Garden Designer and Plantswoman based in Hobart Tasmania
Welcome
Garden Design
I offer a full design service, starting from scratch or working with what you have. A full design can include: Organising a survey of the property if required. Conducting an extensive briefing with you to find out everything I need to know to design a garden that will meet your needs and expectations. Development of a sketch plan and colour concept plan. Hard Landscape plan so that you can construct the garden yourself or put out to tender. Planting Plan, Schedule, Soil Preparation, Planting Information and Maintenance guide.
Planting Design
You may already have the hard landscaping in place but need help with selecting and establishing the plants. I will identify your existing plants and help you decide what to keep and what needs to go. I will then select plants that will suit your site and tastes and rework the garden until it becomes a thing of beauty! This will usually include advice on soil improvement, weed management and mulching so that your plants will get off to a flying start and reduce maintenance.
As a teenager in Brisbane, Susan started collecting and propagating ferns and herbs at her large family home full of tropical and temperate plants, encouraged by her keen gardener parents and grandparents.
A Fine Art degree opened her eyes to visual language, colour, balance, shape and texture, which has helped her to develop a keen sense of spatial design and visual structure.
Moving to Melbourne in the early 1990’s, Susan discovered a whole new world of herbaceous, deciduous plants and her obsession with learning botanical Latin and plant identification took off on another level.
Settling in Hobart in 1997 to a large, empty block happily coincided with the emergence of the New Perennial movement coming out of Europe and some key books by Piet Oudolf, Noel Kingsbury and Beth Chatto opened her eyes to using herbaceous perennials and ornamental grasses in a flowing, naturalistic style, with an emphasis on texture and seasonal change.
Many years of collecting plants from specialist mail-order nurseries and learning to combine them in her own garden has developed a deep sense of naturalistic planting design and plant knowledge.
A Diploma in Garden Design and Cert III in Horticulture has formalised her years of observation and learning from gardening, reading and visiting gardens into a busy garden design practice where she now helps people achieve beautiful, individual gardens that sit perfectly in their environment and bring both biodiversity and joy to the many creatures that live in them, including the humans!
The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the extent and scope of your project, get to know each other, discuss the design process and view my portfolio. I will also offer lots of helpful suggestions and things you can do with your garden while you are waiting for a design.
I will then provide you with a detailed written quotation, based on your requirements and scope of the project.
The initial design consultation fee is $250, plus travel if out of town. This fee is waived on acceptance of the quote.
This consultation usually takes around 1.5 – 2 hours, on site.
LANDSCAPE DESIGN SERVICES
A full design service generally includes:
Site visits at each stage of the design (approx. 4-5 visits)
Once the survey has been conducted or plans provided, I will meet with you again to go over all of the aspects of your property, your wishlist, opportunities and restrictions that the property may have. We will discuss what you like and don’t like, what must be kept or removed. Types of materials and styles you like, access needs, practical considerations etc.
I will then present a hand drawn sketch which will describe initial design concepts for the property, so we can see if the proposed layout and features will work for you and ensure that I have captured your desires and requirements for you garden.
Hand coloured concept plan
Following agreement on the concept sketch I will then complete:
Hand coloured concept plan includes a visual depiction of the proposed garden, description of planting, materials, infrastructure and will give you a good sense of how the garden will be, once completed. It will be rendered in colour and will include plan views and elevations, if required, as well as images of materials, concepts and plants.
I will meet with you again onsite to discuss the Concept Plan and explore more detail about materials, planting styles, the landscape construction process, any practical requirements for example: irrigation, lighting etc.
Hard landscaping plan, which will show dimensions, materials, levels and design concepts in order to obtain quotes and to be constructed. It will include irrigation and lighting design as required. Some structural elements may need to be designed by appropriately qualified persons and may require council approval.
Contact list of suppliers, landscape contractors etc.
Planting Plan – All plants selected and shown on the plan.
Planting Schedule (list of all plants, numbers, where to source, maintenance), with image gallery of the plants, general maintenance guide and soil preparation advice, specific to your site.
Design fees can range from approx $2400 to $3800 for a residential block with front/back/side gardens. Each site is quoted individually and is determined by the complexity, size, number of features required (e.g. retaining walls, pergolas etc)
The design fee is calculated after the initial design consultation and is a set fee.
The design quotation does not include the survey fee.
A survey is usually required unless a comprehensive survey is already available.
My surveyor will provide a separate quote for the survey as required.
Susan McKinnon 