Soft Landscaping

We proudly provide expert soft landscaping services to enhance outdoor spaces for both residential and commercial clients.

Enhancing Your Garden with Soft Landscaping

At S.P. Landscapes, we’re passionate about bringing outdoor spaces to life. Specialising in soft landscaping, we create lush, inviting gardens filled with thoughtfully chosen plants, trees, and flowers. Whether you’re looking for a tranquil and relaxing space, a fresh look for your home, or a garden that supports local wildlife, our team has you covered.

We take pride in crafting personalised soft landscaping solutions that reflect your vision and elevate your outdoor space.

Soft Landscaping Services

Design (Detail/Development)

Planning and design tailored to your garden, ensuring a cohesive landscape that meets your aesthetic and functional needs.

Tree, Shrub and Hedge Planting

Professional planting services that enhance your garden’s beauty and structure, providing privacy, shade, and seasonal interest.

Turfing and Seeding

Installation of high-quality turf or seeding for a green lawn that enhances the overall appeal of your outdoor space.

Bark Chippings

Crown reduction is a pruning technique that involves selectively removing branches to reduce the overall size and weight of a tree’s canopy, often employed to maintain tree health, safety, and aesthetics while preserving its structural integrity.

Gravel

Versatile gravel installations for driveways, pathways, or as decorative ground cover, providing drainage and low maintenance.

Wildflowers, Seeding and Bulbs

Planting of native wildflowers and bulbs to create vibrant, sustainable landscapes that support local biodiversity.

Groundworks

Essential groundwork services that prepare your site for landscaping, ensuring stability and proper drainage for your outdoor features.

Artificial Grass

Installation of high-quality artificial grass for a low-maintenance lawn that looks natural and stays green year-round.

If you don’t see the specific service you’re looking for on our website, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team.

For a no-obligation quotation please contact us.

Soft Landscaping FAQs

Soft landscaping focuses on the living aspects of a garden. It involves the selection and arrangement of plants, trees, shrubs, and flowers to create visually appealing and harmonious outdoor spaces.

The main distinction between soft and hard landscaping lies in their components. Soft landscaping focuses on living elements like plants, trees, and flowers, which enhance the beauty and ecological balance of outdoor spaces. In contrast, hard landscaping focuses on non-living features such as patios, walkways, and walls, providing structure and functionality to your garden. Together, they create a cohesive outdoor environment, where soft landscaping brings life and colour, while hard landscaping offers durability and defined spaces.

The best time to lay turf is in the spring or autumn when the temperatures are not too hot and not too cold, and when there are good moisture levels in the soil.

During the summer period the temperatures can be very high and the soil very dry. Turf can still be laid but more frequent watering is required to keep the ground conditions moist. This can be as frequent as twice a day, with watering best carried out first thing in the morning and/ or in the evening, for a period of 4 to 6 weeks. Due to the risk of scorching or drying out, we would recommend to avoid turfing during period of extreme heat or drought.

Turf can be laid in the winter but it will take longer for the roots to establish as grass is mostly dormant over the winter period with very little growth. It can also be more difficult to prepare the ground, ready for turfing, during the winter if the ground is very wet. Turf cannot be laid on waterlogged or frozen ground, however a frost after laying turf should not affect its establishment.

The best time to plant trees is between November to March. This is because the tree will be dormant at this time of year and it puts less stress on the tree’s roots during the lifting, handling, transportation and planting process. Bare-root and Root-ball planting stock are only available during this period. Note, any planting should be avoided in waterlogged or frozen soil.

You can plant Container-grown plants all year round, as the roots have minimal disturbance at the planting stage only, however they are easier to care for, and would have a better success rate, if planted during the Autumn or Winter. If planting Container-grown plants between April to October, then they would require immediate regular watering. The volume and frequency of watering would be subject to the time of year and weather at the time.

Following any planting, the newly planted trees should be regularly watered until the roots have established. This can be between one to three years subject to the tree species, location and ground conditions. As a guideline, we would recommend a minimum of 50 litres of water per tree on a weekly basis between April to October, however this may need to be increased during periods of sunny weather or drought.

The best time to sow grass seed is in the spring (between late-March to May) or early autumn (between September to mid-October), however this is very much subject to the weather at the time.

Grass seed requires temperatures of around 10 degrees Celsius, or above, for a period of two to three weeks to germinate and start to establish, as well as adequate moisture in the ground.

The period between June to August tends to be too hot, with not enough moisture in the ground to establish. However, if the weather is mild and the seed is regularly watered, to keep ground conditions moist, then grass seed will germinate but the newly germinated seed will require continued regular watering until it is fully established. Due to the need of regular watering, this would not be suitable for larger areas but could be carried out in a garden.

During the period between November to February, the temperatures tend to be below 10 degrees Celsius and if they are higher than this, it tends to only be for a few days. As the temperatures are too low for the seed to germinate, the seed will rot. The ground conditions also tend to be too wet to prepare for seeding as well as the risk of waterlogged or frozen ground.

