Questions we
are actually asked

A patio and planting refresh usually lands between €8,000 and €18,000. A whole-garden design and build is typically €25,000 to €70,000 depending on size, levels and how much structure is involved. Larger coastal and rural projects run beyond that. Our estimate tool gives you an indicative range in about a minute.

Design takes four to six weeks from survey to final drawings. Construction runs four to ten weeks for a typical domestic garden. Add two to three weeks if there are significant level changes, retaining structures or a garden room.

Yes, and most clients do. The design service stands alone — you get scaled drawings, a planting plan and a materials schedule, and you are free to build it with us, with another contractor, or in stages yourself.

Every developed design includes rendered views from the places you will actually stand — usually the kitchen door, the terrace and the far end of the garden. We would rather show you three honest views than one flattering one.

Usually. Mature trees, established hedging, good stone and sound walls are assets worth keeping, and we survey what is there before proposing to remove anything. A renovation is often better value than starting again.

Yes, as a designed scheme rather than a row of spike lights. It is low-voltage, zoned, and we come back after dark to aim and dim everything with you.

We do — in blockwork with porcelain or granite worktops, with power, water and waste run and certified properly. We site them around the prevailing wind so the smoke does not end up in the house.

Yes. Every planting scheme includes two years of establishment care, and we run weekly, fortnightly and monthly maintenance rounds. We also maintain gardens we did not build.

From a 40 m² courtyard to estates over an acre. Below about 40 m² the design fee stops making sense relative to the build, and we will tell you that rather than take the work.

Regularly. On new builds it is far cheaper to involve us before the ground is closed up — drainage, levels, ducting and access all get easier and nothing has to be dug up twice.

We supply everything, from Irish and Dutch nurseries we have used for years. You get the full plant schedule with sizes and quantities, so you can price it independently if you want to.

That is most of what we do. One contract, one programme and one person answerable from the first survey through to the lighting being commissioned.

Usually not, if it stays within the exempted development limits on floor area, height and distance from the boundary, and your site has not used up its allowance already. We check this at design stage and tell you plainly if a application is needed.

Irish weather is in the programme, not an excuse added to it. Groundworks stop in sustained heavy rain because working saturated ground ruins the sub-base. We plan around it and keep you informed rather than working badly to keep a date.

Partly. We protect access routes and keep one safe path to the house, but a live construction site is not a garden. Most clients find the disruption is real for three to four weeks in the middle of the programme.

A deposit to book the slot and order materials, then staged payments against completed phases, with a retention until snagging is signed off. Nothing is paid for work that has not been done.

Small self-contained pieces of work — a patio, a fence line, a planting scheme — yes. General handyman gardening, no; a maintenance contractor will serve you better and cheaper.

Usually, once we find where the water is actually coming from. That means checking levels across the whole site and the neighbours where relevant. Land drains and soakaways treat the symptom; getting the falls right treats the cause.

A lot of our work is coastal West Cork. Shelter planting goes in first and ornamental planting follows a season later, once there is something to shelter behind. Skipping that step is why most coastal planting fails.

Occasionally — deep shade under mature trees, a dog run, a roof terrace. Everywhere else real turf is cheaper, cooler and better for the garden, and we will say so.