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.
36 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 by project stage
Each checklist sits at the earliest point in a project where it becomes useful. Every checklist in this category appears in exactly one stage below.
Thinking it through
Before anything is committed — working out whether the idea suits you at all.
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.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.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.Wildlife and Habitat Questions →A preparation checklist for owners recording the wildlife and habitat already using an outdoor space, and the questions to raise before clearance or planting is designed.Inherited Retaining Structure →Preparation prompts for an owner who has inherited something holding ground: what records exist, who may still know, what the surface shows, and what to ask an engineer.Retaining Observation Record →How to keep a dated photographic record of retained ground from fixed viewpoints, describe what you see without diagnosing it, and write down in advance what would make you telephone somebody.Added Load Above Retaining →For the decision made years later with nobody present: parking, a spa, a raised bed, stacked material or a delivery above a retaining structure, and when to stop and ask.
Early planning
Gathering what you already know and shaping the project before drawings begin.
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 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.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.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.Sun and Shade Record →An observation checklist for owners building a dated record of where sun and shade fall outdoors, what casts each shadow and how the pattern shifts between seasons.Wind Exposure Questions →A questions checklist for owners recording how wind behaves across an outdoor space and preparing the shelter and structure questions that belong with qualified professionals.Soil Observation Record →A ground-recording checklist for owners noting what the soil across a plot looks like, feels like and does after rain, without opening ground nobody has checked.Existing Feature Record →An inventory checklist for owners recording every structure, surface and fitting already standing outdoors, its visible condition, and whether it is quietly doing a job.Buried Service Questions →A preparation checklist for owners gathering what is known about services beneath a garden, and framing the questions to ask before anybody digs or brings machinery in.Level Change Decisions →Decision prompts for owners settling which garden levels stay, which change, and what a level terrace would take from the rest of the plot before anyone commits it to paper.Retaining Discussion →Preparation for a conversation about holding ground back in a garden: what your layout would ask the slope to do, what stands above and below it, and which questions belong to an engineer.Steps and Ramp Questions →Questions to prepare before garden steps or a ramp are designed: who uses the level change, how it behaves in wet and dark, and what only a qualified professional can settle.Fence and Wall Decisions →Decision prompts for owners choosing a garden fence or wall: what the line actually has to do, how it meets the ground and the wind, and which parts need a professional or a neighbour.Gate and Entry Decisions →Decisions to settle before a garden gate or entrance is designed: what has to pass through, which way it swings, how it sits on falling ground and who needs a way in.Landscape Planting Brief →Preparation prompts for owners setting out what new planting has to do, the conditions it must tolerate, and which questions belong with a qualified horticultural professional.Noise and Screening Questions →A preparation checklist for owners recording where noise and overlooking actually come from, and the screening questions to raise before boundary or planting work is designed.Weather and Ground Phasing →How weather and ground conditions constrain the order of an outdoor project: what the site does when it is wet, what has to wait for a planting season, and what that rules out.
Brief & professionals
Writing the brief and preparing the conversations with qualified professionals.
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.Landscape Scope Conversation →Prompts for owners drawing the edge of an outdoor project: where the work stops, what is excluded, who supplies what, and which responsibilities belong elsewhere.Landscape Contractor Talk →Prompts for owners preparing to talk to a landscaping contractor about how the site will be run, who comes and goes, and how changes and ground surprises get raised.Landscape Drawing Review →Prompts for owners about to read a garden layout: what the drawing shows, what it deliberately leaves out, and how to test it against the plot you already know.Garden Reinstatement →Settling in writing, before an extension or loft conversion starts, what the outdoor space is handed back as: the starting record, named planting, the access route, spoil and making good.
Before & during the work
Site logistics, coordination and the questions that arise once work is under way.
Landscape Maintenance Handover →Prompts for the end of an outdoor project: recording what was actually built and planted, and gathering upkeep information while the people who did the work are still reachable.No-Dig Zone Record →A record-and-hand-on checklist for the invisible ground behind a retaining structure: getting the extent written down, keeping it with the property, and turning it into a standing instruction.Weather-Paused Works →For the day an owner is asked to decide whether open groundwork continues in bad weather: what to photograph, what to ask about an exposed formation, and what each choice commits both sides to.
Go deeper
Related Build Design Hub guides
Explanatory guidance behind the decisions these checklists prepare you for.