This is the second article in the series "How Much Does a Garden Cost in Marbella." In Part 1, I broke down the cost of the landscape design project — formats, pricing factors, and real figures. If you haven’t read it yet, start there: it explains why the project isn’t an expense, but the one thing that protects the rest of your budget from chaos.

This part is about the money that comes after the project. Execution and maintenance are the two heaviest budgets. This is where most of the spending happens — and where people trying to save on the project usually end up losing the most money.

→ Read Part 1: "How Much Does a Landscape Design Project Cost in Marbella"

Execution is the main part of the budget. This is where the real money is concentrated: earthworks, engineering systems, materials, plants, contractor labour. A project costs € 5,000−15,000. Execution costs 10 to 20 times more. Which is exactly why skimping on the project makes no sense — it’s what protects this entire budget from chaos and rework.

Before getting into figures, it’s worth understanding one thing: garden execution always falls into one of two scenarios. A new garden and the renovation of an existing one are fundamentally different tasks, with entirely different pricing logic.

A new garden is the best possible situation for both designer and client. A blank slate, no constraints, full freedom in choosing the concept, materials and plants. This is where the project pays off the most: everything can be planned in advance, every contractor coordinated, and the typical mistakes avoided altogether.

The cost of building a new garden comes down to four factors.

Area and density. Not just square metres, but how much is packed into them. A 2,000 m² plot with a minimalist garden — a stretch of lawn, a few paths, basic irrigation — costs fundamentally less than the same area filled with flower beds, seating areas, water features, lighting around the whole perimeter, and collector’s plants. Cost is calculated by content, not by metres.

Engineering systems. Irrigation, drainage, lighting — this is the invisible backbone of the garden, and it determines everything else. A properly designed automatic irrigation system can last 25−30 years. Well-executed drainage protects plants and foundations for decades. Cutting corners on engineering at the start guarantees costly rework a few years down the line.

Plant age and size. Young plants left to grow into their space are the most obvious way to lower the execution budget without compromising the concept. A small shrub at € 7 looks, after two years of proper care, much like a € 30 shrub bought at planting size. But that takes patience and a good gardener. Mature specimens deliver results immediately — and cost accordingly. A well-formed, multi-year-pruned ficus can run € 1,200 against € 120 for a young specimen of the same species. A single large, well-shaped tree can become the focal point of the entire garden and create that wow factor right at the gate.

Coverage: lawn, gravel, or shrubs. Lawn is the most expensive surface to install and the most expensive to maintain. In Spain, it’s traditional to dedicate 60−70% of a plot to lawn — one of the main reasons garden maintenance becomes such a burden. A smarter alternative: gravel mulch, ground cover plants, drip-irrigated shrubs. Visually just as appealing. In terms of maintenance, fundamentally simpler and cheaper.

The landscape design market splits clearly into several tiers. They differ not only in budget, but in how the client chooses their contractor, what they expect from the result, and what exactly they’re actually paying for.

Business — price and quality. The client wants everything done right, once and properly: automatic irrigation, lighting, a hedge, standard materials. No interest in overpaying — but no interest in cutting corners on functionality either. These clients choose companies with a clear process, transparent pricing and a solid portfolio. The result is good quality, but without a distinctive creative signature.
Execution budget — from € 40,000.

Business+ — style and philosophy. Here, the client isn’t just choosing a contractor — they’re choosing an approach, an aesthetic, a worldview. What matters to them is that the garden reflects their character, not just looks attractive. These clients find their designer through Instagram, through recommendations, through articles — specifically because they like that particular person’s particular style. They’re willing to pay extra for that uniqueness. The difference from the Business tier is in the details: granite cobblestones matched to the façade instead of concrete paving, collector’s plants instead of standard nursery stock.
Execution budget — from € 80,000.

Premium — the designer knows best. Clients at this level don’t arrive with a checklist of requirements. They hire a designer precisely because they trust that person’s expertise more than their own ideas about what the garden should be. A well-known personal brand, a recognisable style, a solid market reputation — this isn’t just marketing, it’s a quality signal for an audience that knows how to read these things. Unique plants sourced specifically for the project, exclusive materials, full design supervision at every stage.
Execution budget — from € 200,000.

Ultra-luxury — no limits. This segment plays by different rules entirely. Contractors here aren’t found through a Google search or chosen via Instagram — they’re passed along by word of mouth, hand to hand. Most projects at this level are bound by non-disclosure agreements: no photos, no case studies, no portfolio. That’s exactly why the best contractors in this segment are practically invisible to the public — and exactly why there’s a waiting list for them.
Budget — unlimited. Execution of gardens at this level on the Costa del Sol starts in the hundreds of thousands of euros, with no upper ceiling.

