Calculating Garden Construction Costs – Part 2
Garden Cost Calculation Simulation Following up on the previous article—which you can read here—on the cost of a planned garden, the next step to better understand how to calculate that cost is to review the simulation presented in this article.
Guslie Garden
8/13/20263 min read
Garden Construction Cost Calculation: A Practical Guide
Following our previous article on estimating garden construction costs, this article takes the next step by showing a practical example of how to calculate the cost of a garden.
Before starting the calculation, there are several key factors to consider:
Determine the percentage allocated to each type of planting
For a general garden cost estimate, you can use a 70:30 ratio: 70% lawn and 30% other plants.
Determine the percentage allocated to other plants
The 30% allocated to other plants can then be divided using the following proportions. These percentages can be adjusted according to the requirements and design of the garden:
Groundcover (Layer 1) = 0.60
Shrubs (Layer 2) = 0.25
Trees (Layer 3) = 0.15
Determine the number of plants required
Lawn is calculated in square metres (m²).
Other plants are calculated based on planting distance.
Because planting distances vary between plant species, and listing each species individually would make the calculation unnecessarily complicated, the diameter of the plant bag can be used as a practical reference for this basic simulation.
Please note: For professional garden construction cost calculations, planting distances should always be determined according to the requirements of each plant species. The plant bag diameter is used here only as a simplified reference.
Groundcover: 58 plants per m², based on a 13 cm plant bag diameter
Shrubs: 16 plants per m², based on a 25 cm plant bag diameter
Trees: 1 plant per m², based on a 100 cm planting-hole diameter
Plant prices vary between regions, so for this garden cost calculation example, we will use average prices:
Groundcover plants: approximately IDR 10,000 each
Shrubs: approximately IDR 50,000 each
Medium-sized trees: approximately IDR 1,000,000 each
Calculate the amount of soil required for planting media and surface leveling
For this example, we assume that the site is level and that the existing soil is in good condition. Additional planting media is therefore required to a depth of 15 cm.
This means the total soil requirement is 0.15 m³ per m².
Labour Costs
Daily labour rates vary from one region to another. For this garden cost calculation, we will use an average rate of IDR 150,000 per worker per day. This figure should be adjusted according to the prevailing labour rates in your area.
The garden construction time will depend on the size of the garden and the level of difficulty involved in clearing and preparing the site.
Now that we have identified the main components that affect garden construction costs, let’s put them into a practical calculation.
CASE EXAMPLE
For a garden area of 10 m², the calculation would be as follows:
Soil = 10 × 0.15 = 1.5 m³
Lawn = 70% × 10 = 7 m²
Groundcover = 0.60 × 58 × 3 = 104.4 plants
Shrubs = 0.25 × 16 × 3 = 12 plants
Trees = 0.15 × 1 × 3 = 0.45, rounded up to 1 tree
Labour: Site clearing and planting preparation require 2 days with 3 workers.
Labour cost = 3 × IDR 150,000 × 2 = IDR 900,000
TOTAL GARDEN CONSTRUCTION COST :
Soil = 1.5 × IDR 175,000 = IDR 262,500
Lawn = 7 × IDR 25,000 = IDR 175,000
Groundcover = 105 × IDR 10,000 = IDR 1,050,000
Shrubs = 12 × IDR 50,000 = IDR 600,000
Tree = 1 × IDR 1,000,000 = IDR 1,000,000
Labour = IDR 900,000
Total garden construction cost for a 10 m² area = IDR 3,987,500
This means the estimated garden construction cost is IDR 398,750 per m².
Please note that this estimate does not include waste disposal from site clearing, transportation costs, or fertiliser.
For an easier way to organise the calculation, you can use a format similar to the example shown in the image below:
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