Choosing your landscaper: the devil in the detail!

To garden designers and homeowners contemplating have contractors build them a water garden.

When I design gardens or plan out landscapes, I have in my mind a picture of perfection. It is not just something that has welled up from the depths of the imagination, it is tempered and thought through in practical steps backed up with the knowledge and experience of how all these elements of a garden or a landscape go together and will work with one another over a period of time. So I end up with a plan that I know will not only be achievable in reality, but will also be sustainable over a very long period of time. (Well that’s the theory anyway!)

Then you give it to your client or you submit it for tendering and more often than not the team that gives the cheapest quote is chosen. Why?!

After that the project goes ahead and if it doesn’t end up costing more by the end, either somebody is out of pocket or the final job is not as good as it could be. And should we be surprised? Because every project, if it is to be just right, and if it has been planned properly, will cost a ‘X’ amount.
If a landscaper decides to do it more cheaply than is practical, he is either ripping himself off or he is going to cut corners by using inferior products or employing quicker techniques. This is naturally an oversimplification, but in the economics of the real world where a big company uses the investment of machinery and can buy in bulk and get heavy discounts he may be able to make some savings over the little guys. But there is a law of diminishing returns in economics that kicks in at a very small business level. This is about smaller companies not having the overheads of big companies, so they can usually compete on many levels with larger businesses for quite large and intricate jobs. In the case of water gardens, where there is a heavy use of hard landscaping and expensive aquatic products, normally half of the expense is in materials and half labour (in the UK). This makes it even more important that the quality of the materials is more than matched by the quality of the labour. The size of the business is not relevant; it is the quality of the workmanship and getting it right that counts.

Therefore beware of that lowest quote. Look for the ‘devil in the detail’ or lack of it. Try to get to see what the contractor’s recent workmanship is like and try to talk to old clients and see if they are likely to recommend the contractor you have in mind.

On Water Gardener Magazine.com there is soon to be Directory of Landscapers that are particularly good at water gardens. If there is one that you think deserves to be on it, then please let us know……also if there is one in it that is possibly doubtful then please let us know.