How to improve your landscape design projects

Landscaping and landscape design should be one of the first things looked at when the house is at build stage. Why? So your clients have the funds to complete their project, fully.

“It’s often the eleventh hour and a lot of the budget has been consumed by the time builders come to their clients asking, ‘What do you want to do with landscaping?’,” Bunnings Trade Landscape Specialist, Vic, says. “Have that discussion at the start and put the funds aside.”

Vic brings a wealth of experience to her role with Bunnings Trade, moving into landscape design after considering a career as an architect and realising she loved the intricacies of getting a garden right. This led to her training as a landscape architect.

What is a Bunnings Trade Landscape Specialist?

As a Bunnings Trade Landscape specialist, Vic advises landscapers and their garden teams on everything from plant choices to equipment needed and so much more. She told us the key questions to make sure you understand your clients’ needs before starting the job, which cover:

Budgeting: Break down your client’s budget and work out where you can save money and get them maximum value.

Overall style: Sit down to work out their style, vision and what’s possible.

Maintenance levels: Confirm how much maintenance your client is willing to do to keep their garden neat and tidy.

Three key questions to ask your clients about their landscaping needs

Vic says three questions should be applied to any build.

1. What is the client’s budget?

“Budget is a huge part of dictating what can be done in terms of landscaping features,” Vic says. “That’s where you allow for the big-ticket items [like a pool, sauna or sports spaces], but it’s also where you can make decisions that will allow you to get them.”

A trellis with star jasmine, for example, is much cheaper than hedging, and if a client doesn’t need the garden to be perfect straight away, huge savings can be made in the planning.

“A mature tree might start anywhere from $150, but if it’s your client’s forever home and they can wait for young trees to grow, they can get the same plant as tube stock for $5 … that adds up.”

2. What is the client’s style?

“Is someone after a minimalist design or do they want to go plant-heavy?” Vic asks. “And will the look they want really work where the house is? For example, designing gardens for the 2025 season of The Block in Daylesford, Victoria, meant coastal or tropical plants would most likely not thrive.

“Coastal plants would suffer in the cold and take a lot longer to mature … if they did at all,” she says. “Location and climate go hand in hand, so they need to be realistic choices.”

Is your client a gardener?

“The next big question is how much time someone is prepared to put into maintaining and growing their garden,” Vic says. “Most people will say they want low-to-no maintenance, but that garden doesn’t exist. Native plants are great, especially when endemic to the region as they flourish and take care of themselves more easily over time, but every garden needs help. Ask how long [the client] is willing to stand there watering their yard and that will dictate how much irrigation you need to build into the plan.”

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