Landscape Professional Conversation Preparation Checklist

Ask plainly whether they design, construct, plant, maintain, or some combination of these, and which parts they would bring someone else in for.

The same word is used for very different offerings, and an owner who assumes one role is talking to another will be comparing nothing.

Ask whether a design they produce is intended to be built by anyone or only by their own team, and what someone else would need to work from it.

A drawing produced with one builder in mind can be difficult for another to work from, which limits your options later.

Ask who would select the planting, who would obtain it, and who would decide what to do when something specified is unavailable.

Plant selection and plant supply are separate tasks, and substitution decisions quietly change the character of a whole scheme.

Ask how the built elements and the planting are split between the parties involved, and where the boundary between them sits on the ground.

The join between paving and planting is where scope gaps usually appear, and it is easy to establish who is responsible before work starts.

Ask whether the person who produced the design would visit while the work is carried out, and what such a visit would actually cover.

Gardens drift from their drawing quickly once machinery is on site, and design presence is the usual reason they do not.

How the built elements have actually been carried out is for the party doing the construction and the relevant qualified professional, not for a design visit.

Ask which specialists a project like yours usually still needs, such as for level changes, drainage or anything involving power outside.

A garden project frequently needs an appointment nobody mentioned at the outset, and discovering that once the ground is open leaves you deciding under pressure.

Retaining elements, drainage connections and outdoor electrical work each require the relevant qualified professional, whatever the garden appointment covers.

Walk the plot marking every drain cover, gully and chamber lid you can find, including any hidden under gravel, decking or a shrub.

Covers indicate where drainage runs, and a lid that has been quietly paved over is a recurring source of trouble on site.

Record whether any shed, garage or outbuilding has power, water or anything else running to it, and write down whether you know how it gets there.

Buried supplies to outbuildings are often laid informally and their route is rarely recorded anywhere at all.

Never assume the route or depth of a buried supply — ask the relevant provider or a suitable specialist to establish it before any digging is planned.

Write down where an old shed base, pond, path or hard standing used to be, including anything a previous owner mentioned when you moved in.

Buried concrete changes what excavation involves and is far better mentioned now than discovered by a machine.

Note anything you already know about the ground, such as how hard it is to dig a planting hole, or what came out when a post was last put in.

An owner who has dug a hole knows something useful about the ground that no visual site visit will reveal.

Record whether the property has any private drainage arrangement rather than a mains connection, and write down what you know about where it sits.

Private arrangements impose real limits on what can be built or planted nearby, and they are easy to overlook until they are damaged.

Requirements around private drainage arrangements vary by location and are confirmed with your local authority and a qualified professional.

Look for signs that part of the garden has been built up or filled at some point, judging by level changes that do not match the surroundings.

Ground that was filled behaves differently from undisturbed ground, and flagging it early changes what a professional will want to look at.

Record where water stands after heavy rain and how long it lingers compared with the rest of the garden, without proposing a reason for it.

Standing water tells a professional where to look, and an owner's observation of it is more reliable than a walk round on a dry day.

Write down which way the ground appears to fall, and specifically whether it falls towards the house or away from it.

Which direction ground slopes near a building shapes what can sensibly be proposed there and is the first thing a professional will check.

Anything involving ground levels close to a building belongs with a qualified professional before any regrading is planned.

Trace where rainwater from the roof and any outbuilding actually ends up, including any pipe that simply discharges onto the ground.

Roof water is a large part of what a garden has to cope with, and its destination is often unknown until someone traces it.

Note whether water appears to arrive from a neighbouring plot or a higher piece of ground, based on what you have watched happen.

Water crossing a boundary changes the nature of the problem entirely and is worth raising before any solution is discussed.

Water arriving from land you do not own raises questions for your own legal adviser as well as for a qualified professional.

Write down any land drain, soakaway or channel you know exists, including anything a previous owner described but you have never seen.

Existing arrangements may be working, partly working or long since blocked, and even a vague account gives someone a starting point.

Write down which surfaces currently shed water rather than absorbing it, such as paving, a patio or a large shed roof.

Changing the balance of hard and planted surface changes where water goes, which is a question to raise rather than to answer yourself.

Walk the route from the street to the working area and note the narrowest point, whether that is a side gate, an alley or a doorway.

The narrowest point determines what equipment can reach the garden, which in turn shapes what is realistic to propose.

Establish whether the only route to the rear passes through the house or across a neighbour's land, and say so at the very start of any conversation.

