It's difficult to say. It depends on the size of your garden, how quickly you want it to look full of plants and established, and how much work you want to do yourself. The initial visit will be about 3 hours and will cost around £80 - £90. If you are happy to work from a sketch plan, and the ideas we discussed, then that is all the cost will be. For an outline design for a 'normal' sized garden (e.g. 3 bed house with fairly regular-shaped back garden), you are probably looking in the region of £250 to £550. If you would like your plan to include specific planting plans, then the cost is more towards the higher end. The price for the work will then depend on how much hard landscaping there is (which is fairly expensive), what size and variety of plants you include, and how much work you are going to do yourself. As I say, we design gardens to suit your budget and lifestyle. So, if your budget is £1000, we will design a £1000 garden!

In theory at any time of the year, apart from when the soil is frozen or waterlogged. Planting in summer is not ideal as you will have to keep a close eye on plants in case they dry out, but it can be done. Spring and autumn are best, so try and plan for then if possible. Bare rooted trees and shrubs are cheap to buy, but are small and can only be planted in winter when they are dormant.

Sorry to sound vague, but that depends on what you want! We can usually create a design for you within a few weeks of visiting your garden. How long it takes after that will be influenced by what you do. For example: Re-designing a bed with new plants would just take a few days, whereas a project that involve mini-diggers, moving top soil, laying turf, building walls or fences as well as planting are obviously going to take a lot longer. And be more expensive.

In a word, no. I work with a few reliable people who can do fencing, lay patios, build dry stone walls and so forth, so I can put you in touch with them. Or you may have a preferred contractor for that kind of work.

You don't, no. Knowing some Latin can be helpful in identifying plants, but it's not essential. I aim to explain everything in straightforward down to earth terms (there's a reason why this is my business name!). I may use a few technical terms, but just because it's habit and I'm happy to explain what they are, so you can use them too! I'll always bring along a few gardening books I like on the first visit so we can look at pictures of the plants we're talking about.

You are welcome to visit my garden and see examples of mixed borders, wildflowers, an attractive fruit and vegetable garden, a courtyard herb garden, informal lawns, a pond, as well as raised beds, dry stone walling, and patios. I can also show you copies of designs created for previous clients, and you can look at the gallery for more examples. For obvious reasons I can't take you to clients' private gardens though. If you happen to be in Ripley, Derbyshire, please have a look at All Saints' Church garden (on Mundy Street). It was one of my first designs!

I will look at any size gardens. Smaller gardens and courtyards are great because you can make a really big impact with quite a modest budget. I have created a courtyard-sized garden on an old greenhouse base measuring just 2.4m x 3.6m (that's about 8' by 12' in old money). Have a look at the gallery for pictures of it. I have also re-designed a large churchyard garden. My own garden is about an acre, and I have had diggers, tippers, tons of gravel and soil, and of course, plants to transform it.