Garden Design That Turns a Scrappy Plot Into a Space You Love
Garden design in Burton upon Trent. Planting plans, patios, lawns & features — all handled. Free consultation. Call 5 Star Home Improvement to get started.
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What this service includes
- We provide a complete garden design and build service covering layout planning, hard landscaping, planting schemes, lawn installation, water features, and decorative lighting for domestic properties across Burton upon Trent and the surrounding villages.
- Our design consultation visits your property to assess the plot size, soil conditions, aspect, existing features worth retaining, and your personal priorities — whether that is a low-maintenance garden, a space for children to play, or an outdoor entertaining area.
- We produce a detailed concept plan showing the proposed layout, hard and soft landscaping elements, planting zones, and material choices, allowing you to visualise the finished garden before a single spade goes in the ground.
- Planting schemes are specified with real plant names, mature heights, flowering seasons, and maintenance requirements so you know exactly what you are getting — not vague references to 'mixed shrubs and perennials' that mean nothing in practice.
- Hard landscaping elements including patios, pathways, gravel beds, raised beds, steps, and retaining walls are all designed and installed by our own team to the same standards as our standalone patio and driveway services.
- Lawn installation is available as either turf or seed, with full soil preparation, screened topsoil where required, and advice on aftercare during the establishment period to ensure even germination and healthy coverage.
- Water features including self-contained millstone fountains, wildlife ponds, and raised formal pools can be incorporated into the design and connected to existing outdoor electrics or installed with a new armoured cable circuit.
- We specialise in low-maintenance garden transformations for busy households and older residents — designs that look considered and intentional year-round without requiring constant attention or specialist horticultural knowledge.
Why homeowners in Burton upon trent choose 5 Star Home Improvement
Specialist craft
This isn't a sideline for us — it's a service we do day in, day out across Burton upon trent.
Honest pricing
Fixed written quote up front. What you sign is what you pay. No surprise extras when we're halfway through.
Fully insured
Comprehensive public liability and workmanship cover on every job, no exceptions.
Tidy finish
Site cleared and swept before we leave. Skips arranged. Neighbours considered.
How we deliver this service
A clear, predictable process from first call to finished job.
Initial Consultation
We visit your Burton upon Trent garden for a free consultation to understand what you want the space to do, what you currently dislike about it, and what your realistic budget looks like. We ask about sun and shade patterns, any drainage issues, and whether you want to retain any existing trees, structures, or features. There is no hard sell and no obligation.
Concept Design
Based on the consultation, we produce a concept layout plan showing the proposed design in clear, plain terms — not architect's drawings filled with symbols, but a straightforward annotated plan you can read and respond to. We discuss this with you and revise until the design matches exactly what you want before any work is agreed.
Detailed Quote and Programme
Once the design is agreed, we produce a fully itemised written quote covering every element of the installation — excavation, materials, plants, turf, features, and labour — broken into phases so you can prioritise if budget requires it. We also give you a realistic programme showing the sequence and duration of work.
Site Clearance and Preparation
We clear the existing garden of all waste, unwanted plants, old structures, and rubbish before any new work begins. Ground is levelled or graded as required by the design, poor topsoil is removed and replaced where necessary, and any drainage work is completed at this stage before hard surfaces are laid.
Hard Landscaping Installation
Patios, pathways, raised beds, steps, walls, and edging are installed first in sequence, following the same rigorous methods we apply to our standalone patio and driveway services. Hard landscaping provides the structural framework that everything else sits within, so it has to be right before planting or turf goes down.
Soft Landscaping and Planting
Turf or seed is laid once all hard landscaping is complete and levels are final. Planting beds are prepared with topsoil and grit where drainage improvement is needed, and specified plants are planted at the correct depths and spacings for their mature size. We use nursery-grown stock, not garden centre leftovers.
Our work
A few recent garden design projects from across Burton upon trent.
