Advice · Costs & Budgeting
What Garden Landscaping Costs in the UK in 2026
Garden landscaping in the UK runs from around £80 per square metre for a straightforward refresh to £250 or more for a full redesign, and a whole-garden project can land anywhere from £4,000 to £12,500 and beyond. This guide breaks those numbers down honestly, with every figure taken from a published 2026 price guide.
Written by Jamie · KCO Landscapes & Clearance · Updated 2 September 2026
We're a small, family-run landscaping team in Waterlooville, and we quote fixed prices rather than day rates. The figures below are national guide prices, not our rate card, but they're the right starting point for planning a budget.
What does garden landscaping cost per square metre?
As a 2026 rule of thumb, budget £80 to £120 per square metre for a basic refresh, £120 to £180 for a mid-range upgrade, and £180 to £250 or more for a full redesign, according to BookaBuilderUK's 2026 landscaping guide. Single jobs cost less per metre than whole-garden schemes.
For individual jobs, MyJobQuote's landscaping guide, updated August 2026, breaks the common ones down:
| Job | UK guide price, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Basic garden refresh | £80 to £120 per m² |
| Mid-range garden makeover | £120 to £180 per m² |
| Full redesign (levels, drainage, paving) | £180 to £250+ per m² |
| New turf | £13 to £20 per m² |
| Artificial grass | £65 to £80 per m² |
| New patio | £80 to £120 per m² |
| New decking | £100 to £125 per m² |
How much does it cost to landscape a whole garden?
For a typical 50 square metre garden, BookaBuilderUK puts a basic refresh at £4,000 to £6,000, a mid-range upgrade at £6,000 to £9,000, and a full redesign at £9,000 to £12,500 or more. The same guide's worked budget splits a 50 square metre project into groundworks and drainage (£3,000 to £6,000), hard landscaping (£5,000 to £9,000), planting and turf (£1,500 to £3,500), and lighting and extras (£800 to £2,500).
Notice how much of that sits below the surface. Groundworks and drainage are rarely what people picture when they plan a garden, but they're what decides whether the visible parts still look right in five years.
How much do landscapers charge per day?
Published guides disagree, which is worth knowing before you compare quotes: MyJobQuote lists £110 to £180 a day (£30 to £60 an hour), while BookaBuilderUK puts landscaping teams at £180 to £300 per person per day outside London and £220 to £350 in London and the South East.
That spread is one reason we don't charge by the day. A fixed price for the whole job, agreed before work starts, means a slow week of rain is our problem rather than yours.
How much does it cost to landscape a small garden?
For a small garden of around 20 square metres, MyJobQuote's August 2026 figures put new turf at £260 to £400, a patio at £1,600 to £2,400 and decking at £2,000 to £2,500. Small gardens often cost more per square metre than large ones, because set-up and waste removal cost roughly the same however big the lawn is.
City gardens add an access factor: when every barrow of waste comes out through the house or a narrow side alley, the same job takes longer. It's normal work for us across Portsmouth's terraces, and the quote accounts for it up front rather than as a surprise.
Is a garden landscaping cost calculator worth using?
As a first ballpark, yes; as a number to hold a landscaper to, no. A calculator multiplies your garden's area by an average rate, and the things that actually move the price (access, ground conditions, drainage, levels, and how much waste is coming out) are exactly the things it can't see.
The per-metre table above does the same job with less false precision. For a real number, get a fixed written quote from a site visit; ours are free and carry no obligation.
What makes landscaping cost more, or less?
The big movers are access (can a digger reach the garden, or is everything coming through the house?), ground conditions, drainage, and changes of level. Materials matter less than people expect: the difference between two slab choices is often smaller than the difference between good and poor access.
Waste is the quiet cost. Everything you remove has to be carted away and disposed of, which is why a garden landscaping project that starts with a heavy garden clearance costs more than the same build on a clear plot.
How do I keep a garden makeover affordable?
Phase it. A bigger plan split into stages (clearance and groundworks first, then the build, then planting and finishing) spreads the cost across seasons without compromising the end result, because the expensive below-ground work is done once and done properly.
Keeping any hard landscaping that's still sound helps too. A patio that just needs repointing, or a fence line that needs two panels rather than a full run, is money that can go into the parts of the garden you'll actually notice.
If the garden's in Waterlooville, Portsmouth or anywhere nearby, the next step costs nothing: call 07813 073814 or send photos with the quote form and we'll give you a fixed price. You can see what our work looks like on the garden landscaping page and in our photo gallery.
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