How Much Does Garden Design Cost in Brighton & Hove? (2026 Price Guide)

If you've started dreaming about a new garden, the first question is usually the most uncomfortable one: what's this going to cost me?

It's a fair question — and a hard one to answer with a single number, because "garden design" can mean anything from a couple of hours of advice to a fully designed, built and planted outdoor room. So rather than give you a vague "it depends," this guide breaks down the real costs in 2026: what garden design actually involves, how designers charge, what you get at each price point, and why gardens in Brighton & Hove tend to sit at the higher end of national figures.

A quick note on the numbers below: the ranges are general UK market estimates drawn from trade-pricing sources (Checkatrade, MyJobQuote and similar). They're here to set expectations — not a quote. Every garden is different, and the only accurate figure is one based on your actual site. At Brunswick Landscapes we don't bill by the hour or leave you guessing: after an initial consultation, Ed gives you a clear fixed design fee, so you know exactly where you stand before committing to anything.

What garden design actually costs in 2026 (the honest ranges)

Broadly, there are two things you might be paying for, and it's worth being clear which one you mean:

• A design service — the plans, the vision, the drawings. Nationally this runs roughly £600–£4,500, with an average around £1,950 (estimate, MyJobQuote). A more design-led service (concept, detailed drawings, planting plans) is typically £1,500–£5,000 (estimate).
• A full design-and-build — design plus the actual construction and planting. This is a different order of magnitude, starting from around £10,000 and ranging anywhere from £5,000 to £50,000+ depending on size and ambition (estimate).

To put rough brackets on a complete design-and-build by garden size (general UK estimates, Checkatrade):

Garden size	Typical design-and-build range	Average
Small (under 100m²)	£5,000–£12,000	~£8,500
Medium (100–200m²)	£12,000–£20,000	~£16,000
Large / premium	£20,000–£50,000+	varies widely

These are national figures for context only — they're not our prices, and they're certainly not what any particular garden costs. Yours depends entirely on your site, your materials and your ambitions, which is exactly what the consultation is for.

A design-led garden in Hove — the considered layout, materials and planting are exactly what a design fee buys. See the St Heliers Avenue project →

Design-only vs design-and-build — which do you need?

If you've got a trusted builder, or you're happy to project-manage and phase the work yourself, a design-only service gives you the plans to work from. You pay for the thinking, then take the drawings to market — and you're genuinely free to do that; plenty of clients do.

If you'd rather one team take the whole thing from blank canvas to finished garden, that's design-and-build — and it's how most of our clients choose to work. The advantage is continuity: at Brunswick Landscapes, the same small in-house team handles everything from groundwork to final planting. No subcontractors, no handovers. Ed is on site through the build — designer and builder, not a project manager on the phone. That's why the finished garden actually matches the visuals: the people who designed it are the people building it.

How garden designers charge

There's no single industry standard, but fees usually take one of three shapes (general UK estimates, Checkatrade & Society of Garden Designers):

• Hourly — roughly £50–£200 per hour, averaging around £125/hr. Common for initial consultations and smaller advisory jobs.
• A percentage of the project — around 10% of total cost for design only, rising to around 20% for a fully designed and managed design-and-build.
• Staged fixed fees — a set price for each phase.

We keep it simple: a fixed design fee, agreed after the initial consultation — no hourly billing, no surprises. Budget is something Ed talks through openly at that first visit, so the design is grounded in what's actually achievable for you. Most clients find the design fee is comfortably offset by the efficiency it brings to the build — problems get solved on paper, not as expensive variations on site.

Built in-house from groundwork to finish in Hove Park — the craftsmanship a design-and-build budget pays for. See the Hove Park project →

What you get at each price point

This is where price stops being abstract. Broadly:

• Lower end (consultation / advice): an expert eye, a sense of what's possible, and direction you can act on. No detailed drawings.
• Mid (full design service): a proper brief, concept design, a material and planting palette, and the detailed drawings a builder needs to quote and build accurately.
• Higher end (design-and-build): all of the above, plus construction, planting and project management — a finished garden, not a folder of plans.

For context, a full Brunswick design pack includes a measured site survey, concept design, photorealistic 3D visualisations, a detailed planting plan, a full materials specification, a lighting plan and buildable construction drawings — everything needed to take a garden from idea to reality with nothing left to chance.

