A family back garden behind a 1930s semi-detached house: a sandstone terrace with a table laid for lunch, a rectangular lawn with a football on it, and mixed borders along both fences.

Illustrative image. Family garden, Hassocks, 140 m². £35,000 to £45,000.

Designed around your budget. Built by the same team.

Garden design and build in Mid Sussex and the Downs villages.

From £10,000Builds, including VAT
40 to 250 m²Courtyards to family gardens
Mid SussexBN6, RH15, RH16, RH17, BN44 and BN5
3 to 6 weeksHow long most builds take on site

Two ways to start, both priced before you commit

Pick the free survey if you know roughly what you want. Pick the consultation if you'd like a designer's help deciding.

Free survey visit

Free

For a project you can already describe. We come and look at the garden, for free.

How long: 45 to 60 minutes in your garden, usually with Daniel
When: Tuesdays and Thursdays, arriving at 10 am, 12 noon or 2 pm
What you get: Within five working days: a design proposal, or for a clear construction job, a written scope and quotation.
Booking: Your chosen time is provisional until Emma has called you, within two working days, to check the brief, budget and address.

Request a free survey

Design consultation

£180 including VAT

For when you're not sure yet what the garden could become. Ninety minutes with our designer.

How long: 90 minutes in your garden with Sophie, our lead designer
Paying: £60 deposit when you book, £120 on the day
What you get: Within three working days: a short written summary and an annotated sketch. It isn't a measured design, a planting plan or a quotation.

The £180 comes off a full design package if you commission one within three months.

Book a design consultation

Builds start at about £10,000 including VAT. Design on its own starts at £1,200. Times, notice and cancellation terms for each visit are on its booking page.

Gardens we've made

Bigger gardens get bigger blocks, from a 35 m² courtyard to a 220 m² family garden.

These six projects are illustrative examples for this demo site, shown with generated images.

What a budget buys

We'd rather you knew this before you call. These are guides, and we confirm a price once we've seen the garden.

Compact courtyard
Typical size
roughly 25 to 50 m²
Guide budget, inc VAT
£10,000 to £20,000
Patio, paths and planting within an existing garden
Typical size
varies
Guide budget, inc VAT
£12,000 to £25,000
Complete family garden
Typical size
roughly 80 to 200 m²
Guide budget, inc VAT
£30,000 to £60,000
Sloping garden or big level changes
Typical size
varies
Guide budget, inc VAT
£45,000 to £90,000 or more

Guide budgets including VAT. Access, drainage, how much digging there is, the materials and how much is rebuilt all change the price. Size alone doesn't set it.

Garden design on its own starts at £1,200 including VAT. A typical family garden design costs £1,800 to £3,000. Prices in full

One team, from first sketch to last plant

Sophie designs your garden with Tom, our site foreman, involved from the start. Levels, access and cost are settled before you fall for a drawing.

Daniel MercerFounder and project leadUsually the one at your free survey visit.
Sophie BennettLead designerRuns the design consultation and draws your garden.
Tom EllisSite foremanRuns the build on site, with the team on the tools.
Emma MercerEnquiries and customer updatesCalls you within two working days, then sends your weekly build update.

Nine of us, trading since 2012. The yard isn't open to visitors, so we meet you in your garden.

Paving and planting samples laid out on a garden table: a piece of natural stone, a porcelain tile, a clay paver, a small dish of gravel and a timber offcut. — Illustrative image. Stone, porcelain, clay paver, gravel and timber samples, as we'd bring them to a design meeting.[TEAM PHOTO: Daniel, Emma, Sophie and Tom, to replace this image]

How a build runs, so nothing comes as a surprise

The worries we hear most are about cost creeping up, builders vanishing and the garden being out of action for weeks. This is what we do about each one.

Care instructions for your build

Levels and drainage first We work out the existing levels and where the water will go before the layout is final, so the paving drains away from the house.
An itemised quotation Preparation, drainage, paving, timber, planting, lighting and waste are priced separately, with anything provisional clearly marked.
A named site lead and a written programme You know who's running your job, when it starts and roughly how long each stage takes, agreed in writing.
A weekly update from Emma What happened this week, what's next, and anything we need you to decide.
Changes priced before they happen If you change your mind or we find something unexpected, we price it in writing before the work goes ahead.
Stage payments You pay as the work reaches agreed stages, never the whole build price up front.

How a build runs, from first call to handover

A patio area being prepared: the ground dug to an even depth, string lines and pegs, a laser level on a tripod, and a drainage pipe in a gravel trench, with a landscaper crouching to check a line. — Illustrative image. Levels and drainage set out before any paving: pegs, string lines, a laser level and a drain in a gravel trench.

The end of a village back garden, with a low hedge and a post-and-rail fence and the rolling South Downs beyond. — Illustrative image. The end of a village garden, with the Downs beyond.

Where we work

We work across Mid Sussex and the Downs villages: Hassocks, Hurstpierpoint, Ditchling, Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, Lindfield, Cuckfield, Albourne, Henfield, Steyning and Bramber, and the villages in between.

BN6
RH15
RH16
RH17
BN44
BN5

The postcode is a first check. We confirm the full address before a visit is booked. Just outside our usual area? Ask anyway, and we'll tell you honestly whether we can help. Ask a question

Start with your postcode

It takes ten seconds, and it tells you straight away whether we cover your garden and which first step suits you.

[PHONE NUMBER: DEMO PLACEHOLDER]
Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm, not bank holidays. If we're out on site, leave a message and we'll call you back within two working days.

Message us on WhatsApp

This is a demo site, so WhatsApp doesn't open. On a real site it would start a chat with this message ready to send:

Hi Chalk & Field, I'm looking at your homepage. My postcode is ___ and I'd like help with ___.