Iain Healey from Dig It Garden explains what plants and flowers you can use on a shoestring budget to create great outdoor spaces and Paul Baker from My Garden Design gave a complete guide on how to approach garden design properly and with a complete budget for everything you need.

Baker said a lot of misconceptions when it comes to garden design and landscaping is quiet a big problem now because a lot of people don’t know how much materials cost these days.

“I actually use technology to measure around the garden and give the customer the square metres there and then  give them a price heads up how much things cost. People get surprised when you email back and tell them it’s going to cost £15,000 when they actually though it would be £5,000 which can be a bit of the a pain and as you know, this industry is very much hands on.

Healey added that some of the most common mistakes when designing gardens for domestic builds comes down to watering. “If you plant in the summer months and are not keeping up with the watering, your plants are going to get burnt and will go to waste. I can tell you a funny story. I recently planted plants at a clients garden for £1,000. I appreciate it was low budget but when I visited to see the plants, I saw them dehydrated and I informed the client about this. Fortunately, I bumped into their parents and told them to inform their son to be on top of the watering.”

Remarking on landscaping, My Garden Design’s Paul said: “If you are doing a self building and once your plans have been approved, you need to talk to your architect and consult with a garden design and this is the layout of my new house and I want to design my garden around this area. It’s not advisable to do it too soon before works of your new build  or extension start simply because if there are any changes to the building, you also have to change the design and layout of your garden.”