How to Choose a Landscaping Company in Mid Sussex: 10 Questions to Ask

Garden building is unregulated. Anybody can quote for a retaining wall. The questions below take ten minutes and will tell you more than any set of testimonials.

The ten questions

• 1. Who designs it, and who builds it? A single accountable team avoids the gap where drawings get reinterpreted on site.
• 2. Can I visit a completed garden from three or more years ago? New work always looks good. Aged work tells the truth.
• 3. What is your public liability insurance, and can I see the certificate?
• 4. What sub-base and drainage specification are you allowing for? Vague answers here are the strongest warning sign in the trade.
• 5. Is the quote itemised? A single number for a whole garden cannot be compared with anything.
• 6. What is excluded? Waste removal, services, VAT, plant supply and reinstatement are the usual omissions.
• 7. What is the payment schedule? Staged payments against progress are normal; a large upfront deposit is not.
• 8. Who is my point of contact and how often will I hear from them?
• 9. What guarantee covers the hard landscaping, and what covers the planting?
• 10. What is your programme, and what happens if weather delays it?

Reading a quote properly

Two quotes for the same garden can differ by thirty per cent and both be honest - if one includes 200mm of compacted MOT and a designed drainage run and the other includes 75mm and a hope. Compare the specification, not the total.

Warning signs

• Pressure to decide this week for a discount.
• No written specification, only a price.
• Cash-only or unusually large deposits.
• No recent local references you can actually visit.
• A quote produced without anyone visiting the site.

What good looks like

A designer who asks about how you live before they talk about materials, a written specification you can hand to anyone, a programme with real dates, and a finished garden three years old that still looks like the photographs.