Tendering and estimating, 29 October 2026
AI tendering for landscapers
Price a landscaping tender from a take-off: m² of paving and turf, plant numbers from the planting densities, and the dig converted to tonnes of muck away. Price the maintenance period and plant replacements as their own lines. Find out what the spoil is first, because Landfill Tax runs from £8.65 to £130.75 a tonne.
What makes landscaping tenders hard to price?
The plan shows the finished garden; the cost is in the ground and the year after. A housing association scheme might come with a landscaping plan, a plant schedule and a soft works spec, and almost nothing about what's under the topsoil.
The problems that come up on most landscaping packages:
- Take-offs from landscaping plans. Hatched areas, symbols for trees and shrubs, and planting densities in a separate schedule.
- Aggregates and muck away. Dig depths, bulking, tonnages, and what the spoil is classed as at the tip.
- Plant schedules and seasonality. Sizes, availability and planting windows, with substitutions to agree.
- Ground conditions. Clay, rubble, services and contamination nobody surveyed.
- Maintenance periods. Watering, weeding and visits for a year after handover.
- Defects and plant replacement. Who pays when plants die.
takes me a couple of hours… for every job
He was talking about RAMS and construction phase plans. Public sector landscaping tenders ask for them with every bid, so the paperwork is part of the cost of tendering. A master RAMS template cuts that time to the site-specific parts.
How do you price a 1,050 m² landscaping package?
Measure each surface from the plan, count plants from the schedule, and turn the dig into tonnes. Price muck away at the rate the spoil will attract.
Landscaping to a 1,050 m² housing association scheme
380 m² of permeable block paving, 220 m² of turf, 310 m² of shrub beds at four plants a m², 18 trees and 140 m² of other areas left to others. Paving dug to 350 mm. Rates include margin and are illustrative.
| Dig for paving380 m² × 0.35 m | 133 m³ |
| Spoil to remove, at about 1.9 t a m³133 m³ × 1.9 t | 253 t |
| Permeable block paving with sub-base380 m² × £68 | £25,840 |
| Turf on topsoil220 m² × £9 | £1,980 |
| Shrubs, supplied and planted1,240 × £6.50 | £8,060 |
| Trees, supplied, planted and staked18 × £185 | £3,330 |
| Excavation and muck away, lower-rate spoil253 t × £24 | £6,072 |
| Tender price | £45,282 |
Now the swing. Landfill Tax on 253 t at the lower rate of £8.65 a tonne is £2,188. At the standard rate of £130.75 it's £33,080. The difference, £30,892, is two-thirds of the whole tender price. Whether your spoil qualifies for the lower rate depends on what it is, so check HMRC's rules on qualifying material, ask for any ground investigation, and qualify the price on the classification you've assumed.
For more on measuring, see the quantity take-off guide. Excavation-heavy schemes have more in common with groundworks than gardening, and Nexley's groundworks and civils page covers that side.
Who replaces plants that die in the maintenance period?
Usually you, if the contract has a maintenance or defects period and you haven't qualified it. Read the soft works spec closely.
One university's soft landscaping specification is a good example of how strict it can be. It makes the contractor maintain the planting for 12 months after completion, replace plants that fail or lack vigour "entirely at the contractors own cost", and replace them "as many times as is necessary" to keep a complete cover. It also requires topsoil to BS 3882 and forbids planting in frozen or waterlogged ground.
Price every maintenance visit and a replacement allowance. If 10% of the 1,240 shrubs and two trees fail, that's £806 plus £370 in plants alone, before labour.
You can't control watering you don't do. Qualify that replacements are only your cost where failure comes from plant quality or your workmanship, not lack of watering, vandalism or drought.
Price planting only, and make clear in writing that failures after handover are the maintaining party's responsibility.
With no maintenance period, plants become the client's at handover. Agree a handover inspection and state that failures after it aren't your cost.
What should a landscaping tender qualify?
Ground conditions, spoil classification, irrigation, plant failures and maintenance. These are the lines where landscaping prices fall apart.
