A Guide To Outsourcing Garden Design

Paul Baker shares his top tips on outsourcing garden design.

Every landscaping project should have a good, well thought out garden design from the outset. It forms the basis of quote, your workflow documents, your health and safety strategy and most of your customer communications. But what if creating layout plans doesn’t come easily to you? When that’s the case, you’ll probably want to outsource garden design.

Avoiding The Potential Pitfalls Of Outsourcing Garden Design

For every new idea, there are always several niggling little mental barriers that discourage you from trying it. Perhaps you don’t entirely trust another person to get involved with your project, or you think they’ll disrupt your work flow. Or maybe you’d prefer to have complete control over the customer relationship. Are you worried about any possible time delays when you outsource work?will the third party deliver what you need when you need it? Or are you simply concerned about the extra cost?

I’m a landscaper, I’ve worked with some brilliant garden designers in my time. I’ve also been asked to build some impractical designs. Plus I’ve met my fair share of ‘interesting’ personalities. And I can quite understand why some landscapers are reluctant to outsource garden design. In fact it’s one of the reasons I started Holland Landscapes’ in-house garden design studio, Tapestry Design Studios.

I developed the My Garden Design service out of my own, personal desire to make life easier for my fellow landscapers. I wanted to eliminate all of the potential pitfalls of outsourcing good garden design.

Cost Of Outsourcing Garden Design

Yes there is a cost to outsourcing garden design. But there’s also a cost to NOT delegating this crucial part of the garden makeover process. Think time management, stress, buying or renting software, not being on site to supervise current jobs etc etc etc.

At My Garden Design, our pricing is transparent and I think, very reasonably priced. How you pass that cost on to your client is entirely up to you. There’s room within the pricing for you to add a healthy margin to cover the time you spend gathering information. And you could either charge separately for the design, or include it in the price of your design and build service.

Trusting Your Garden Design Service

I’ve mentioned before that there are some brilliant garden designers out there, and also some that are less experienced and more likely to make rookie mistakes. My Garden Design has a built in buffer against mistakes. 

Every single one of the garden designers involved with My Garden Design has been personally vetted by myself. Their designs are imaginative, and inspirational but also sensible and buildable. As an added layer of security for MGD Customers, I double check every plan from a landscaper’s perspective before it is submitted for your approval. 

I’ll make sure that the plan meets the brief and that it’s buildable. Without knowing about your pricing structure, I’ll not be able to judge precisely whether or not the design is too ambitious for your client’s budget – but I can make an educated estimate.

Remember too, that the pricing structure for My Garden Design allows you and your client to request one design tweak before signing off the plan.

Turnaround Times For Outsourced Garden Design

How long do you normally spend on a garden design? And do you tot up how much that has cost you in terms of software costs, time spent off-site, time ‘stolen’ from your family and social life, physical and mental health, frustration, worry…the list goes on.

I understand how important it is to get plans back to a potential client within a reasonable time frame. And it can put enormous pressure on a landscaper to do that. Especially if they also need to be working on the tools, running the business, dealing with new enquiries and actually having a life outside of work.  That’s why MGD aims to get your designs done, dusted and emailed to you within 4 weeks of order confirmation. Very often we’re quicker than that, which means that you can surprise your client with their garden design earlier than they expected. Thus earning you plenty of brownie points.

When outsourcing garden designs services to My Garden Design YOUR brand identity will be part of the finished documents.

Managing The Client Relationship 

My Gran always used to say that too many cooks spoil the broth, and it’s true. When your clients have several points of contact during the design and build process, things can get confusing for them. Who should they call if they want to tweak the design or ask for a progress report? 

With My Garden Design’s unique setup, the garden designer works entirely from a design brief created by the client and the landscaper together. Clients can therefore be confident that their landscaper fully understands what they want to achieve with their garden. And they know who to contact about any aspect of their garden makeover.

Working with your client from the very beginning of the design and build process helps build a stronger, more resilient relationship. Which, as every landscaper knows is crucial when it comes to job satisfaction.

Managing The Team Dynamic

So much of landscaping is dependent on having a team that works like a well oiled machine. We’ve all been ‘carried’ through a boring task or a wet weather day by cameraderie and banter. Introducing a new team member can disrupt that dynamic, especially if that person doesn’t fully understand the workflow.

Now I won’t say a bad word about the garden designers who pop in from time to time to review progress. Especially if they bring coffee, cake, compliments, and a mind that wants to learn about landscaping techniques. 

However, I’m sure we’ve all dealt with designers who worry that things on site are not progressing as they should. Or even worse – upon seeing their design being brought to life, they change their mind about it. That sort of disruption can really upset the team dynamic.

When you work with My Garden Design you can be 100% sure that nobody from our organisation will be checking your work. I know that means no coffee or cake deliveries but hey, we all have to compromise somewhere.

Are You Thinking About Outsourcing Garden Design?

Here are my top tips

• Do your homework carefully, if you have worked with a garden designer before and respect their work, stick to who you know.
• Talk to your fellow landscapers. Which garden designers do they recommend, which to they think would be a poor match for your company?
• Look for a designer member of the APL or an accredited SGD member. You can be sure that they are highly qualified and know what landscapers need from a garden plan.
• Get a firm price for the work. 
• Make it clear who will be responsible for what when it comes to the client relationship and the project management.
• Keep it simple and keep clear records.

Reasons To Outsource To My Garden Design

• We work to your brief and your survey details.
• Designs carry your organisation’s logo and contact details, thus strengthening your brand image.
• Everything is online so that you have a clear paper trail. That includes the measurements you submit, the client brief, the prices and any email correspondence with us.
• Our designers work quickly and efficiently. 
• There’s no waiting list our designers start working on your project as soon as they receive  order confirmation.
• ALL of our designers are highly qualified and capable of creating imaginative and inspirational designs that can be built within budget.
• Garden designs are carefully scrutinised by an experienced landscaper before being emailed to you.
• Trade prices allow you to add a margin that cover your costs for gathering information and building the brief
• No confusion for your clients. They deal with you and only you.

Contact Paul Baker To Arrange A Free Demo Of The My Garden Design Platform

Discover why most landscapers will never be great at garden design