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Checklists · Landscape

Landscape Project Planning Checklists

Outdoor projects are shaped by things that are easy to overlook indoors: levels, water, sun, access for machinery, and what the space has to do in each season. These checklists help you capture that before design starts.

Drainage, retaining structures, boundaries and any electrical work outdoors are professional and often regulated matters. Nothing here designs, approves or confirms compliance for any of them.

12 checklists in this category

What this area covers

Planning topics in this category

Each checklist prepares one specific conversation or decision point. None of them determines compliance, suitability or cost.

  • Site conditions and access to record
  • How the space will be used across the year
  • Boundaries and neighbouring-context questions
  • Questions for landscape designers and contractors

Checklists in this category

Browse the checklists

Every checklist is educational owner-side preparation: decisions to weigh, documents to gather and questions to bring to qualified professionals.

Landscape Brief Preparation →Preparation prompts for owners writing down what an outdoor space has to do, what should stay, how much upkeep is realistic, and which questions belong with a professional.Site Survey Information →A gathering checklist for owners collecting the plans, photographs, rough measurements and site observations a garden professional will ask for before any design work starts.Level and Slope Questions →Question-led prompts for owners recording how the ground falls across a garden, where levels change, and which of those observations must be handed to a qualified professional.Outdoor Works Access →Access-focused prompts for owners recording routes, pinch points, loading positions and waste removal before outdoor works are discussed with anyone who would carry them out.Outdoor Drainage Discussion →Observation prompts for owners recording where water actually goes in a garden, so that drainage can be discussed properly with a qualified professional rather than guessed at.Boundary and Neighbour Questions →Preparation prompts for owners recording boundary features, ownership questions and neighbouring issues before outdoor work anywhere near a shared line is discussed.Outdoor Lighting Discussion →Prepare for an outdoor lighting conversation by recording how the garden is used after dark, where power already runs, and what light would fall on neighbours.Landscape Material Decisions →Settle an outdoor material palette before anyone is briefed: what the plot already contributes, which material should dominate, and what to ask a supplier.Water and Irrigation Questions →Record how water already reaches and leaves the garden, what the planting would really ask for, and which supply, overflow and frost questions to raise.Existing Tree Questions →Document the trees, hedges and planting already on the plot, what they do across the year, and which root, boundary and protection questions to hand over.Landscape Phasing Decisions →A decision checklist for splitting an outdoor project into stages: what must come first, what only works while ground is open, and how a part-finished garden feels.Landscape Designer Meeting →Arrive at a first landscape design meeting with the papers, images and observations a designer needs, and leave with the conditional answers written down.

Go deeper

Related Build Design Hub guides

Explanatory guidance behind the decisions these checklists prepare you for.

Landscape Design guides →Explanatory landscape planning guides.Drainage & site planning →General background on site and water considerations.Privacy & boundaries →How boundary and privacy topics are usually approached.All checklist categories →Back to the full Project Planning Checklists library.