levels. The terrace is mostly paved in natural yorkstone plus original materials were reused and incorporated. The terrace area is irregularly shaped and, like all the garden, on an awkward slope but to say it is maybe 30’ x 25’ gives you an idea of the extent.
Every day from January to early March one worker was on site, sometimes two. The planting and minor additions were done over a few days about 6 weeks later. These pictures give an idea of what was done
The overgrown herbaceous border
Looking from the other direction, the border has been cleared
The area area is now turfed and the shot also shows the new pond. The old pond was adjacent to the magnolia tree on the left hand edge
I’ll track down some pictures of the terrace area and vegetable patch and post them separately.
lylaunicorn, you ask if anyone has spent that much. I think they probably haven't which is why no one has answered your question. I don't know anyone who has spent 15k or 25k let alone 70k on their garden. Years ago we paid for a builder to do our terracing and a garden firm to prepare the lawns and seed them, quite a big area, and we did the rest.
I agree with wild edges, you paid for the drawings. I would now get other quotes, maybe change the design a bit so the first designer can't complain about copyright.
PS When I wrote that I hadn't seen the post from Picidae above.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Thank you so much for the pictures picidae! Would you mind sharing the details of your garden designer? And thanks Ian for the advice to find a young gardener xx it definitely seems we've been taken in. As for what constitutes a 70k garden, we were told the raised beds alone would cost 15k due to being double walled and drainage but other than that we don't have an itemised breakdown.
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Our back garden was completely redesigned a year ago and the total bill was just shy of £25,000. For that we got a horrendously overgrown herbaceous border about 120’ x 12’ cleared and turfed. An overgrown vegetable garden cleared and replaced with raised beds and a cottage garden area. This patch of ground was about 50’ x 15’. An old garden pond filled in and a new one, 15’ x 13’, dug and positioned further from the silver birch trees and finally, a three level terrace was built incorporating a large, top of the range summerhouse from Scott’s of Thrapston, a new path to the back door and to the garden shed, and wide steps connecting the various levels. The terrace is mostly paved in natural yorkstone plus original materials were reused and incorporated. The terrace area is irregularly shaped and, like all the garden, on an awkward slope but to say it is maybe 30’ x 25’ gives you an idea of the extent.
Every day from January to early March one worker was on site, sometimes two. The planting and minor additions were done over a few days about 6 weeks later. These pictures give an idea of what was done
The overgrown herbaceous border
Looking from the other direction, the border has been cleared
The area area is now turfed and the shot also shows the new pond. The old pond was adjacent to the magnolia tree on the left hand edge
I’ll track down some pictures of the terrace area and vegetable patch and post them separately.
I agree with wild edges, you paid for the drawings. I would now get other quotes, maybe change the design a bit so the first designer can't complain about copyright.
PS When I wrote that I hadn't seen the post from Picidae above.
The old vegetable garden
Now with raised beds. The patch of ground below the gravelled area is a cottage garden about 15’ x 20’
The old path path to the back door
The same view after the landscapers had been in.
Again, I’ll add another post with more shots should people be interested.
Shots of the terrace area prior to renovation and the new summerhouse
And next are pictures after the terrace area has been built