Garden design during the Corona Virus pandemic

Garden design during a pandemic

Can I get my garden designed during the Corona Virus (Covid-19) pandemic?

Given that most of us are now going to be spending more time at home and in our gardens, many people will be realising the value of having a beautiful garden in their lives. With school closures, home working and more enforced leisure time happening, just at the time where places we normally go to keep fit and healthy such as gymn and health clubs are being closed, gardens provide the perfect opportunity to get outside, keep fit and healthy. We have written an article on the health and wellbeing benefits of gardens which are being increasingly recognised. I believe that this collective pausing of everyday life will also cause us to reflect and re-evaluate what is important to us. Amongst other things, I feel that people will come to appreciate, at a deeper level, the life enhancing effect of being surrounded by beauty and by nature.

How will we design gardens during this pandemic?

Given that a great deal of the design work is done remotely, and most work is done outside we don’t anticipate continuing to design and build gardens will pose any risk to our clients. The landscape industry is probably more fortunate than many as much of its supply chain involves working outside where the infection risk is much less.

We will be making the maximum use of technology to help us co-create our garden designs with our clients and incorporate social distancing into our ways of working – in the following ways:

1. We can visit your garden and keep our distance while you show us around. It may even be possible for you to let us in, we look round the garden on our own and take pictures as we normally would do, and then convene a separate discussion by phone or video call to discuss the brief
2. The survey would be conducted as normal, as the surveyor just needs access to the garden, but does not need to meet you
3. When we have completed the concept design we are able to send you a full 3D model of the proposed garden. Our design process has always been to create 3D models of the garden design, and we are now trained in software that allows us to create 3D animations and walk throughs that give you a realistic preview of how the garden might look. These video sequences will be accompanied by our usual ‘mood boards’ of proposed materials and example planting
4. Once you have reviewed your garden design, we can arrange a video call that allows us to share our screen with you and explain aspects of the design further if required
5. Once we have agreed the concept design we will create all the detailed garden design drawings needed to build the garden. To choose materials we will send you images of example materials within completed gardens. When you have browsed these image galleries we can arrange for suppliers to send you samples if necessary.
6. We will arrange as many video or telephone calls that may be needed to agree design details and the final budget.
7. Construction of the garden would then progress as normal

Our garden design process gives more detail on the steps involved in designing a garden.