If possible, we would recommend spring time for any seeding as it offers the best conditions for the seed to germinate and you also get the continued growth and establishment throughout the summer period. If seeding in autumn, it is important to review the weather forecast for the coming weeks to ensure it is suitable for seed germination. Once the seed has germinated, it should be OK to survive the winter period but there is a risk that extreme cold temperatures could affect the survival of the newly germinated grass.

Planting trees can be relatively cheap, if planting a smaller sapling, or they can be incredibly expensive, if planting an Extra Heavy Standard. It’s all down to the time that they take to grow and the care that they need in the nursery. As they get bigger, they require more care, require more watering and also take up more space, which all costs money.

A 60 to 80cm tall, 2- to 3-year-old sapling would cost as little as one pound, however an Extra Heavy Standard tree at 4.25m high would cost several hundred pounds.
Deciding on whether to plant smaller saplings or larger specimen trees comes down to several factors.

  • Number of trees being planted – If you are just planting one tree then it may be appropriate to plant a larger tree, however if you are planting a larger number of trees, a smaller sapling may be more suitable.
  • Immediate impact – Smaller saplings, feathered trees and light standard trees will take many years to grow and establish, and it may be a long time before the tree has its desired impact. Whereas, planting larger trees such as Standards, Heavy Standards or Extra Heavy Standards already have many years of growth, are much taller, have fuller crowns and will provide more of an immediate impact.
  • Budget – Considering you can plant around 300 saplings at roughly the same cost as one Extra Heavy Standard tree, cost is a major factor when consider what size tree to plant.

It is also worth bearing in mind that any newly planted tree requires ongoing maintenance for approx. 3 years after planting and until the trees are established in their new environment. They are also all at risk of failure should they not get the right amount of aftercare and watering and, even with adequate aftercare, can still fail due to extreme weather or pests and diseases that are present in the air. This should also be factored in when budgeting for tree planting.

The most common tree size to plant would a Select Standard that is 10 to 12cm girth and approx. 3 to 3.5cm in height. At this point, the tree is reasonably well established that it will thrive providing it is given adequate aftercare. It is also at a size that is easy to handle, easy to transport and easy to plant which makes it easy and cost effective to plant.

Soft Landscaping Case Studies

Explore some of our recent landscaping projects.

Creating a wildlife friendly garden

20/04/2025/by Marketing

Preparing your garden for Spring

15/03/2025/by Marketing

Landscaping Case Study – large roundabout on the public highway

24/02/2025/by Marketing

Landscaping Case Study – Protecting the trees from the cows

14/12/2023/by Shara Vickers
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Soft Landscaping Articles

Creating a wildlife friendly garden

20/04/2025/by Marketing

Garden improvement work

25/03/2025/by Marketing

Preparing your garden for Spring

15/03/2025/by Marketing

Stump Grinding – Tree in poor health and causing damage

06/03/2025/by Marketing
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Reviews from our clients

S P Landscapes & Tree Contractors Ltd
4.8
Based on 37 reviews
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nicola kettlewell
10:40 01 Dec 23
Very happy with this Company, prompt reply to our request, communication excellent throughout. All the staff we dealt with were excellent and friendly. We were very happy with the work they did on our trees and would use them again.
Paul Hickman
19:01 08 Nov 23
Excellent service. Arrived on the day and time agreed. Both workmen were very professional. Work done as agreed and everything left tidy.
David Wood
08:34 13 Oct 23
Excellent job well done
Pam Auld
12:48 13 Sep 23
This was the 2nd time I have used this company and, as with the first time, they have done an excellent job at a reasonable price. I needed two hedges reduced in height, and on the hottest day of the year, two young men arrived, with all the gear and worked solidly for 3 hours. They were both polite and very professional, clearly knew their job and cleared away everything before leaving. I would have no hesitation in recommending this company and will definitely use again in the future.
Darren Sheppard
05:49 24 Aug 23
We had a very large beech tree and two other trees that required felling , at our school in Mildenhall . All of our concerns regarding safety and damage to buildings and astro turf were more that adequately addressed . I cannot praise this company enough . From start to finish , they were very efficient , very professional and very custoner focused . Great job guys .
Bill Ward
16:20 02 Feb 23
I hired SP Landscapes to 'crown reduce' one ash tree and pollard another suffering from ash dieback. This was a potentially tricky job and a large cherry picker was needed to safely access the trees. Also it was important that no heavy pieces or debris fell onto the garden office or into the next door property.
The work was carried out with great professionalism, skill and courtesy throughout the two days. The three chaps were unfailingly polite and explained everything clearly. They left the site very clean and tidy.
I wholeheartedly recommend SP Landscapes. You will pay a bit more but the peace of mind that comes from hiring a team that really know what they are doing is worth every penny.

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S.P. Landscapes & Tree Contractors
Arboracre, Elms Road
Red Lodge
Bury St. Edmunds
Suffolk, IP28 8TD

Call Us: 01638 750186

 

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