How much does landscaping a garden cost in London?

A plain-English guide from a working South East London landscaping team.

Short answer: a basic refresh of a small London terrace garden (lawn, planting, a tidy of an existing patio) is £4,500 to £8,500. A proper makeover with a new patio, walls, lawn and planting is £14,000 to £35,000. Adding a garden room takes you to £45,000 to £120,000+. Adding a built-in BBQ adds £8,000 to £25,000.

Those ranges are wide because the price depends on more than garden size. This post explains what actually drives a landscaping quote in London, and what you should check when comparing quotes.

What's in a typical garden quote

A good landscaping quote breaks down by element rather than by day rate. For a £25,000 garden makeover, a typical breakdown looks like:

• Strip-out and groundworks: £3,500 to £5,500
• New patio (30 sqm sandstone): £6,000 to £8,500
• Brick raised bed and edging: £2,500 to £4,000
• Lawn (40 sqm): £900 to £1,500
• Planting (200+ plants): £2,000 to £4,000
• Lighting: £1,200 to £2,500
• Skip, plant hire, waste disposal: £1,500 to £3,000

If a quote is £8,000 for the same job, someone is cutting corners — usually on the sub-base, the brickwork foundations, or the quality of the stone.

What actually drives the price

Six things, in order of how much they move the total.

1. Hard landscaping vs soft landscaping mix. Patios, walls, paths and built structures are 5-10x the cost per square metre of lawn and planting.

2. Material choice. Sawn London Yorkstone is roughly 3x the cost per sqm of Indian sandstone. Reclaimed London stocks are 2x new bricks.

3. Groundworks. Heavy clay soil in poor condition takes longer to dig out. Buried rubble means more skip runs.

4. Access. A garden you can drive a mini-digger into through a side passage costs less than one where every barrow has to come through the kitchen.

5. Structural work. A retaining wall is more than a freestanding wall. A wall over 1m needs engineer sign-off.

6. Extras. Lighting, irrigation, a built-in BBQ, a pergola, a garden room — all add tens of thousands depending on spec.

Typical prices by element

Patios and paving

• Lift and relay existing patio (15-25 sqm): £3,500 to £6,500
• New small patio (15-25 sqm), Indian sandstone: £4,500 to £8,500
• New medium patio (25-50 sqm), Indian sandstone: £8,000 to £14,000
• New medium patio (25-50 sqm), sawn Yorkstone: £14,000 to £24,000
• Side passage paving: £3,500 to £8,000
• Front garden paving: £6,500 to £15,000

Walls and structures

• Brick boundary wall (per metre run, up to 1.5m): £550 to £950
• Retaining wall (per sqm of wall face): £700 to £1,200
• Brick raised bed (per linear metre): £350 to £550
• Garden steps (per step): £400 to £750
• Rebuild Victorian wall (per metre run): £700 to £1,300

Garden rooms

• Small studio (8-12 sqm), basic spec: £25,000 to £40,000
• Garden office (12-18 sqm): £35,000 to £55,000
• Larger studio (18-25 sqm): £55,000 to £85,000
• With WC and kitchenette: £55,000 to £95,000
• Premium spec: £75,000 to £120,000+

Built-in BBQs and outdoor kitchens

• Built-in BBQ island (small): £4,500 to £8,500
• BBQ with side burner and fridge: £8,500 to £15,000
• Full outdoor kitchen: £14,000 to £28,000
• Premium outdoor kitchen: £25,000 to £55,000
• Modular pizza oven: £6,500 to £14,000

Whole-garden makeovers

For a typical 40-60 sqm Dulwich terrace garden:

• Tidy refresh: £4,500 to £8,500
• Replacement patio + new lawn + planting: £12,000 to £22,000
• Full makeover: £18,000 to £35,000
• Full makeover with garden room: £55,000 to £100,000
• Full makeover with garden room and outdoor kitchen: £70,000 to £150,000

For a bigger 80-150 sqm West Dulwich or Forest Hill garden:

• Full makeover: £35,000 to £80,000
• With garden room and BBQ: £80,000 to £180,000
• High-spec build with all the extras: £150,000 to £300,000+

Why some quotes are 40% lower

If you're getting quotes that are wildly different — £14,000 from one landscaper and £24,000 from another for the same scope — the difference is almost always in the groundworks. Common corners:

• No proper sub-base under paving (slabs sink within 3 years)
• Five-spot mortar bedding instead of full bed (slabs rock)
• No edge restraints (paving creeps outwards)
• No DPC under brick walls (bottom courses crumble)
• Shallow footings on walls (walls lean)
• Cheap stone or thin paving (cracks under furniture)

None of these show on day one. All of them show within five years.

How to compare quotes properly

Ask each landscaper the same four questions:

1. What's your sub-base spec? A good answer mentions Type 1 hardcore, depth in mm, and plate compaction.

2. What bedding mortar do you use? Full wet bed of 4:1 sharp sand and cement is a good answer. Spot bedding is a red flag.

3. What foundations are you putting under any walls? Concrete strip footing, depth in mm.

4. What's the breakdown by element? A proper quote breaks down patio, walls, lawn, planting, garden room separately.

What we charge

We quote fixed prices, not day rates. Every quote is written down, broken out by element, and includes everything — labour, materials, plant hire, skip, waste disposal, reinstatement of the access route.

Send us photos of the garden and we'll come back within 48 hours to arrange a site visit.