Common questions
Updated: 4 August 2026
Before we start
- At what stage of the build should we call you in?
- Three to six months before any groundwork, while the house is still being finished. That leaves time to settle terrace levels and bring water and power to the right places instead of redoing it later. Build already finished? We can still take it on; some of the decisions simply look different.
- How does the process run, and what follows what?
- An online conversation about your plot, then the contract and a 50% deposit, and after that the site survey. Then the design in blocks: layout, paving, lighting, planting. After that a trip to the nursery for plants, a cost estimate for the build and the build itself. At every step we name the next step and its date ourselves.
- Is autumn or winter too late?
- Quite the opposite: it is the best time to design. By spring you have a finished design and a slot in our crews’ schedule while everyone else is only starting. Cold bothers planting less than people assume: planting carries on through most of the season, and we have planted in December. Only groundwork really waits for warm weather.
- What if I want to build it myself or with my own contractors?
- That works too. We hand over the full design, explain the drawings and answer questions. In that case we do not take responsibility for how the garden turns out, and we say so up front.
- What happens after the garden is handed over?
- We do not disappear. That is a matter of principle. The first year of a garden is like the first year with a child: questions are normal, not a sign that something has gone wrong. The design includes a maintenance guide in plain language, and we show you the basics in person, on site. After that we stay in touch: usually a photograph and two messages are enough to work out what is happening to a plant.
- Can we see finished work?
- Yes: they are all on the Selected gardens: finished ones and the ones being built now. Some projects are still shown as concept drawings, and we add real photographs as we shoot them.
Money
- What does it cost and what is included?
- The design starts at 6,500 zł, and we give you a firm range for your plot after the first conversation. What is included and what moves the price are set out on the Price page.
- What makes up the full budget beyond the design?
- Labour, materials and plants. The estimate lists them as separate lines, with no "other costs". We give the full range once the design is finished, before the build starts: before the design an honest figure is impossible; after it, the figure is no longer a surprise. Benchmark figures for design fees are on the Price page.
- ChatGPT tells me something else. Who should I believe?
- Bring it and we will go through it calmly. AI has no real experience of the kind we and our crews have: it has not seen how a sapling from a particular nursery behaves on clay outside Warsaw. On top of that, NewsGuard audits show AI assistants repeating false claims in roughly a third of answers, which is why the assistants themselves tell you to check. We check contested points on the plot and explain why we decide the way we do.
- Why pay for a design if a crew can just plant?
- A crew works with what is at hand. The design pins the intent down on paper: a specification with the brand, model, quantity and price of every item, and a planting schedule with sizes. With drawings like that a contractor cannot swap a material or straighten out a curve, and the estimate is built from line items, not from words.
- What do plants cost?
- Mostly you pay for age. A young mountain pine is around 100 zł, a large one up to 1,000 zł. A maple a metre and a half tall is around 150 zł, a specimen maple up to 2,000 zł. A young hydrangea is 30–40 zł, a mature one up to 500 zł. In the design we balance the age of the planting against your budget and how fast you want the effect.
- What is a naturalistic garden and how is it different?
- It is a garden built as a stable plant community rather than as beds replanted every year. We choose perennials and ornamental grasses for your soil and light. They knit together over one to three seasons and then look after themselves, with no clipping to a straight line and less watering than a conventional lawn needs. It looks like a piece of nature that someone looks after rather than fights.
- Do you work in English?
- Yes. The first conversation, the concept and the full design can all run in English. Documentation for the building crew is prepared in Polish, so a local contractor builds from it without translation. We also work in Russian and Polish, and understand Ukrainian and Belarusian.
The garden and the plants
- Are you landscape designers?
- Yes. We are a landscape design studio specialising in naturalistic gardens: plenty of planting, strong structure, with the form set by the place and the house. What sets us apart from the classic scheme, where plants are placed like pieces of decor, is that we plant a resilient plant community, the way it works in nature. A garden like this asks for attention once or twice a season, and the years improve it rather than wear it out.
- Who buys the materials and plants?
- You buy; we manage the process with you. We give you an exact planting schedule and materials list with sizes and positions, compare offers from several nurseries and suppliers, come with you to look at samples and check quality on delivery. You pay suppliers directly and see every line, and buying does not turn into a tour of warehouses where there is nobody to talk to.
