This question is akin to ‘how long is a piece of string’ but you will soon be asked that self same question by anyone wanting to landscape their back yard.

The answer is never an easy one, as it all depends on what the individual wants to achieve.  For instance some people have a budget of around $1,000 and they want to get a good back yard out of it.  But they should recognize that a budget this small will probably not get them the garden of their dreams.

It goes without saying that the bigger the budget is, the more freedom you have to go for different ideas and more ambitious projects.  The amount that should be spent therefore depends on the end result you want to achieve.  It also depends on the state of the garden to begin with.

Let’s say for example you have a garden that is overgrown and has a very lumpy ground.  This will obviously need clearing and flattening down before you can even think about creating nice neat flowerbeds, installing a pond or water feature and laying the sod down to create a nice green lawn.

Compare that to a garden that is literally a blank canvas, with nothing to sort out first and a perfectly level ground to play with.  In the first situation you will need to allocate some funds to leveling off the ground and making it ready for whatever you are going to do with it.  So this will automatically mean you have to spend money to get to the same starting stage you’d be at in the second situation.

As you can see you need to think everything through carefully before you decide on a budget for landscaping, or before you help your client with a quote for the same.

In the end you can spend thousands of dollars on landscaping a garden but it all comes down to what the client can afford.  Some may have only a couple thousand dollars to spend, while others could have significantly more.  But whatever amount they settle on it needs to be within their budget and you need to make the most of the amount it is.

For instance they may want to have an outdoor fireplace installed as part of the landscaping procedure.  The design they would ideally want may be well outside of their budget, but you might find a way to scale it down that would bring it within their means.  This way they still get what they want but it fits in with what they can afford as well.

Deciding how much to spend on landscaping is always a tricky point.  It could also depend on how long the owner is intending to keep the property.  People on lower budgets could get the work completed in stages as they can afford it, to get the garden of their dreams.  Alternatively a quick makeover to help sell a property could be all that is required, meaning a lower budget will suffice.

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