Sample Forge site by Flow Forge — not a real business.
Skip to contentFree site visit within 30 miles of Kendal · Two-year guarantee on everything we lay
01539 725 118Garden design, hard landscaping and grounds care
A five-person crew working out of Staveley. We build in slate, stone and hardy planting chosen for wet ground, hard frost and a westerly that never really stops — not for how it looks in a catalogue in June.
Every job starts as a drawing. Here is one of them, built.
Landscaping in Cumbria is not a twelve-month free-for-all. Some jobs only work in certain months, and the good slots go early. This is what we are usually doing, and when it is worth ringing.
Most gardens need some of all three. We would rather do the drawing, the build and the upkeep than hand you over halfway.
A scaled plan and a planting list before anyone digs, so you are approving a garden rather than hoping.
The heavy end. Stone, levels and drainage — the parts that decide whether a garden lasts twenty years or five.
Regular visits on a fixed monthly figure, or a one-off rescue for a garden that has got away from someone.
These are the ranges we quote in, not a sales figure with the awkward bits left out. Cumbrian ground is rarely flat and never dry, so access, levels and muck-away move every one of them. Pick a job and a rough size and it will work out a range for you.
| Work | Unit | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Riven slate terrace Laid to falls on a full mortar bed | m² | £180–240 |
| Sandstone paving Sawn or riven, pointed and sealed | m² | £140–185 |
| Granite setts or permeable drive On a Type 3 sub-base, no planning needed | m² | £165–225 |
| Dry stone wall, rebuilt Taken down, stone sorted, re-coursed | m² of face | £230–300 |
| Dry stone wall, new Includes stone delivered to site | m² of face | £330–420 |
| Sleeper retaining wall Green oak or treated softwood | metre | £155–225 |
| Close-board fencing Concrete posts, 1.8m boards | metre | £95–135 |
| Turfing, ground prep included Rotovated, levelled, Cumbrian-grown turf | m² | £14–22 |
| Land drainage Perforated pipe, stone and geotextile | metre | £48–75 |
| Planted border Soil improved, planted, mulched | m² | £55–95 |
| Maintenance visit Two of us, half a day, everything taken away | visit | £170–190 |
| Design and planting plan Survey, scaled drawing and species list | garden | £480–1250 |
Ranges include labour, materials, waste and VAT. Anything with a digger, a crane or a party wall gets quoted properly.
Real jobs with real figures. Every one of these had something awkward about it, because they all do.
One-in-four slope with a spring running under it. Two terraces, 18m of wall re-coursed and a land drain nobody will ever see.
Everything in by barrow through the hall. Fan-laid setts, oak beds and a rill to take roof water off the flags.
Holiday let doing 50 weeks a year. Everything specified to be swept, not tended, and to look right in February.
The yard flooded twice a winter. Re-graded, edged and drained, with bare-root beech in at £4 a plant instead of £30.
Permeable setts, so no planning application and no arguing with the water company about run-off.
Exposed west-facing wall. Grasses and achillea that move in the wind rather than snap in it.
Four stages, in this order, every time. You will know which one you are in.
We come out, walk it with you and take levels, photos and a soil check. Free inside 30 miles of Kendal, and we will tell you there and then if it is not a job for us.
A scaled plan and a planting list, on paper, so you can move a path before it costs anything to move. Two rounds of changes included.
Priced line by line, with labour, materials and muck-away separated so you can see what moves if the budget has to. It holds for 90 days.
One crew from first dig to last sweep, no subbing out. Photos at the end of each week if you are not local, and a two-year guarantee on everything we lay.
The same five people. No agency labour, no van full of strangers on the Monday morning.
Owner, walling
DSWA-certified. Twenty-two years, most of it on the wrong side of a fell in the rain.
Design and planting
Kew-trained, Cumbria-tested. Draws the plans and picks everything that goes in the ground.
Groundworks
Digger, drainage and levels. If water is going the wrong way, this is who sorts it.
4.9
Rated on Google and Checkatrade across the South Lakes
Three firms looked at the slope and two never rang back. Tom turned up with a drawing a fortnight later and the price at the end was the price at the start.
We let the cottage out most of the year and the garden had to look after itself. Two winters on and it still looks like it did the week they left.
They found the drain the last lot had buried and never told us about. Cost more than the quote, they explained why before doing it, and it has been dry since.
Worked through a fortnight of horizontal rain without a word of complaint. Left the yard cleaner than they found it every single night.
Based at Mill Yard in Staveley, so most of the South Lakes is under half an hour with a trailer on.
| Staveley | 0 mi |
|---|---|
| Kendal | 4 mi |
| Windermere | 5 mi |
| Bowness | 6 mi |
| Ambleside | 9 mi |
| Grasmere | 13 mi |
| Kirkby Lonsdale | 16 mi |
| Sedbergh | 17 mi |
| Ulverston | 22 mi |
| Keswick | 26 mi |
| Penrith | 28 mi |
Further out than that we will still come and look, but only for builds over £10,000 — otherwise you are paying for our diesel.
| Monday to Thursday | 7.30am – 5pm |
|---|---|
| Friday | 7.30am – 3pm |
| Saturday | Site visits by arrangement |
| Sunday | Closed |