Michael Coley Garden Design

While we are happy with the final design of the garden, we were extremely unhappy with the whole process, especially the communication. After the second meeting, every single point of communication became extremely cumbersome. Every email needed at least one chaser (except, of course, the invoicing), and setting up a physical meeting was practically impossible, as Mike's work hours seemingly only fell between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. We are still waiting for some information from Mike (even though the garden was finished several weeks ago). We also think that Mike's service fell far short of the initial fee proposal. All we received were three initial ideas for the design and a planting list (which was just a simple list of RHS links). Mike is not a fan of giving options; we asked multiple times for more options (e.g., more plants to choose from, more fencing ideas, etc.), but most of the time we got nothing back. In the end, we had to do most of the research ourselves (e.g., we picked the lighting ourselves). Despite being part of the agreed fee proposal, we never received any 3D renderings, schedule of works, or other deliverables that were explicitly mentioned. Mike also never made designs for the front garden, despite it being part of the agreement. His project supervision consisted of two quick site visits, but the entire communication with the builders had to go through us. Sadly, everything went downhill after the first meeting, and we cannot recommend the service.

Mike did an amazing job helping us transform our garden. His designs and planting plans were fantastic, and he also recommended excellent contractors to carry out the work. We’re absolutely over the moon with the results.

Michael has wonderfully transformed our overgrown dumping ground of a garden into an oasis of calm, ready to enjoy the summer evenings. His approach was to listen, suggest, guide and challenge us over what we initially said we wanted. We couldn't be happier with the results, and would recommend Michael to anyone. He is visible, approachable, friendly and knowledgeable making him an ideal resource when trying to maximise the use of our back garden.

Mike was extremely good to work with; very open to discussion, listening to what we wanted, pushing back a little when needed, and communicating readily and easily. We have a small back garden that needed completely redoing - it had broken fences, sloped badly, and was covered in old astroturf. We wanted to create a usable outside space, with a covered seated area and lovely plantings. Mike's plan delivered above and beyond. We are very happy.

In short; Michael was great. We screened a few garden designers to overhaul our small, challenging London garden. After we met with four designers, it was clear Michael was a good fit for us. When planning the garden, he listened to exactly what we said. He gave us three designs to choose from, based on our detailed comments, wants and hopes. We chose one of these, as it was very much in line with what we'd hoped for and then-some. From there, we entered the building phase. Mike has a great network of builders, workmen, sources for plants and materials, furniture, etc. They dealt with everything. They were great to have in and out of our home for some time. Mike would check-in, respond to questions and issues. When it was done, we were very pleased, but it was hard to understand how great it was to be because gardens take time to grow. We have now had a full year+ of growth in the garden. It has far exceeded our hopes and expectations. It is absolutely beautiful. Not only did Michael take our initial thoughts, but he added to them and made something we simply couldn't have thought up. Michael is also very personable, warm, helpful and good. At every juncture, he was there, responsive and cheerful. We are thankful. I bet people like to feel badly about spending money on their gardens. We can confidently say that the money spent on this project was worth every penny. I'm glad we took Michael's guidance at all turns to meet our goals with this project. There is no way we could have done this by ourselves and it took Michael quite a lot of time and effort to get us there. We don't typically write reviews for anything, but in this case, Michael is someone we think is simply fantastic and would love for more people to get exposure to his fine work.