There are two routes to achieving your dream garden – you can either design it yourself, or employ someone qualified to do it for you. To help you decide which option to choose, here is our guide to the ins and outs of garden design

TRAIN TO BECOME A GARDEN DESIGNER
A course may help get you started and there are many to choose from. Covering virtually all aspects of garden design, planting and maintenance, you could spend a morning with the head gardener at a stately home for a few pounds, or spend £15,000 or more for a full-time, one-year diploma. When choosing, decide how much time you have for classes and private study, who the course is aimed at and whether that profile suits you.

Getting down to basics
Gardening is not just about design: in order to garden successfully, you need to know the basics, such as different soil types, which plants grow best where, and how and when to prune.

Adult education colleges nationwide offer modular, part-time introductory courses in specific aspects of gardening, such as trees and shrubs, design and planting, container gardening, fruit and vegetables, organic gardening, practical tasks, ponds and water features, lawns, landscape and design, and pests and diseases. You can select different aspects as a taster, building up credits before progressing to a higher level examination such as the Royal Horticultural Society Level 2 Certificate in Horticulture. This is a two-year part-time course in gardening, including elements of garden design, again, taught at many adult education colleges.

Looking at design
If you feel you know the basics, you may want a specific design course. There are a number of specialist (as well as adult education) colleges catering for different levels of experience. The Oxford College of Garden Design, for instance, offers a four-day garden design class, costing about £500. The KLC in London has a one-week introduction to garden design, costing £600, or a one-day workshop, costing £120. The Inchbald School of Design, also in London, runs a one-morning-a-week course for 12 weeks designed for students wanting to develop their own gardens; it costs £800.

If you can't attend college regularly, a correspondence course may be for you. The Horticultural Correspondence College has courses in Garden Landscape and Design Drawing (£420), and Garden Planting and Layout for beginners (£355). The English Gardening School and KLC also offer distance learning courses, which include longer projects and shorter exercises designed to be completed in 12 to 18 months with 12 hours or so study per week.

More advanced courses, for those wanting a career in garden design, rather than just to develop their own gardens, will cover not only design, but also surveying a site, drawing up plans, costing a garden, and briefing and overseeing contractors. Again, the choice is wide. Garden designer Andrew Wilson teaches a three-term, one-day a week garden design diploma at Merrist Wood near Guildford in Surrey; this costs £3,435. At the top of the tree is the Inchbald's full-time, one-year postgraduate garden design course, costing £18,500.

Doing it by computer
There are a number of DVDs giving basic information on gardening and garden design. On Your First Garden Made Easy (Summersdale Productions, £12.99), Toby Musgrave describes techniques needed to plant a border, lay a lawn or make an organic vegetable patch. Others (all available from Amazon) include The Great Gardening Tips in the World by Steve Brookes (Green Umbrella Productions, £12.99), Gardening DIY and General Care (Arts Magic Ltd, £10.99) and Create a Cottage Garden (Green Umbrella Productions, £9.99).

Or you may want to design your own garden using computer software. Certainly, in recent years, computer-aided design has become a required skill for most garden designers (even though many clients still prefer hand-drawn plans, which they believe are more personal). Some software packages on offer include Complete Gardens Plant Selector & Pruning Guide(£34.95). Recommended by Chris Bradshaw, it is a useful resource for beginners. The Garden Management System (£17.99) allows you to create your own personal garden reference book, with all your plant care notes in one place. At the top end of the scale is CS Garden Designer, a package costing £1,450 and probably only suitable for professionally trained designers. These three are all available from www.wildchicken.com.

This route is a complicated one, however, and it may be worth enrolling on a short computer-aided (CAD) course at a local adult education college, particularly if you want to discover more about two packages used by professionals – Vectorworks, a package allowing detailed design work, and SketchUp, which is a 3D modelling programme.

COMMISSIONING A GARDEN DESIGNER
You may have decided to get professional help to create your perfect garden, but if so, how do you find someone you can trust and work well with?

Where to look
The website of the Society of Garden Designers (www.sgd.org.uk) lists registered members who have all passed the Society's strict adjudication interview and have a minimum of two years' practical experience in garden design. They offer a professional service, including hard landscape and planting designs and costings for work, as well supervision of contractors.

Personal recommendation is another avenue, as are local plant nurseries, which often work closely with designers. It is also worth asking schools such as The English Gardening School, the Inchbald School of Design and KLC, to recommend recent graduates. As such, they will be less experienced and thus less expensive, but you will have the reassurance of knowing that they have been properly trained.
Never choose someone untrained: garden design is surprisingly costly and if water, lighting and hard landscaping are involved, potentially dangerous, too.

