A series of systematic excavations were carried out to better understand the garden and its relationship to the building and adjoining features such as the river. Amongst key features discovered were aqueducts, terracotta pipes, fountain mechanisms, wells, siphons, copper pipes. These helped form the brief of the project.
Over 12,300 m (3000 truckloads) of excess earth was scientifically and manually removed from the garden in order to restore the original plot levels and the relationship between the pathways and garden plots. In order to ensure that no underlying archaeology is damaged, the earth was removed manually. Over 25000 sqm of pathways in the garden enclosure needed to be repaired. For this a 10 cms layer of brick aggregate was provided with mooram (course sand) infill. 3200 m of the large Delhi Quartzite pathway edging stones were reset. This required these to be manually dismantled, a lime concrete base provided followed by resetting these in alignment.