See it before it's built: the 3D visuals

One thing worth paying for specifically — and it's central to how we work — is 3D photorealistic visualisation. Every Brunswick design is presented as photorealistic 3D renders, built in professional CAD software, so you can walk through your future garden from multiple angles before a single stone is laid. Layout, materials, planting and even lighting are modelled to scale.

It sounds like a nice-to-have. It isn't — it's how you take the risk out of a big investment. You see exactly what you're getting and refine the details up front, rather than hoping it turns out the way you pictured. (You can see how our full design process works here.)

A refined garden on one of Hove's grandest avenues — local knowledge of access, levels and conditions is part of what you pay for. See the Grand Avenue project →

Why Brighton & Hove sits at the higher end (and what you're paying for)

If you compare local quotes to the national averages above, you'll often find Brighton & Hove running 20–40% higher (estimate). That's not a markup for the postcode — there are real reasons, and they're ones we deal with constantly:

• Access and logistics. Brighton's Victorian and Edwardian terraces, narrow side returns, basement gardens and tight parking make getting materials in (and spoil out) genuinely harder and slower than a suburban plot with a driveway.
• Levels and groundwork. Many local gardens are sloping or terraced — we've engineered usable terraces out of two-metre drops on Brighton hillsides and the edge of the South Downs. That structural work happens before anything beautiful goes in.
• Coastal and downland exposure. Salt-laden wind and exposed aspects mean planting and materials have to be chosen to last — something we plan for from the design stage on exposed sites.
• Skilled local trades. Labour rates in the South East are higher, and good landscapers who do precise, lasting work are in demand. We'd rather build something once, properly.

How to budget for your garden — an illustrative example

To make the numbers concrete (and to be clear: this is a hypothetical illustration, not a real project's cost):

Say you've got a 120m² garden in Hove and you want it fully designed and built — a new patio, reshaped levels, planting, lighting and a seating area. Using the medium-garden bracket above, you'd budget somewhere in the region of £12,000–£20,000 for a design-and-build of that scope (general estimate; your actual figure depends on materials and groundwork). Of that, the design portion — concept, drawings, planting plan and visuals — might be roughly 10–20%.

A sensible way to approach it:

1. Start with a consultation to pressure-test your ideas and budget before committing to anything.
2. Phase the work if budget is tight — get the design done as one piece, then build in stages (structure and hard landscaping first, planting later).
3. Spend where it lasts — groundwork, drainage and good hard landscaping are expensive to redo; that's where quality pays off.

For a real sense of what's possible across different budgets and garden sizes — from compact courtyards to large country plots — browse our recent projects. (We share the design, the materials and the results; what each client spent stays between us and them.)

Get a fixed quote for your Brighton or Hove garden

The honest truth is that the figures above will only ever get you to a ballpark. The accurate number comes from someone standing in your garden, understanding what you want, and giving you a clear fixed fee for the work.

If you'd like that — a proper conversation about your garden and a clear quote — get in touch or call us on 07951 727285. Every design begins with a visit to your property; Ed will talk through your ideas, the realistic budget, and how we'd approach it. You can also see how our design process works and browse recent projects.

Frequently asked questions

Is a garden designer worth the cost? For anything beyond a simple tidy-up, yes — a good design resolves expensive mistakes on paper, makes the most of a tricky space, and means the build is done once, properly. The design fee is usually a small fraction of the total project, and it protects the much larger build budget.

How much does a garden designer cost in the UK? As a general guide, design services run roughly £600–£4,500 (averaging around £1,950), with designers charging about £50–£200 per hour or 10–20% of the project cost (estimates). Brighton & Hove typically sits at the higher end. At Brunswick Landscapes we work to a fixed design fee agreed after your initial consultation — no hourly billing.

What's the difference between a garden designer and a landscaper? A designer creates the vision and the plans; a landscaper builds it. Our design-and-build service combines both, so the same in-house team is responsible from first sketch to finished garden — and you're also free to take the design to another contractor if you prefer.

Do I get to see the garden before it's built? Yes. Every design is presented as photorealistic 3D renders from multiple angles, with accurate planting, materials and lighting — so you can see and approve your garden before any work starts, which takes the risk out of a big investment.