Pricing guide
Garden design and landscaping in Burton upon Trent is priced per project rather than per square metre given the wide variation in scope. A modest makeover covering lawn, planting, and simple edging typically starts around £1,500–£3,500. A full redesign with patio, hard landscaping, planting, turf, and features for a 60–100m² garden generally ranges from £4,000 to £12,000 depending on material choices and design complexity. All prices are all-inclusive — materials, labour, waste clearance, and plants — quoted in full before work begins.
Common questions
Do you design and build, or just provide plans?
We design and build — that is the whole point of what we offer. We are not landscape architects who hand you a drawing and leave you to find contractors to carry it out. Our team takes the project from the initial garden visit through to the finished, planted, and turfed result. This means one point of contact, one contract, and no blame-shifting between a designer and a builder when something needs adjusting on site.
How long does a full garden redesign take in Burton upon Trent?
A complete garden transformation for a typical domestic plot — say 80–120m² — usually takes between five and ten working days on site, depending on the scope of hard landscaping and the complexity of the design. Larger plots with extensive paving, walling, or water features take longer. We give you a realistic programme at quote stage and keep you informed if anything changes due to weather or material lead times. We do not start jobs we cannot complete in a reasonable continuous run.
Can you design a garden that looks good but doesn't need much maintenance?
Absolutely — in fact most of our clients in Burton upon Trent specifically ask for this. Low-maintenance gardens use a combination of hard-wearing, easy-clean surfaces, slow-growing or ground-cover planting, mulched beds to suppress weeds, and well-chosen structural plants that require only occasional cutting back rather than regular deadheading or staking. We are honest about the fact that no garden is entirely zero-maintenance, but we can design spaces that need no more than two or three hours of attention per month in a normal growing season.
Can I combine garden design with your patio or fencing service?
Yes, and many clients do exactly that. We regularly carry out garden designs that incorporate a new patio, new fencing or trellis screening, and a lawn all within the same project. Using one contractor for all elements is more efficient, cheaper overall, and means there is no coordination required between separate trades. We treat combined projects as a single build programme and price each element transparently within the overall quote.
Do you work with a fixed budget?
Yes. Tell us your budget at the first consultation and we design to it. There is no point designing a garden that costs twice what you want to spend — it wastes your time and ours. If your budget is limited, we will prioritise the elements that make the most visual and practical difference and advise on phasing the remainder over time. We never produce a design specifically to pressure you into spending more than you intended.
Do you install water features and garden lighting?
Yes to both. We install self-contained water features including millstone fountains, spill bowls, and wildlife ponds as part of the garden design. For features requiring a mains power connection, we work with a registered electrician to install armoured cable and outdoor sockets safely and to regulation. Low-voltage LED garden lighting — path lights, uplighters, and deck lights — can be incorporated into the design and creates enormous impact in the evening for a relatively small addition to the overall cost.
What customers say about this service
★★★★★"Our back garden was an embarrassment — compacted clay, broken concrete, and a dying lawn. 5 Star turned it into something we actually use and enjoy. They kept the mature apple tree we asked to keep, built a sandstone patio off the kitchen doors, and planted exactly the low-maintenance scheme we discussed. The concept plan they produced was detailed enough to feel confident before we agreed anything."
★★★★★"We went with 5 Star for the whole package — patio, lawn, planting, and a millstone water feature. Having one team do everything made the process genuinely painless. The foreman flagged a drainage issue in the far corner before laying the turf and resolved it without additional charge. That kind of proactive honesty is rare. The garden looks like something out of a magazine and it's been that way since day one."
★★★★★"I was very specific about wanting a low-maintenance garden for a corner plot that always looked tidy. The design they produced was sensible and practical rather than showy. Native grasses, a gravel bed, and a clean porcelain path — nothing that needs constant attention. Eight months in and it still looks exactly as designed with virtually no work from me. Worth every penny."
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Areas we cover
From our base we regularly work across these towns and the surrounding villages.