Renovation always costs more than a new garden for a comparable result. This isn’t a market quirk — it’s simple logic: you’re not just creating something new, you’re also dealing with what’s already there. And in Spain, what’s already there has a habit of springing surprises.

Mature plants needing replacement — the main cost driver. If a hedge has been neglected, part of it has died, and gaps have appeared along the line — it needs restoring. But a small sapling next to a 20-year-old cypress will look awkward for years. So mature specimens are needed instead. A 6−8 metre cypress costs € 300−600 — for a single tree. It still needs to be sourced, transported and planted correctly. A serious hedge renovation alone can run to tens of thousands of euros in plants.

Removing and replacing old irrigation. Old irrigation systems in Spain are typically built on a "water everywhere" principle: sprinklers soak palm trunks, lawn and flower beds all at once, with no zoning at all. That’s a direct path to fungal disease, root rot, and the loss of expensive plants. A system like that can’t just be patched — it needs to be removed and re-laid from scratch, with drip irrigation where there are planted beds and properly calibrated sprinklers where there’s lawn.

Construction debris buried in the soil. A common story with Spanish properties, especially those built 15−30 years ago: builders buried waste directly on the plot, covered it with soil, and handed over the finished property. Chunks of brick, broken tile, plastic, sheeting — sometimes entire layers of construction rubble. All of this creates an impermeable barrier layer in the soil: water doesn’t drain, roots suffocate, plants decline for no apparent reason. The only way to find this is by digging the planting holes. Removing and replacing the soil is a separate — and significant — line item.

Drainage for standing water. Spain historically has no real tradition of managing runoff from façades: water from roofs simply pours straight onto walls and into the ground. On plots where water pools after rain, proper drainage is essential — perforated pipes wrapped in geotextile, gravel backfill, correct gradients, and a connection to the municipal storm drain. That last part requires a permit. It’s complex, slow, expensive work — but without it, any investment in plants loses its value.

Lawn requiring full replacement. An old lawn damaged by fungal disease, left for years without proper care — no aeration, no treatments, no feeding, no winter overseeding — generally can’t be salvaged. It has to be stripped out, the base re-prepared, and new turf laid. On top of that, if the client wants to move away from the traditional Spanish "everything is lawn" approach, the entire ground cover scheme needs rethinking — which amounts to a full redesign in itself.

A client recently came to me — a homeowner who had just finished building her house. Several hundred thousand euros spent on construction, with energy and budget both running low. Almost nothing left for the garden.

I proposed a project: € 5,000 for a bespoke concept with full documentation. The client decided that was too expensive — and went straight to gardeners instead. For € 50,000, they did what they know how to do: filled the space with plants. No concept, no proper zoning, no consideration of the local climate. Within a single season, some of the plants had already started scorching and losing their appeal — they’d been chosen without any regard for the plot’s sun exposure. No designed garden, no spatial logic. Just green filler.

For € 70,000 — the same € 50,000 for execution, plus € 5,000 for the project, plus around € 15,000 more to execute that project properly — she could have had a fundamentally different result. Thoughtfully zoned spaces in every corner of the garden, correctly chosen plants, privacy, beautiful focal points — a designed garden she could genuinely be proud of.

The difference in budget: € 20,000. The difference in result: like comparing an old banger to a Mercedes. Not because one is cheap and the other expensive, but because one set of money buys a random collection of decisions, and the other buys a system in which every element works toward the same result.

Maintenance is the third budget — the one people think about last. And that’s a mistake: it’s the one that determines what the garden will look like in a year, in five years, in ten. You can invest € 200,000 in execution and end up with a neglected plot within two or three seasons. Or you can invest € 40,000 and end up with a garden that gets better every year. The difference isn’t in the execution budget. The difference is in the maintenance.

I tell my clients this directly: maintenance is 50% of the result. That’s not an exaggeration. A € 15,000 plant can be ruined in a single season by incorrect pruning. And the opposite is just as true — a skilled gardener can take a modest young garden and, over a few years, grow it into something that stops passers-by in their tracks.

Basic monthly maintenance typically includes:

• Pruning and shaping plants
• Weeding and mulching
• Monitoring the irrigation system and adjusting programmes seasonally
• Treatment for disease and pests — fungicides and insecticides in spring and autumn as standard, otherwise as needed
• Lawn care: mowing, disease and weed treatment, feeding, and — with proper maintenance — winter overseeding to keep it green year-round
• Pool cleaning and water chemistry balance, if there’s a pool

Billed separately and on top:

• Pruning tall palms — twice a year, requiring climbers or a lift. Cost depends on height and number of palms, but it’s always its own line item: from a few hundred euros up to € 1,000−2,000 per visit
• Pruning tall hedges and standalone bonsai-trained trees (niwaki) — similarly, anything over 3−4 metres needs specialist equipment
• Replacing plants that have died

Maintenance costs depend on plot size, planting density, whether there’s a pool, and the complexity of the planting scheme.

