Early Stage - Private Workshop

The Garden Direction

A focused, on-site half-day with Candice. Understand what is possible, what should happen first, and what can wait. You leave with a tailored direction for the garden and a clearer path forward.

You know it can be more.

For homeowners who know the garden is not working, but are not yet ready to move into a full design and construction process.

The Garden Direction gives scattered ideas a useful shape. Candice visits the property, looks closely at the land and listens to how you want to live outside. The resulting direction helps you decide what to pursue now and what to plan for later.

Service Type

Private Workshop

Service Scope

Site and Lifestyle Discovery

Timeline

1 Week

Availability

Clear Vision & Sketches

Understanding your needs

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Your needs

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Every commission is shaped around how a family lives, gathers and rests outdoors. Most gardens we design share these qualities

Structural Planning for Renovation & Remodeling

Family Life

The experience of the home can continue outside rather than stopping at the door. Practical requirements can become part of the design rather than things that need hiding later.

Personal Retreat

A personal garden that supports you to live outdoors rather than sit apart from it. Easy to live with, never generic and low maintenance.

Adaptability

Evolve and Adapt

The garden evolves from an unused space to a private family garden that supports growth and development, wellbeing and daily living.

Environmental Care

With a deep respect for the land and its environment and resources it provides us, we design a garden that grows with it than against it.

How it works

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Uncertainty becomes direction. Direction becomes design. Design becomes a garden you retreat into.

Before We Meet

We begin with you.

You complete a short Garden Life Brief and share any relevant drawings, photographs or inspiration material you already have. You do not need a finished brief. We use this information to arrive already understanding the important questions.

The Half-Day

We walk the property together.

We discuss what is not working, how you would like to live outside, and what you imagine the garden could give you. We look at the site carefully: the light, privacy, levels, views, architecture and existing landscape and begin identifying the strongest direction.

Your Garden Direction

We turn the conversation into a clear path forward.

Receive your tailored Garden Direction outlining the key design ideas, priorities, staging and indicative investment.

The Next Step

Continue now or a later moment

You may choose to keep the Garden Direction and return to the project when the timing is right. Or, if you are ready to create the garden in full, the natural next step is the Full Garden Commission.

Finished renovated living room with exposed brick and oak floor, with a handover folder and material samples in the foreground

Our Promise

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We stay with you and your property untiil you can say, this feels like ours.

Confidence before commitment

You will not be asked to move forward with a direction that does not reflect the agreed brief. We refine it until it does.

Ready to Build Clarity

Drawings that are drawn to high fidelity and detail. Where clarification is required, we remain available to explain the design.

Handover isn't goodbye

We stay connected as the garden establishes, with follow-up guidance over the following two years so the landscape has time to grow toward the vision.

Clarity you can work from

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Confidence before commitment. Before money is spent on individual pieces, you can see how movement, planting, future spaces and everyday life work together.

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Garden Direction

A clear written and visual point of view for the property in the form of a report.

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Spatial Priorities

The key areas to resolve and the relationships between them.

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Material and Planting Direction

An initial palette that complements the architecture and a considered direction for the mood, structure and character of the planting.

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Investment Roadmap

A practical framework for thinking about the scale and staging of the future project. We identify what can be deferred without compromising future work.

Inclusions

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From the first conversation to the final detail, our process brings structure, creativity, and close collaboration to every stage of your project.

01 Garden & Lifestyle Discovery

Understand what your garden could become. A private, half-day consultation on site with Candice, exploring how you live, what feels unresolved, the character of your home and the opportunities and constraints of your land.

02 A Curated Garden Direction

From scattered ideas to one considered vision. A personalised design direction outlining the garden's overall character, spatial opportunities, planting and material palette, and the key ideas that will bring the landscape together.

03 Your Next Chapter, Considered

Personalised guidance on how your garden can evolve over time, with an understanding of which decisions are worth making now and which can be thoughtfully reserved for the future. A garden that can grow with your home, your lifestyle and your changing needs.

You do not need to have the whole garden figured out.
You only need to know that it deserves more thought than it is getting now.

Enquire about the Garden Direction

Before we Begin.

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01 Do I need to know exactly what I want before booking a garden design consultation?

Not at all. Most clients begin with a feeling rather than a fully formed brief. You may know the garden feels exposed, underused or disconnected from the home without yet knowing what the answer should be. The Garden Direction is designed to bring those loose ideas into focus, shaping a clear direction around how you live, the architecture of the home and the conditions of the site.

02 Is the Garden Direction the same as a full garden design service?

No. The Garden Direction is an early-stage landscape design service intended to give you clarity before you commit to a full commission. It establishes the overall direction of the garden, the priorities, planting character, material language and likely investment pathway. Detailed garden design, planting documentation and builder-ready drawings are developed later through the Full Garden Commission. Offer Strategy

03 Does the Garden Direction include planting design?

It includes a considered planting direction rather than a detailed planting plan. We look at the overall structure, atmosphere, privacy, seasonality and type of planting most appropriate to the site. Detailed planting design, schedules and species selection are developed further where required as part of the Full Garden Commission.

04 What happens if I want to continue into a full landscape design after the Half-Day?

Most of the cost in a garden is spent in the ground, and decisions made in the wrong order are the most expensive to undo. A path relaid, a tree removed, a pool in the wrong place. The design fee is what ensures that investment is spent once, in the right order, with every element working toward the same result.

05 Can you look at a pool as part of the session?

Yes, where these elements influence the broader landscape direction. The Garden Direction can help identify how they should relate to the garden, what should be resolved early, and where specialist consultant input may be required.

06 Will you tell me exactly what construction will cost?

Not at this stage. Accurate construction pricing requires a resolved scope, detailed documentation, and contractor pricing. The Garden Direction is designed to give you investment clarity without creating a false sense of precision too early in the process.

07 What if we are still a year or two away from building?

That can be an ideal time to begin. Early landscape design can help identify the decisions that should be considered now and what can safely wait, particularly if you are planning a new build, renovation, pool, retaining, or significant changes to levels and access.

01 Do I need to know exactly what I want before booking a garden design consultation?

02 Is the Garden Direction the same as a full garden design service?

We work on high-end residential gardens, including new builds, complete garden transformations, planting-led projects and architect-designed homes. For clients who are still in the early stages, the Garden Direction Half-Day is a good place to begin before committing to a full commission.

03 How much should I expect to invest in my garden?

Professional design fees for the full Garden Commission differs for each project. Landscape construction investments typically begin from approximately $60,000 and increasing depending on the size, complexity, access, retaining, pools and material selections. For clients who are not ready for a full commission, the Garden Direction Half-Day is $1,850.