Quote from Lee Garden Ninja on 10th February 2026, 8:01 am

Hi @gill-young

It's absolutely brilliant to hear from you, and honestly, reading your post has made my morning. You've already achieved so much since completing the Garden Design for Beginners course, and I think you're being far too modest about what you've accomplished. Let me tell you, creating a planting plan for two 30 metre borders and then successfully implementing it is no small feat. The fact that your client now wants you to look after the garden long term, and that you've built your business entirely through word of mouth and recommendations, tells me everything I need to know about the quality of your work.

You're Already Doing Consultancy Work

First things first, let's reframe how you're thinking about this. You're not looking to move into consultancy. You're already doing it. You visited the site, measured it properly, filled in questionnaires with the client, researched and sourced plants, created mood boards and planting plans, and then delivered a beautiful result that your client loves enough to keep you on for maintenance. That's textbook garden design consultancy. The only difference between what you're doing now and what you want to do more of is confidence and positioning, which we can absolutely work on.

The fact you've also gone and got your RHS Level 2 Certificate shows real commitment to developing your knowledge base. You're not just winging it. You've got the horticultural understanding, the practical experience, and proven results. That's a really solid foundation, and you should feel proud of that.

The 3D Drawing Question

Right, let's tackle the drawing and presentation side because I know this is where a lot of people get stuck. Hand drawing in perspective and creating 3D visualisations is genuinely tricky. It's a skill that takes time to develop, and honestly, it's not essential for planting design work. It took me years and plenty of trial and error to find my style.

However, if you do want to build your confidence with 3D drawing by hand, I'd actually recommend looking for an urban sketching course focused on buildings and architecture. These courses teach you perspective, proportion and how to create depth on a flat page, and they're often run as fun, social workshops rather than formal art classes. Once you understand the principles of perspective through sketching buildings, applying those skills to garden beds and borders becomes much more manageable.

For digital work, SketchUp is absolutely the way to go if you want to create 3D plans. It's free to use at the basic level, incredibly powerful once you get the hang of it, and there are loads of online tutorials and courses specifically for garden designers. It does have a learning curve, so I'd definitely recommend finding a good SketchUp course rather than trying to teach yourself from scratch. The time investment is worth it if you enjoy that side of things and find that clients respond well to 3D visuals.

For planting plans specifically, 2D is absolutely fine and often actually easier for clients to visualise. A clear, well-presented 2D planting plan with plant symbols, labels, quantities and a key is professional, easy to read, and gives the client exactly what they need to understand what's going where. Add in some mood board images showing what the plants look like, maybe some seasonal interest boards showing spring, summer and autumn, and you've got a really comprehensive package that looks completely professional.

I've done plenty of planting plans in my career that were purely 2D, and clients loved them because they could see exactly what they were getting without trying to interpret a 3D rendering. Save the 3D work for situations where you're designing the whole garden layout including hard landscaping, levels and structures. For border planting, which is what you're focusing on, your hand drawn 2D plans are perfectly professional.

Positioning Your Business

You mentioned being nervous about working for total strangers and unsure how to position your business. I completely understand that feeling, but I think you need to flip your thinking here. You're not a stranger to your potential clients. You're a qualified, experienced planting specialist with an RHS qualification, proven results, and a business built entirely on recommendations. That's incredibly reassuring to a potential client.

The gradual move towards more planting consultancy and less maintenance weeding is absolutely the right approach. You don't need to revolutionise anything overnight. What you do need is clarity about what you're offering and confidence in presenting it.

You're offering planting design and consultancy services, focusing on beautiful, sustainable borders that you can also maintain once established. You're not doing hard landscaping, which is fine because there are plenty of hard landscapers around, but you're the person who makes their patios and paths look amazing by surrounding them with gorgeous planting.

When you talk to potential clients, you can explain that you specialise in planting design rather than full garden design, which means you work with their existing structure and create planting schemes that bring their garden to life. You can offer different levels of service, from a simple planting plan they implement themselves, to a full service where you source, supply and plant everything, through to ongoing maintenance packages for gardens you've designed. This gives clients flexibility and shows you understand different budgets and needs.

Keep Learning and Building Confidence

Gill, I think the biggest thing you need to work on isn't your skills or your qualifications or even your presentation. It's your confidence. You've already proved you can do this work to a high standard. You've got the technical knowledge, the practical experience, and clients who trust you enough to recommend you to others. That nervous feeling about working with strangers?

That's completely normal, and it fades as you do more projects and realise that most people are just lovely folks who want a beautiful garden and are delighted to find someone knowledgeable who can help them achieve it. Sometimes even I have the odd confidence wobble, especially with show gardens or larger clients. But take the time to realise that these nerves are just passion!

Start by being clear with your existing clients and your network about the direction you're heading. Let them know you're taking on more planting design projects and fewer pure maintenance jobs. You might be surprised how many people in your circle have been waiting for you to offer exactly this service. Word of mouth has built your business so far, and it will continue to be your best marketing tool as you shift your focus.

You've got this, and I'm really excited to see where you take your business next. Keep us posted on how you get on, and don't hesitate to come back here with questions as you develop things further.

We're all rooting for you here at Garden Ninja!

Lee

Quote from Gill on 12th February 2026, 2:43 pm

Thanks so much for such a comprehensive reply Lee! I really appreciate your advice and also your support and encouragement. There is actually an local Urban Sketch course coming up this month - it is for local architects but I will see if I am able to go along. I have seen an online Sketch Up course specifically for garden design, so I may also investigate that, although I do see what you mean about a 2D plan being acceptable for planting schemes. I wonder if Sketch Up might sometimes over promise too as I suppose it would show a fully mature version of a plant scheme so that the initial planting might seem a bit sparse in comparison? Your advice has given me lots of food for thought and also a confidence boost - thanks again for your reply - that coupled with your course is really helping me to shape my business and I am really grateful for your help.