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Ardan
Ardan
Service Where every project starts

Garden design

Design is the cheapest part of a garden and the part that decides whether the rest is money well spent.

A timber-clad building cantilevered over a gravel garden set with boulders and grasses

We survey before we draw, draw before we price, and price before anyone lifts a spade. It is slower at the start and considerably faster afterwards.

The drawings are yours. Build them with us, with another contractor, or in stages yourself over a few summers — clients do all three, and we would rather you built a good garden slowly than a compromised one quickly.

What you receive

  • Scaled site plan and setting-out drawing
  • Construction sections for every hard surface
  • Planting plan with a full schedule
  • Lighting layout and circuit plan
  • Materials schedule with named suppliers
  • Rendered views from three positions

Design fee from

€1,850

Typical timescale

4–6 weeks

The design stages
  1. 01

    Site consultation

    Ninety minutes walking the garden with you. How you use it, what you dislike, what you have tried. No charge and no drawings yet.

  2. 02

    Measured survey

    Boundaries, levels, drainage runs, services, soil and the trees worth keeping — recorded properly so the design sits on facts.

  3. 03

    Concept design

    Two directions drawn to scale, with materials boards, planting character and an indicative cost for each.

  4. 04

    Material selection

    Samples in your hand and on site, seen wet and dry. Stone looks different in Cork rain than it does in a showroom.

  5. 05

    Planting plan

    Species, sizes and quantities, drawn in drifts with an evergreen structure so the garden still reads in February.

  6. 06

    Lighting layout

    Fittings, circuits and cable routes drawn alongside the garden plan, so ducting goes in before surfaces close.

  7. 07

    Visualisation

    Rendered views from where you will actually stand — the kitchen door, the terrace, the far end.

  8. 08

    Construction plan

    Setting-out dimensions, build-up sections and levels. Detailed enough that any competent contractor can price and build it.

Book a design consultation

Ninety minutes on site. No charge, no obligation.