What to look for
Before interviewing a garden designer, think about how and when you want to use the garden and make a checklist of points for discussion. Consider whether you are just looking for help with revising a small border or whether you want a design involving expensive hard landscaping. In the former case, a newly-qualified designer whose style you admire may be adequate; in the latter, you will need a fully trained garden designer with experience of major projects.

Rosemary Alexander, of The English Gardening School, advises meeting at least three designers and looking closely at their portfolios. “As with an architect,” she says, “they must be in tune with what you want.” Are you looking for urban, traditional, cottage, modern prairie, or formal? Look closely at the type of gardens the designers have produced to see whether they are one-trick ponies, or whether they offer a range of styles. Spend time talking over the project with the designers to make sure that you will be happy working with them and that they listen to what you are actually saying about your garden choices.

Designing the garden is only part of a garden designer's job. Other aspects include hard landscape construction and the installation of water features and lighting. Ask for references and speak to previous clients about the relationship between designers and any contractors used. Did the designers supervise the work closely or were the clients drawn into monitoring the builders themselves?

Garden maintenance is another consideration. Find out whether the designer offers this service, or whether you are happy to do it yourself or employ a gardener. Although he does no hands-on after care himself, Andrew Wilson, for example, provides his clients with a maintenance calendar for the gardens he designs.

How much can I expect to pay?
It depends, of course, on what you are asking your garden designer to do. Andrew Fisher Tomlin, a member of the Society of Garden Designers, suggests that a border design, requiring half a day of a designer's time, will cost in the region of £200. For a complete garden scheme, a client can expect to pay £500 or £600 just for the drawings, with a structural and planting plan for the average garden costing £1,000 to £1,200. Andrew Wilson believes it is hard to complete a garden for under £5,000, once design, the price of materials and employing contractors are costed in. Many of the gardens he designs cost more than £20,000.

Be clear at the outset whether estimates given to you by the designer are just that or whether there are hidden costs likely to send the final price spiralling. You may find a company such as Modular Garden (www.modulargarden.com, 020 7619 0100) a reassuring prospect: it provides bespoke gardens from 4m by 4m to four acres, and handles all the design and construction at a pre-determined, fixed price.

TOP DESIGNERS' TIPS
Rosemary Alexander, founder of The English Gardening School, has designed gardens all over the world.
“Think about the architectural style of your house: house and garden should merge together, with everything in proportion.Interior colours used outside will create a harmonious effect. Take the surrounding landscape into account. In town, you may want to design a more introverted garden.But, in the country, play up a beautiful view, borrowing focal points, such as a church tower in the distance. Always go with the site conditions – it is no good trying to go against nature.”

Joe Swift, TV gardener, has been in garden landscaping for over 20 years and now runs a bespoke gardening business, Modular Garden (www.modulargarden.com or 020 7619 0100)
“Use bold geometry and just one or two surfaces, such as stone and lawn or gravel and deck. So often amateurs try to cram too many different elements into a small space. Think about what you see at eye level when you walk into a garden, and try and disguise your boundaries, particularly in towns. Cover an attractive fence with climbers or use meshes or willow screening to give an attractive illusion. Think of big brush strokes with your planting and use small trees, bamboo and large shrubs to give height, and two or three large, brightly planted containers to create impact in a small garden.”

Honor Sturley, inspired by working at Westonbirt Arboretum, took an HNC in garden design and set up her own business in Wiltshire in 1997. (www.honorsgardens.co.uk or 0870 887 0254)
“Look at your environment: test your soil, analyse your site and plant appropriately. Are there frost pockets? What direction is the prevailing wind? Where is the shade? Think of practicalities. Don't put your entertaining area at the far end of the garden. Make sure play areas for children are near the house where they can be seen. Create vistas throughout the garden, not just from the house. You need a series of views to lead you on into the different areas of the garden.”

Andrew Fisher Tomlin is a London-based garden designer, working throughout Europe. (www.fishertomlin.com or 020 8542 0683)
“Keep the underlying structure of your garden plan simple and don't use too many different materials. Do not just look at the planting plan you've drawn up: try to see the garden in 3D and consider the height of the trees, for instance. Brighten up a dark corner with a golden foliage plant or transform your garden by planting a tree.”

