Design · construct · maintain
Patios, paths, sleeper beds, retaining walls, turf and planting — the hard landscaping first, then the things that grow.
A garden that works is mostly decisions made in the right order. Levels before paving. Drainage before turf. Retaining before planting. Get that order wrong and you are lifting slabs in two years because the ground moved under them.
A lot of Southampton and Eastleigh gardens sit on clay, which shifts as it wets and dries, and a fair few of them slope more than the owner realises. That is why we dig test holes and set levels properly rather than laying straight onto whatever is there. It is the unglamorous half of the job and it is the half that decides whether the patio is still flat in five years.
We handle the whole thing — clearance, groundwork, hard landscaping, then planting and turf — so nothing waits on another trade turning up.
In detail
Whole-garden jobs where the layout changes: new levels, new terrace, beds moved, lawn reshaped. We will walk it with you and be honest about what the space can actually take. A big terrace in a small garden looks like a car park, and we would rather say so before you pay for it.
Indian sandstone, porcelain, riven and sawn stone, block paving. Laid on a full mortar bed on a compacted sub-base, not on five dabs of sand, with the falls set so the water runs away from the house rather than towards it. Porcelain in particular is unforgiving of a poor base, because it will not tolerate any movement at all, so it gets a proper one.
Treated timber sleepers, brick and block. On a sloping garden a retaining structure is doing real structural work: it is holding back tonnes of wet soil, and it needs drainage behind it and something solid underneath. Sleeper beds built straight onto soil with no base are the most common thing we get called back to rebuild.
New turf on a prepared base, or bringing a tired lawn back with scarifying, aeration, top dressing and feeding. On clay, aeration does more than anything else. Mowing and seasonal maintenance rounds available if you would rather not think about it again.
Plants chosen for the aspect and the soil they are actually going into. South-facing chalk near Winchester and heavy shaded clay in a Southampton back garden want completely different things. The fastest way to waste money on a garden is to buy plants that were never going to survive where you put them.
Automatic irrigation for beds, borders and pots, and drainage where the garden holds water. If you have a corner that is boggy all winter, that is a fixable problem and it is worth fixing before you turf over it.
Straight answer
On hard landscaping the materials are usually the smaller half. What moves the number: how much muck has to come out and how it gets out (a garden with side access only, wheelbarrowed to the front, is a different job to one a machine can reach), the levels, and whether anything structural is needed to hold a slope. We price the groundwork honestly rather than quoting low and finding problems later.
Get it priced properlyLandscaping questions
A patio on its own is usually a week. A full garden (clearance, levels, terrace, beds and turf) is more often three to four weeks. British weather is the variable nobody controls. You cannot lay slabs in standing water or turf onto frozen ground, so we build some slack into the timescale rather than promising a date we would then miss.
Usually not. Patios and paths at ground level are normally permitted development. It starts to matter if the deck or terrace is raised more than 300mm above ground level, if you are in a Conservation Area or a listed building, or if you are paving a front garden over five square metres with something non-permeable — that last one does need permission unless the water drains to a border or a soakaway. We will flag it if your job is near any of those lines.
Yes, and we are happy to build to someone else's drawing. We will read it properly first and raise anything that will not work on the ground — levels and drainage are the usual culprits, before we start rather than halfway through.
We board out the routes and protect what is staying. On a big job with poor access some wear is unavoidable, and we will tell you upfront if part of the lawn is going to need making good at the end rather than pretending otherwise.
Recent landscaping
Free quote
Tell us roughly what you need and we will come out, look at it properly and put a price in writing. No charge for the visit.
Where we work
Based in Southampton and out across the county most days of the week.
Not seeing your town? The list is where we normally work, not a boundary. Ring and ask.
023 8111 2905Tell us what needs doing and we will come and look at it. Free quote, in writing, no obligation at the end of it.
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