- There are already trees on the plot. Can you work with them?
- Usually yes. A mature tree is a ready-made structure to build the garden around. On site we decide what stays, what can be treated and what has to go.
- How do we screen off the neighbours?
- There are two routes and we show both. A fence gives you a screen the same day, but it is one more wall. Planting screens just as well and adds depth; it simply needs two or three seasons to fill out. Need it immediately? Then specimen trees or a hedge. More detail on the Approach page.
- What can we plant so winter is not empty?
- The winter framework is held by conifers (pines, yews, junipers), evergreen broadleaves (cherry laurel, evergreen euonymus, holly, rhododendrons) and grasses that stand until spring. We choose them for the site: light, soil and what you actually see from the windows in winter.
- Part of the plot is in shade. Is that a problem?
- No, it is a different zone. Ferns, astilbes and sedges are happy in shade, and there are shade-tolerant seed mixes for lawns. Shade suits a seating area: by a fire pit the cool air is welcome, and the spot comes into its own in the evening.
- What if I want to change something in the design?
- Once the concept is approved, one major change is on us. Further reworking is costed separately, so the design does not go round in circles. Small corrections go in as we work.
- I cannot read drawings. How will I understand the design?
- The design comes in two parts and you only need one of them. Your part: visuals and readable plans that show what the garden will be; we talk you through them together. The technical part: drawings, dimensions and schedules for the crews; that is their language and you do not need it. You can ask us to explain it simply as often as you like.
- How much maintenance does it need afterwards?
- Less than beds and a clipped lawn. Perennial planting is not replanted every year: you go in once or twice a season and edit it. Irrigation is always automatic. A maintenance guide comes with the design and we show the basics on site.
- Do we need an irrigation system?
- We put automatic irrigation into every design; it is not an optional extra. Lawns and young planting need watering regularly, and the garden should not depend on your calendar and holidays. Hand watering only gets you by as long as you are never away for more than two or three weeks.
- How do plants cope with frost?
- We protect them first by the choice of species: we plant what overwinters in the Polish climate without protection. Very little is left to do: shake off heavy snow and ice, water through a dry winter and screen conifers with netting in spring against sun scorch.
Working with us
- What changes if we have children and a dog?
- We design around them. We leave out species that are toxic to animals, and we keep anything brittle or easy to dig up away from the dog’s runs. The children’s area gets room to grow with them, so you are not rebuilding the garden five years from now. Atmosphere matters more than equipment: a child has to want to be there.
- Do you only work in Warsaw?
- Around Warsaw our own crews see the garden through to the end. Elsewhere we travel out and keep design supervision ourselves; local crews build, and travel is costed separately. We also design remotely from surveys, photographs and video calls, which is how the gardens outside Poland are built. The portfolio currently holds gardens near Warsaw and near Kraków, with projects under way near Gdańsk and Białystok.
- Where in Europe do you work?
- We design anywhere in Europe and build in Poland with our own crews. Outside Poland the design goes to a local crew and we stay on the project with design supervision: drawings, planting schedule and answers while the build runs. Documentation for the crew is prepared in Polish or English, whichever the site needs.
- Can the garden be built in stages?
- Yes, and it is a common route. You need the whole design first: it shows what to build in the first stage and what can wait, and the estimate splits into stages without rework. One rule holds: everything underground (irrigation, lighting and drainage) goes in before the lawn and the paving, so nothing finished has to be dug up later.
- How long does the design take?
- About two months, if approvals go smoothly.
- What about weeds?
- Dense planting is the best defence: over one to three seasons perennials knit together and shade the soil. We do not use landscape fabric: it leaves the soil dead, and weeds seed on top of it anyway. Bark mulch instead: the soil breathes, and the occasional weed pulls out easily by hand.
- What if the plants do not take?
- Honestly: we do not guarantee living things. A plant is not a tap. We are responsible for what we can control: the choice of plants for your soil and light, the planting technique, automatic irrigation from day one and the care through the first season. If a plant is lost, we name the cause and say plainly: replace the plant or change the spot.