Andrew Wilson, former chairman of the Society of Garden Designers, teaches garden design as well as running his own Surrey-based business. (www.andrewwilsonassociates.co.uk or 01932 563613)
“Do not use more plants than you need: if you can create the effect you want with 20 species, why use 200? There is no such thing as a year-round garden: concentrate on having periods of climax in the garden.I'm a great believer that winter is bedtime which makes spring all the more dramatic. Accept that maintenance is an essential part of any garden. If you don't have time to support the maintenance (or can't afford someone to do it for you), don't even start developing the garden.”

Gay Wilson's career as a garden designer throughout the UK grew out of a lifelong love of plants. She concentrates on smaller gardens. (020 8788 0931)
“Consider when you spend time in the garden. You might, for instance, want to create an area for drinks in the evening if that's when you use it most. Putting in an upright, such as a tree or pergola in the foreground, gives an immediate focus, which then leads the eye on to the garden beyond, giving an illusion of distance in a small garden. Use materials from the surrounding area, such as local stone for steps and terraces, or pebbles from local rivers as ornamental features.”

Useful websites:
www.gardenforum.co.uk lists colleges offering garden design and horticulture courses round the country.
www.rhs.org.uk for details of the wide range of courses run by the Royal Horticultural Society.
www.cityandguilds.com for details of courses in horticulture and garden design.
www.nptc.org.uk for details of gardening courses and your local centre.

Colleges with courses in horticulture and design
Horticultural Correspondence College (www.hccollege.co.uk or 01225 816700)

The English Gardening School, Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Hospital Road, London SW3 4HS (www.englishgardeningschool.co.uk or 020 7352 4347). Courses including 10-week certificate course (beginning September 2007, £1,350); one-year, two-day a week diploma course in garden design (beginning 10 September 2007, £7,750); distance learning course (£395 plus postage); and a range of shorter courses on different aspects of gardening.

Inchbald School of Design, 22 Eccleston Square, London SW1 1PB (www.inchbald.co.uk or 020 7630 9011). Courses including full-time, three-term diploma (beginning September 2007, about £16,000); post-graduate full-time one-year garden design course (beginning September, 2007, about £18,500); and one-day a week, three-term garden design course (beginning September 2007, £5,400).

KLC, Unit 503, The Chambers, Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 0XF (www.klc.co.uk or 020 7376 3377). Courses including one-week introduction to garden design (26-30 March and 16-20 July 2007, £600); one-day workshop (28 March, 2007, £120); open learning diploma, £1,095); and full-time, one-year diploma (beginning September 2007, £15,863).

Merrist Wood, Worplesdon, Guildford, Surrey GU3 3PE (www.guildford.ac.uk or 01483 884000). Vast range of RHS, NTPC and other horticultural and garden design courses offered.Also offers a 10-week course, with two-hour evening sessions, in CAD (Computer aided design) for Garden Designers, £120.

Oxford College of Garden Design, Cotuit Hall, Pullens Lane, Headington, Oxford OX3 0DA (www.garden-design-courses.co.uk or 01491 628950). One-year two-day a week course in CAD (beginning September 2007, £1,250) and four-day garden design class (26-29 March, 14-17 May and 2-5 July 2007; c. £500).

Other useful details
Look on www.nationaltrust.org.uk for details of occasional gardening courses at properties nationwide.

Weston Park, Weston-under-Lizard, nr Shifnal, Shropshire TF11 8LE (www.weston-park.com or 01952 852104) for details of morning with the head gardener in April 2007. Walk round the gardens; acess to areas not normally seen by visitors; opportunity to ask about design, use of tools and garden maintenance. £25 including lunch.

Finding a designer
Society of Garden Designers, Katepura House, Ashfield Park Avenue, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire HR9 5AX (www.sgd.org.uk or 01989 566695). Invaluable website listing garden designers by area. Many have illustrated entries to give you an idea of recent projects undertaken and the style of their work.

Design Council (www.designcouncil.org.uk). A good site for designers with useful links.

Landscape Institute (www.l-i.org.uk). List of members with advice on appointing a landscape architect.

Useful books
The Book of Garden Plans by Andrew Wilson (Mitchell Beazley, 2004, £25)
The Essential Garden Design Workbook by Rosemary Alexander (Timber Press, 2004, £19.99)
Garden Design Bible by Tim Newbury (Hamlyn, 2004, £16.99)
The Handbook for Garden Designers by Rosemary Alexander (Cassell, 1994, £15.99)
Rosemary Verey's Garden Plans, pictures by Andrew Lawson (Frances Lincoln, 2002, £16.99)
The RHS Essential Garden Planning and Construction by Christopher Brickell (Mitchell Beazley, 2006, £16.99)

WORDS VANESSA BERRIDGE
ILLUSTRATION CAMILLA CHARNOCK
FEBRUARY 2007