Landscaping Cost Per Square Metre in Sussex, Surrey and Kent

Per square metre pricing is how most people try to compare quotes, and it is the least reliable number in landscaping. Two gardens of identical area on the same street can differ by a factor of three, because the cost lives in what is underneath the surface and how hard it is to get materials to it.

Guide ranges by element

• Quality porcelain or natural stone paving, properly laid on a full sub-base with drainage: generally around £180 to £320 per square metre.
• Hardwood or composite decking with a founded frame: generally around £200 to £350 per square metre.
• Turf and soil preparation: generally around £25 to £60 per square metre.
• Planted borders at proper densities with soil improvement: generally around £80 to £200 per square metre.
• Founded, drained retaining walls: usually priced per linear metre and by height, commonly £450 to £1,200 per linear metre.
• A whole-garden design and build, averaged across the plot: commonly £250 to £500 per square metre.

Please treat every figure here as an indicative guide range based on projects we have completed, not a quotation. The final price depends on access, ground conditions, levels, drainage and specification, and is only confirmed after a site visit.

What moves the number most

Access comes first. A garden a machine can reach costs far less than one where every tonne of stone and every tonne of spoil goes through the house by barrow. Then levels: sloping plots need retaining, steps and structural work before anything decorative happens. Then ground conditions: wet clay needs drainage and a deeper sub-base. Then trees, which restrict excavation. Material choice, which people assume dominates, is usually fourth or fifth on the list.

Why cheap quotes are cheap

When a quote is half of everyone else's, the saving is almost always in the ground: a thinner sub-base, no drainage, bedding paving on dabs of mortar rather than a full bed, no compaction, no membrane. None of it is visible on handover day and all of it surfaces within three winters as movement, staining and weeds. Ask any contractor to write down the sub-base depth, the bedding method and where water goes, and the difference between quotes becomes obvious.

Making a budget go further

• Spend the budget on ground, drainage and levels first and on material upgrades last.
• Reduce the hard landscaping area and increase the planting. It costs less and looks better in three years.
• Phase the work to a single design rather than building three unrelated gardens over a decade.
• Reuse excavated spoil on site for level changes instead of paying to remove it.
• Lay services, lighting and irrigation before surfaces go down, not after.