Landscape Designer First-Meeting Preparation Checklist

Find any plan of the property you already hold, whether a deed plan, a sale drawing or a previous scheme, and bring it even if it is old.

An out-of-date drawing still tells a designer more about boundaries and buildings than any verbal description can.

Gather images of gardens you respond to, and write one line under each saying what specifically drew you to it.

Images alone are ambiguous, and the sentence explaining why is the part a designer can genuinely use.

Bring a few images of gardens that put you off, and note which single element in each one you would want to avoid here.

Dislikes tend to be specific and strongly held, so naming the offending element narrows the field faster than admiration does.

Take photographs of every part of the plot from several positions, including the awkward corners you would rather not show anyone.

The corner nobody photographs is usually where the real constraint on the design is sitting.

Gather any paperwork about the property that touches the outside, such as drainage records, earlier works or anything about boundaries.

Paperwork that seems irrelevant to you is often exactly what a designer needs before committing anything to a drawing.

Write a single page describing the household, who uses the garden and how, and hand it over rather than trying to say it all aloud.

A written page survives the meeting, whereas spoken detail rarely does.

Write down what actually happens in the garden across the year, including the dull things like drying laundry and storing bins.

Utility needs are the most commonly omitted part of a brief and the hardest of all to add back in later.

Note which parts of the garden are used daily, which are used occasionally, and which are never entered at all.

Areas nobody enters are either a design opportunity or a sign of something worth understanding first.

Say how many people the garden has to take at its busiest, and whether that is an ordinary evening or a rare occasion you could plan around differently.

Gardens designed for the rare gathering rather than the ordinary evening often end up working for neither.

Write down what you store outdoors now and what you would like to be able to store outdoors in future.

Storage is almost always underestimated and it determines the shape of the usable garden that remains.

Note who does the gardening, how much they enjoy it, and how that is likely to change over time.

The honest answer here changes planting, materials and the level of complexity that makes sense.

Consider whether pets, children or anyone with limited mobility uses the space, and describe how they move around it.

Design for particular access needs should be discussed with a qualified professional rather than assumed from a checklist.

Write down the outcomes you want in plain language, such as somewhere to sit in the morning sun or a screen from an overlooking window.

Outcome statements give a designer room to solve the problem, while naming a feature settles the answer prematurely.

Separate your list into things that must happen, things you would like, and things you are merely curious about.

Grouping in advance prevents a curiosity from being treated as a requirement for the rest of the project.

Name the one thing that would make the project feel worthwhile even if nothing else were ever done.

This single sentence is the most useful thing you can give a designer at a first meeting.

Write down what you do not want, including features you have been told are popular but have no interest in whatsoever.

Stating dislikes early saves everyone from a design round spent on something you were never going to accept.

Consider how long you expect to remain in the property, and say so, because it genuinely changes what makes sense.

A garden made for you and a garden made for whoever comes next are approached quite differently.

Note anything you have already decided and are not willing to revisit, and say so at the very start of the meeting.

Fixed points are useful information, and discovering them late wastes a design conversation.

Describe where the sun falls at different points of the day and how that shifts between seasons, as you have actually seen it.

A single visit shows one condition, and the designer has no way of reconstructing the rest without you.

Note where water stands after heavy rain, how long it takes to clear, and which corners never really dry out.

Water behaviour shapes almost every decision that follows, and it is invisible on a dry day.

Write down which parts of the plot are exposed to wind and which are sheltered, including where a gust funnels between buildings.

Exposure decides where anyone will willingly sit, and it is rarely obvious from a plan.

Note any noise, smell or activity that affects the space at particular times, such as a nearby road or a service yard.

These are the conditions that determine whether a seating area gets used, and they are easy to forget to mention.

Describe where frost lingers, where snow gathers, and which paths become unpleasant in poor weather.

Cold weather behaviour tends to reveal shade, drainage and exposure all at once.

Record anything odd you have noticed, such as an area where nothing grows or a soft patch, without concluding what it means.

Unexplained ground conditions can indicate something that needs proper assessment by a qualified professional.

Walk each boundary in turn and note what forms it, what condition it is in, and what you believe you own.

What you believe about boundary ownership should be confirmed against your title documents with a suitably qualified adviser.

Note which windows overlook the garden, from your own house and from neighbouring ones, and mark them on a sketch.

Being overlooked is one of the most common reasons a garden goes unused, and it is easy to map before designing.

Write down which views out you value and which you would rather block entirely.

Borrowed views are a real asset, and they are often lost to screening that was never questioned.

Record any structure standing on or against the boundary, including a neighbouring store, wall or planting.

Structures on the line constrain what can be built and often need discussion before a design is drawn.

Note any existing arrangement with a neighbour about access, a shared gate or a shared drain.

Shared access and shared drainage are legal and technical matters to confirm with the appropriate adviser and authority.

Consider whether anything you have in mind would be visible from a road or a public path, and flag it as something to confirm locally.

What is acceptable when a change is visible from outside the property is a local matter to confirm with the relevant authority.

Ask what stages the design work is divided into and what you would receive at the end of each one.

Knowing what arrives at each stage is what lets you tell whether the project is progressing as expected.

Ask what the designer needs from you before the next stage can start, and write that list down while you are there.

Projects usually stall on something the owner was supposed to supply and never realised.

Ask whether a measured survey of the plot is expected and who is responsible for arranging it.

A survey is usually the first practical step, and each side often assumes it is the other side that arranges it.

Ask how changes to the design are handled once the early stage is past, and what happens when a revision goes beyond what was originally agreed.

Change is normal in garden design, so it is better to understand the process than to discover it mid-project.

Ask whether the designer would be involved once work starts on site, and in what capacity if so.

The gap between a drawing and a built garden is where most disappointment lives, and involvement affects that directly.

Ask what they need to know about other professionals already involved, and tell them plainly who those people are.

Overlapping appointments cause confusion quickly unless everyone knows who else is in the picture.

Take notes during the meeting, and write down anything you were told to confirm locally rather than trusting it to memory.

Items to confirm locally are exactly the ones that resurface later as a problem nobody remembers discussing.

Write down each point where the answer was that it depends, and record precisely what it depends on.

Those conditional answers are usually the ones that matter most as the project develops.

Note anything the designer flagged as needing another professional, and who they said should look at it.

Referrals to other professionals should be followed up directly, since nothing said in a first meeting settles a technical question.

Send a short written summary of your understanding afterwards, and ask for corrections to anything you have misread.

A written summary exposes misunderstandings while they are still easy to put right.

Record what you agreed happens next, who does it, and what triggers the step after that.

Projects lose time in the gaps between stages far more often than during the work itself.

Note your own impression of how well you were listened to, since a long project depends heavily on that.

This is a subjective judgement, but it is the one owners most often say afterwards they should have trusted.