A garden reached only through the house is a different project, and hearing it late invalidates whatever was being discussed.

Any route crossing land you do not own is a legal question for your own adviser, not an arrangement to settle informally at the fence.

Establish where soil and material dug out of the garden would go, where it would sit in the meantime, and how it would leave the property.

Excavated material is bulky and its removal is frequently underestimated by owners looking at a modest-sounding level change.

Look at where a vehicle could stop and for how much of the frontage, including whether stopping there would block a neighbour or a shared entrance.

Deliveries of heavy material need somewhere to stop, and a plot with nowhere obvious changes how the whole job gets organised.

List which surfaces would be crossed on the way in, such as a lawn, a drive or a patio you intend to keep, and ask how they would be protected.

Damage to a surface that was meant to stay is one of the more avoidable disputes in garden work.

Look up along the route and note any overhead cable, low branch or projecting structure that a loaded vehicle or machine would meet.

Overhead obstructions are consistently overlooked because owners survey their access at eye level.

Record the position of each significant tree on and beside the plot and record which side of the boundary the trunk appears to stand on.

Which side of the boundary a trunk stands on is the first thing anyone will ask about, and it is a question to put to your own legal adviser rather than settle at the fence.

Whether a tree may be pruned or removed is confirmed with your local authority, and anything involving a neighbour's tree involves your own legal adviser.

Mark the plants and shrubs you would genuinely be sorry to lose, physically on the ground if possible, before anyone walks the garden with you.

A plant that is marked survives a conversation about clearance far more reliably than one only mentioned in passing.

Write down what forms each boundary, whether fence, wall, hedge or nothing at all, and write down what you know about who maintains each one.

Boundary responsibility shapes what can be done at the edges, which is where garden schemes usually want to make changes.

Responsibility for a boundary structure is established from the title documents with your own legal adviser, not from local custom.

Point out where established planting sits close to a building, a wall or a paved area, and raise it as a question rather than as a concern you have diagnosed.

Proximity of planting to structures is a matter for a qualified professional, but an owner pointing it out early makes that assessment possible.

Describe which parts of the garden are dry, damp, windswept or permanently shaded, based on how plants have actually performed there.

Which plants have thrived and which have failed is real evidence about the conditions and is more useful than any general description.

Note anything that is spreading vigorously, coming through a boundary or reappearing after being cut back, without trying to identify it yourself.

Vigorous growth can change the nature of a project and needs identifying by someone competent rather than guessed at from a photograph.

Certain vigorous species carry particular local requirements — ask a suitably qualified professional to identify any plant you are unsure about.

Ask what new planting needs from you once it is in, and who is expected to do that watering and checking.

New planting depends on attention after installation, and the assumption that someone else is doing it is a common reason it fails.

Put the question of what happens if planting does not establish, and note exactly what they say rather than accepting a general reassurance.

Answers here vary enormously and the specifics matter more than the tone in which they are offered.

Ask whether anyone would return after the work is complete, what such a visit would cover, and how it would be arranged.

Whether there is any return arrangement at all is a real difference between offerings and is rarely stated unless asked.

Find out what you would be told about looking after what has been planted and built, and whether any of it reaches you in writing.

Written handover information lets whoever maintains the garden later understand what was intended rather than guessing.

Decide and record who in the household will actually look after the finished garden, and say so during the conversation.

A scheme designed without knowing who will look after it tends to drift into a quite different garden altogether.

Ask to be told and shown where anything has been buried during the work, such as a pipe, a duct or a cable route, and keep that note.

Nobody remembers where a duct was laid once it is covered, and the next person to dig will be grateful for the record.

Photograph each area that was discussed while standing where the conversation happened, so the note and the place stay connected.

Notes made while walking lose their reference point quickly, and a photograph restores it in a way that words rarely do.

Take a rough sketch of the plot with you and mark on it what was said about each area, rather than writing a continuous list.

A marked-up sketch is far easier to compare between conversations than paragraphs written after the event.

Note which questions each professional asked about drainage, access and existing planting, since the questions asked reveal how they think.

Someone who wants to know where the water goes before proposing anything is working in an order that tends to produce fewer surprises later.

Give every professional the same photographs, sketch and written notes, and record the date each set was handed over.

Different starting information produces different answers, and the difference then tells you nothing about the professionals themselves.

Write down anything a professional said they would not take on, and treat that as information rather than as an obstacle.

What someone declines to do frequently identifies the part of the project that needs a different specialist entirely.