Tender: project, hard and soft landscaping package Our price: £amount excluding VAT, dated date Ground conditions and spoil 1. Priced from landscaping plan drawing, revision, plant schedule reference and specification reference. 2. Ground assumed diggable by machine to the depths shown, free of rock, obstructions, buried services and contamination. Breaking out, hand digging round services and removal of obstructions are a variation. 3. Spoil priced as qualifying for the lower rate of Landfill Tax. If testing shows otherwise, disposal will be revalued at cost, with tip tickets shown. Planting 4. Planting carried out in suitable conditions and season. Planting in frozen or waterlogged ground will not be carried out; resulting delays are an extension of time. 5. Plant sizes and species as schedule. Substitutions for unavailable stock offered for approval at equivalent size. 6. Topsoil imported to BS 3882 / site-won, assumed suitable. Irrigation and water 7. Water supply for planting and maintenance provided by others at no cost, within x m of all areas. Irrigation systems included / excluded. Maintenance and plant failures 8. Maintenance period 12 months, number visits, as listed. Additional visits charged at £rate. 9. Replacement of failed plants at our cost only where failure results from plant quality or our workmanship. Failures caused by lack of watering by others, vandalism, theft, drought or damage by other trades are excluded. Payment 10. Monthly applications. Retention x%, released at completion / end of maintenance.
Use the tender qualifications and exclusions template for the general lines on price validity, access and attendances.
What can AI do on a landscaping tender, and what can't it?
AI does the measuring and counting quickly and checks the spec for traps. It can't tell you what's under the turf.
What AI does well:
- Measures the plan. Paving, turf and bed areas from the hatching, kerb and edging lengths, and dig volumes from the depths in the spec. See can AI do a take-off from drawings.
- Counts plants from bed areas and the planting densities in the schedule, and totals trees by size.
- Finds the traps in the soft works spec: maintenance length, replacement wording, topsoil standards, watering duties.
- Converts dig to tonnes and prices muck away at both Landfill Tax rates so you see the swing.
- Drafts qualifications from your standard list with the drawing references filled in.
What still needs the landscaper:
- Ground conditions. A trial hole, a look at neighbouring sites, and knowing the local clay.
- Buildability. Access for machines, levels, falls and drainage that the plan doesn't show.
- Plant risk. Which species fail on this kind of site, and how much to allow.
- The price and the decision to bid.
How do you win more landscaping tenders?
Bid the schemes that suit your gang and kit, and make your price easy to compare.
- Show your take-off with areas, plant counts and tonnages.
- Price maintenance openly, so the client sees what they get for a year.
- Qualify spoil and plant failures clearly rather than pricing the worst case.
- Read the pack first with the 10-minute tender read and drop schemes with open-ended replacement clauses you can't price.
Where Nexley fits
Nexley is the AI back office for UK trade firms: five AI assistants run your tenders, quotes, buying, scheduling and invoicing. It connects to the tools you already work in, you run it all from WhatsApp, and you approve everything. £799 a month.
For landscaping tenders, Nexley reads the pack you forward on WhatsApp, measures paving, turf and beds from the plan, counts plants from the schedule, turns dig volumes into tonnes, and drafts a priced schedule from your rates with qualifications for ground, spoil and plant failures. You check the ground and approve the price.
Common questions
How do you count plants for a landscaping tender?
Measure each bed's area from the plan and multiply by the planting density in the schedule. A 310 m² bed at four plants a m² needs 1,240 plants. Add trees and specimen plants individually.
How much is Landfill Tax in 2026?
From 1 April 2026, £130.75 a tonne at the standard rate and £8.65 a tonne at the lower rate, in England and Northern Ireland. Scotland uses the same rates; Wales has its own tax.
Do I have to replace plants that die after handover?
Only if your contract says so. Some do, for a 12-month period or longer. If someone else waters and maintains, qualify that failures from lack of maintenance aren't your cost.
Should a landscaping tender include irrigation?
Only if the spec asks for it. State who provides water and how far it is from the planting, because carrying water to new planting for a year is expensive.
Sources
- GOV.UK: Landfill Tax, increase in rates from 1 April 2026
- legislation.gov.uk: The Scottish Landfill Tax (Standard Rate and Lower Rate) Order 2026
- Newcastle University: Coherent Campus soft landscaping specification
Every rule, rate and date above was checked against these sources on the date shown at the top.
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