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Landscape Design & Installation

COLIN MARCHANT – COSTATA LANDSCAPE DESIGN

Qualified horticulturalist and genuine people person, Colin Marchant is passionate about the natural spaces surrounding our homes.  Owner of local business Costata Landscape Design (named after Colin’s favourite tree, Angophora Costata, better known as the Sydney Red Gum), it’s immediately clear on meeting Colin that creating beautiful gardens is much more than just a job to him, it’s one of the joys in his life.

Starting his own business in 1990 mowing lawns, Colin’s ambition to pursue his love of gardening and landscape design prompted him to enroll at Ryde Horticultural College, graduating in 1996.  A combination of great people skills and exceptionally high service standards saw Colin’s clientele grow rapidly to the point where today, the majority of new business results from word of mouth referral.

A significant point of difference in Colin’s business approach is the fact that when a client engages his services, he is there from concept through to completion.  While the more labour intensive work is outsourced to his team of trusted sub-contractors, Colin supervises the entire process, ensuring minimal disruption to people’s lives with maximum impact on completion. 

With an understanding that each person’s needs, wants and lifestyles vary significantly, Colin always works on his design concepts in close partnership with his client.  At the same time he makes it a point to carefully assess each property in order to understand how to maximise its opportunities while finding the best ways to work with any limitations.  The use of as much natural stone and timber as possible is high on Colin’s agenda, as is a belief that gardens in all their natural glory be celebrated rather than excessively controlled and contained with artificial ‘outdoor room’ devices.  

Flexibility is paramount to Colin’s success in business also.  Whether the design process culminates in the production of detailed plans and sketches or the vision becomes a reality through Colin’s management, the client is free to make that choice at the end of the day.

Colin’s decision to join the Wild Fig Service Alliance was made based on his perception that collaborating with a network of businesses that complement rather than compete with one another would be beneficial to his clients as well as his own business.  Since joining as a Professional Partner, this perception has become a reality, with Colin making some positive alliances with other members of the group.  Colin added that joining the group has also been “fabulous for my own sense of who I am and where I am in business.”

An avid surfer, reader and family man, Colin revels in “the simple things in life” enjoying spending time at the beach and at home with his wife and 2 teenage sons.  With all his business concentrated on the Coast, Colin is free to enjoy a healthy balance between work and play (with his passion for gardens, it would be safe to say that there’s often a fine line between the two).