Why Most Landscapers Will Never Be Great At Garden Design

Posted February 22, 2023

A thought provoking blog post about the wealth of talent within the landscape industry and whether or landscapers are as great at garden design as they are at building gardens.

Garden Design; I’m sure that all landscapers have had a crack at it during the course of their career. And to be fair some landscapers really are great at garden design. Others struggle to inject the wow factor that the many people associate with the word ‘designer’.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to sound harsh. It’s certainly not a crime to try to help a client out by drawing up a layout plan. If you are doing the work for nothing though, it’s not great business sense. It will cost you dearly in terms of your time….especially if you are not a natural born designer. And it sets a precedent. Soon all of your clients will be expecting you to design their gardens for nothing.

Why Is It That Most Landscapers Will Never Be Great At Garden Design?

It’s all about the wiring in those little grey cells. Some people are best at working with their hands, some are best at business management and others have a flair for design layouts or planting plans. Then there are those who can visualise how a garden might look – but struggle to present the design on paper (or on a screen) so that a client can see what is going to be built.

As far as I know, nobody has developed a medical test that can look at someone’s brain and know what they’re good at. Nevertheless, the only reason that human society is so sophisticated is that we all have different natural talents.

I guess it’s always been the case, right through history. People have naturally evolved to specialise in particular crafts of professions. Weavers, dyers, farmers, bakers, builders, butchers, healers, soldiers etc. Some of them will have followed in their parents’ footprints others will have been drawn to take up different roles in the community. But most will have been using their natural talents.

Is it wrong to try to do something that doesn’t come naturally in order to earn a bit of cash? Of course not. But it’s easier, and more profitable to stick to what you’re good at and let somebody else do the things you struggle with.

A gorgeous front garden layout designed by one of My Garden Design’s talented team

What Skills Make Somebody Good At Garden Design?

Communication skills – listening, interpreting, exchanging ideas and clarifying decisions.
Creative vision – being able to ‘picture’ how a garden could look.
Technical knowledge – for solving problems such as drainage, slopes, different soil types etc.
A good understanding of building regulations and planning restrictions for your area.
Horticultural knowledge – at the very least understanding what growing conditions are needed for the clients’ choice of planting style.
Computer skills – for creating the design.
Presentation skills – explaining the design to your client.
Selling skills – persuading somebody to buy a garden based on your design.
Patience and resilience – for when your design is not accepted straight away and you need to go away and make changes.
Product knowledge – being able to recommend the materials that will bring your design to life.
Time management and work-life balance. Being able to set aside the many hours it takes to create a garden design without impacting on family life, running the business and working on site.

Many of the landscapers I know can tick nearly all those boxes- but not everyone would be able to tick them all.

Landscapers Need Hard Skills, Garden Designers Need Creative Vision

Landscaping is all about using tools, materials and problem solving skills to bring a plan to life. 99% of the work involves hard skills. Skills that can be taught or learned. Those skills are easily proven. Either you can do the job properly or you can’t. Full stop. And if somebody makes a mistake on a landscaping job – it’s usually easy to see what’s gone wrong and how to fix it.

A good garden designer’s talent is not quite so easy to prove though. Yes, we can see whether or not they can take accurate measurements and make a scale drawing. But how about the va va voom that changes a drawing into a design? We can see it – but it’s intangible. We can’t touch it or measure it?

If a design is ‘wrong’ we’ll be able to see it’s not quite right, but we might be unsure how to change things for the better. Somehow, creative people add a bit more of a wow factor into a garden. Whether it’s coming up with an unexpected layout or recommending a bold planting scheme. Garden designers just have a way of making things different. Some landscapers can do that too, some can’t.

Leaving Garden Design To The Professional Garden Designers

It takes courage to admit your limitations. And whilst it’s good to learn new skills and get plenty of practice at them, sometimes it makes good business sense to delegate the tasks that you haven’t quite perfected. Most of the landscapers I know are flipping brilliant at building high spec gardens involving paving, timber, rendering, cladding, planting and goodness knows how many other skills sets. But whilst they can appreciate good design, they can’t quite do it themselves. Maybe it’s the computer software that frustrates them, maybe it’s lack of time or not enough headspace to focus on nothing but the design they’re working on. Most landscapers will never be great at garden design. They’re just not wired that way.

This post was designed to stimulate conversation, not to cause offence. If you disagree that most landscapers will never be great at garden design, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Head on over to the My Garden Design Facebook page where the discussion will likely be in full swing.

And if you think of yourself as someone who’ll never be great at garden design, take a look at our video to find out how My Garden Design can help you give the impression that your design and build landscaping service is second to none.