Joe Swift sells landscaped gardens like kitchens: at a fixed price with everything in working order, says Pattie Barron
GREAT, well-designed gardens that are accessible and affordable for all: this is Joe Swift’s vision for the future. You might have to forgo the shell grotto, but Swift, a prominent London garden designer who is even better known as a Gardener’s World presenter, says he can give you a basic but beautiful bespoke garden for £6,000.
It’s an encouraging concept for the future and one that will blow a chill wind through the doors of designers who are more used to charging by the hour – or by the paving stone.
“I don’t design posh people’s gardens anymore,” says Swift, whose design signature is strong, clean and contemporary. “It’s far more satisfying to open out garden design to people who don’t think they can afford it. In the past, our budgets would start at £15,000 or £20,000; now our average is £8,000 for landscape, plants and everything.”
In a business notorious for its high prices, which frequently escalate as the work progresses leaving clients wishing the whole lot could be paved over, with the landscaper; Swift has had a great wheeze, which is to keep the price fixed from the start. Instead of dictating a design, he – or one of his partners at Modular Garden, the company of which he is design director – lets the client set the budget (starting at £6,000, and rising in £1,000 jumps) and make the decisions.
“People should think of buying a
garden like buying a kitchen: you need to know that everything works and is in the best possible place for you. One of us brings a laptop presentation to the initial free consultation, and we build up layers of what the client wants, from planning to plants. We show them different garden styles, planting ideas and ask them practical questions about storage, washing lines, pets and whether they really are prepared to maintain the lawn they might want. It’s a kind of mini design course, which people quite enjoy.”
When the client is happy with the initial drawing and plans, they sign a contract, and the price is fixed. Everything has been decided ahead, so building the garden can often be done in days and not weeks.
The water feature, which seems compulsory to every TV garden makeover, should be the very last consideration, says Swift, “We are more concerned with good design components that are practical and look great. Like a car that you buy, you start with good basics, then you maybe add the leather interiors later.”
Although every garden is unique, urban gardens all share common problems, he points out. “Privacy is an issue we come up against every time. What is important is where the seating areas are placed, and which plants are used to surround them. Grasses and bamboos create a screen and a sense of intimacy, whereas Verbena bonariensis is like a lace of curtain you can peek through. And a pergola or awning might be another option if the space is not too shady.”
Boundaries, notably the ubiquitous garden fence, are another major consideration in London gardens. “Many gardeners make the mistake of planting low, so you look straight across at a bare fence. You need to use or lose boundaries. Think about what’s happening at eye level. That’s why I use bamboo so much, to obscure fences, introduce privacy, add height as well as movement.” Shade from surrounding buildings and trees need not be a restrictive factor, argues Swift. “Sometimes I have to persuade clients to give up their dreams of lavender drifts, but there are so many fabulous foliage plants that thrive in shade, like tree ferns, Fatsia, Pittosporum tobira and the silvery, spikey-leaved Astelia.
“I’m keen, too, on reversing the garden, and putting the patio at the end. It’s the sunniest spot in a north-facing garden, plus, it will ensure that people actually use all of the garden.”
At last it is accepted that a well-designed garden enhances a home and adds to its value, a point which has not escaped the big names in new homes – Laing, Berkeley, David Wilson, Higgins – all of whom have called in Swift’s company design fixed-price gardens for their schemes.
“Builders are finally understanding that a fence surrounding a patch of topsoil is not enough, and that what we all want – and expect – is a proper, well-designed garden,” says Swift.
