Landscaping in Aylesbury
Whole-garden builds — levels, retaining walls, steps, raised beds, lawns and terraces — for people who want the garden sorted properly once rather than patched every few years.
Turfing
£18–£35 / m²
Includes preparation and topsoil where needed.
Artificial grass
£55–£95 / m²
On a permeable compacted sub-base.
Retaining walls
£350–£700 / linear m
Depends on height, material and drainage behind.
Every figure is a range. A whole-garden build is quoted as one fixed price with the elements itemised. How our pricing works →
If you're working to a budget
Whole-garden work can be phased: get the levels, retaining and drainage right first, and add the soft landscaping later. On the hard surfaces themselves, the cheaper choices are gravel and tarmac.
When a full landscaping job is the right call
When it's the right choice
- The garden slopes and you're currently only using a third of it. Terracing changes what the space is worth to you.
- You're already committing to a patio — the retaining, steps and levels around it cost far less done in the same visit.
- You want structure that lasts: rendered or brick retaining walls, built-in lighting, proper edging rather than timber that rots.
- You've had an extension and the garden has been left as a building site with made-up ground.
When it isn't — say so and pick something else
- You only need one element — a patio, or turf on flat ground. Don't buy a whole-garden project to get it; ask us for that one thing.
- You're planning to move within a year or two. A garden rarely returns its full cost at sale. A tidy, well-finished smaller job usually does better.
- The budget only stretches to doing everything thinly. A half-depth base under a big terrace is worse value than a smaller terrace built right.
- The real problem is drainage or a wet garden. That's a groundworks job first — landscaping over standing water just hides it for one season.
How we build a garden
Levels first. We set out the finished heights of every terrace, step and lawn before we move a barrow of soil, because everything else — wall heights, step risers, how the terrace meets the door threshold — follows from that.
Retaining walls are built on a concrete footing with drainage and a free-draining backfill behind them, so water isn't left pressing on the back of the wall. Where lighting is inset into a render finish, the conduit goes in before the render, not chased in afterwards.
Lawns get the ground prepared and levelled, not turf rolled over lumps. See the full build sequence →
Gardens we've built
Five-year workmanship guarantee, sub-base included
Most guarantees quietly stop at the surface. Ours covers the part you can't see: the excavation depth, the membrane, the compacted sub-base, the falls and the edge restraints. If the ground work moves, we come back and put it right.
A fixed price before anyone starts digging
We measure, agree the build-up in writing and give you one price. It doesn't move unless you change what you've asked for, or unless we open the ground and find something nobody could have known was there — in which case we stop, show you, and agree the cost with you before we carry on.
Common questions about landscaping
How much does a full garden makeover cost?
It depends almost entirely on how much the levels have to change. A garden that needs terracing, retaining walls and drainage costs several times one that needs a patio, turf and beds on ground that's already flat. We price the elements separately so you can see where the money goes and drop or stage anything you want.
Can the work be done in stages?
Yes, and often it should be. The sensible order is groundworks and levels first, then hard landscaping, then planting and turf last. Splitting it that way lets you spread the cost without paying twice to redo something.
Turf or artificial grass?
Turf if you want a real lawn and are prepared to mow, water it in its first summer and accept it will be tired in a drought. Artificial grass if the area is heavily used, shaded, or you genuinely will not maintain it. Artificial grass needs a proper permeable sub-base — laid straight onto soil it goes lumpy and holds water.
Do retaining walls need building regulations approval?
Retaining walls are not generally covered by building regulations, but height, what they are holding back, boundaries and any structure nearby all matter, and a wall retaining significant height may need designing. Walls over one metre next to a highway, or over two metres elsewhere, can need planning permission. We'll flag it if we think your job is in that territory rather than build first and hope.
How long does a full garden take?
Two to five weeks is typical for a whole-garden build, and it is not continuous surface work — a large part of it is excavation, levels, drainage and walls before anything visible happens. We'll give you a sequence with the quote.
Do you plant as well?
We build the structure: levels, walls, steps, beds, edging, turf and surfaces. We can plant up beds as part of the job. For a designed planting scheme we'd rather work alongside a planting designer than pretend to be one.
Towns we cover
We're based in Aylesbury and work about ten miles around it.
- Aylesbury
- Bierton
- Stoke Mandeville
- Weston Turville
- Aston Clinton
- Wendover
- Waddesdon
- Wingrave
- Whitchurch
- Quainton
- Wing
- Haddenham