From € 300 a month — a small plot with no pool, minimal planting, mostly shrubs and gravel mulch, a simple irrigation system. A gardener visits once a week.

€ 500−800 a month — a mid-sized plot with lawn, a hedge, flower beds and a small pool. Regular visits, seasonal treatments included.

€ 1,000−1,500 a month — a garden with a pool, mature planting, a more complex layout. Weekly maintenance.

Up to € 2,000 a month and above — a large plot with a pool, collector’s plants, palms, tall hedges, and complex engineering. A regular gardener plus periodic visits from specialist teams.

It’s worth understanding: this is the cost of gardener labour and consumables. The cost of irrigation water is a separate line item — and in Marbella, it’s a noticeable one, especially on plots with a large lawn area. That’s exactly why, when designing a new garden, I always try to minimise lawn area in favour of gravel mulch and drip-irrigated shrubs: the visual result is comparable, while water and maintenance costs drop substantially.

There’s a common practice in Spain: homeowners hire the urbanisation’s gardener — someone who services the whole community and pops onto your plot along the way. Cheap, and seemingly convenient.

The problem is that this kind of gardener works to one template for everyone. He doesn’t know your project, doesn’t understand the planting logic, and doesn’t know how to shape specific species the way the designer intended. He arrives with a mower and a leaf blower, and leaves — fast, and destructive.

I had exactly this happen once. I handed over a project, personally walked the community gardener through every single plant, explained how and what to prune. The client decided to keep him on anyway — it was cheaper. A season later, his wife called me: her husband wanted to apologise.

When I saw the photos — he’d cut down all the flower beds, pruned the hedges all wrong, and destroyed the entire original concept. I withdrew my name from that garden. Because what was left there no longer had anything to do with me.

A good gardener — one who understands the project and works with the designer on the same wavelength — isn’t a luxury. It’s the one condition under which a garden continues to exist as it was actually intended.

A separate category: plots where the owners are present only a few times a year. Marbella is full of properties like this — holiday homes, investment properties, rental apartments with a garden attached.

For these properties, the brief is different: the garden has to look good at all times, require minimal intervention, and not depend on the owner being there.

This is entirely achievable — if it’s planned for at the design stage.

Irrigation. An automatic drip system on a timer is essential. No manual watering, no dependence on whether the gardener happens to show up that week. A properly installed system runs itself and only needs a seasonal check.

Lawn. Ideally, minimise or eliminate it altogether. Lawn requires weekly mowing, aeration, feeding, and winter overseeding. For a property that isn’t lived in full-time, that’s excessive. The alternative: artificial turf in seating areas, gravel or stone mulch everywhere else. Looks tidy, needs no watering, never yellows or thins out.

Plants. Choosing drought-tolerant species adapted to the Costa del Sol climate isn’t a compromise — it’s the right call. These plants survive periods without watering, don’t suffer in the heat, and don’t demand complicated care.

Lighting. Solar-powered lights are a simple solution for a low-maintenance property. No need to connect to the electrical grid, they run independently, and they create an evening atmosphere on their own.

Gardener. Two visits a year is genuinely enough for a well-designed garden with minimal planting. Spring and autumn: check the irrigation, treat for disease, give it a general trim.

This is exactly the kind of garden I built for one client — a 300 m² plot, a house used for occasional visits. Her brief was precise: "I want it to look beautiful, but I need the gardener to come at most twice a year." Artificial turf, drip irrigation, carefully chosen plants, solar lights. Final cost: around € 6,000, including the project. The garden runs on its own. The owner arrives and simply enjoys it.

The project sets the direction, execution brings it to life, maintenance keeps the result going for years. Remove any one of the three and the whole system stops working.

In Part 3, the final part of this series, I cover what directly affects the final cost and quality of a garden: the Spanish specifics that often get overlooked at the design stage, what actually makes a garden look expensive, how a garden affects property value — and the typical mistakes that turn a sensible budget into endless rework.

→ Read Part 3: "A Garden in Marbella as an Investment: Spanish Specifics, Common Mistakes, and How to Get Started"

If you're already at the decision stage — message me on WhatsApp or fill out the form on the website. The first call is free. After it, you'll have clarity on your budget and your next steps.