Garden Design: Cost or Investment?
I think that if you are going to spend money to transform your garden it should always be seen as an investment. How you look at that investment though will depend mostly on why you want to undertake a new garden design.
If the garden is attached to your forever home then your investment is in yourself (or yourselves), in creating a haven for the coming years. It should provide everything you want and be of a quality and finish that means that you won’t tire of it, that it will withstand the passage of time, and that it will still look great 20 years from now. Investing money in such a garden allows you to have the things that you want and to create interesting spaces that will develop logically over time. This is not a garden to to scrimp on and ensuring your budget matches you ambition and style is vitally important.
Of course your available budget is also key. However sage advice is to ensure your budget matches the quality of your house and the size of your garden - delaying your start date if necessary - to ensure that your garden is a reflection of your needs and sits beautifully against your home. Your investment in this case is in your own pleasure in the future - a garden in which you can be yourself, and somewhere you can love and be proud of.
For others though a garden, and its associated house, may not be where you intend to spend the rest of your life. In this case you need to carefully consider how long you will gain pleasure from it and how it will add value in the future. A garden design that works for you in the intervening years is still the most important factor but other considerations may need to be addressed.
For example, an internet search reveals many articles which generally tend to settle on a figure of 10% with regards the value a garden can add to a house when it comes time to sell up. However I’m always quite wary of this as a poorly thought through outdoor space will not add this much value, and one with significant features (garden rooms and seating areas for example) may add more.
What experience does show though is that a garden will add to the asking price of a house, a beautiful one will add more, and a well designed garden undoubtedly makes a property more saleable - resulting in less of a wait to sell once the For Sale board goes up (when compared with neighbouring properties without an attractive garden).
Finally if you see your garden as simply a cost then a professional garden design may not suit your needs. Instead your outdoor space may just need some additional landscaping to make it usable in the short to medium term. However if your garden is an essential part of your home (for now and however far into the future you may stay there) then a garden design is certainly a worthwhile investment.