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An experienced, trained landscape designer can save you money on your plant selections and the overall design of your home’s landscape. Landscape plans can cost anywhere from $300 to $3000. A good designer can visualize possibilities that you may not have thought of, and can select the plants that will work in the cultural conditions of your yard. How can an expensive plan in the $1,000.00 range or higher (gulp) save you money? We’ll get to that. So what do you look for in a
landscape designer? Here’s my short list: Pulling together a landscape
requires some work on the part of the home owner. You need to
have an idea of what you need. To help you through this process, most
good landscape design web sites will have a questionnaire you can fill
out and e-mail to the designer. This questionnaire can be reviewed and
brought to the consultation. Do you want to landscape the front
or back yard? Or both? Do you have full sun? Drainage issues? Do you
have a certain style? Do you have allergies? What type of soil do you
have? Do you have pets or children? It’s a long list of things to
consider. Take a look at my questionnaire on-line. Once you
know what you are looking for, let your designer know. It's part of the
job to take your ideas, edit them as is practical and also build upon
them, exceeding your expectations. To get more information about a designer before calling, take a stroll around her website and see what 's been done for other people. Some designers are tricky. They take one project and take a million pictures, putting different aspects of that single landscape under different categories. Try to find a designer that lists jobs as projects. Then you can see the projects as a whole. You want to see all of the pieces of the puzzle together. And, while a certified designer may have lots of book knowledge, he or she may not have a good eye or the vision it takes to combine plants and hardscape (patios, walls, pathways) into a functional space. Checking the a designer's project work is important. At the consultation, you and the
designer work together; you tell her your ideas and the designer
throws out suggestions as well. Most seasoned landscape designers will
give you not only a functional landscape, but one that fits your needs
and enhances your property. Your vision may not be a balanced one or
one that coordinates with the style of your home. Do you have a hard
time visualizing a 2-D plan into 3-D reality? You can ask your designer
to make 3-D sketches, or sketch on top of photos to give you a sense of
what a concept might look like. Or, less expensive, walk the property
together and have the designer explain what goes where. This should
help enormously. Find out from the designer what her fees are. Some designers work by the hour. If they do, find out about how much time they think it might take to complete a plan. Full landscape plans can range anywhere from 10 hours to 50 hours or more. Do you have a large property--5 acres? or do you have 1/8 acre? It makes a difference. Do you want detailed design work? Or do you want only a bed done in the back? You are hiring a professional who has spent time--years--learning a craft. Do they draw their plans by hand or do they do it as a Computer Aided Design? CAD plans can offer more--detail drawings, separate plant listings, maintenance tips--because databases of information can be stored, you get more information at the touch of a button. Why the variation in costs? No two landscapes and no two home owners are alike. A landscape plan that includes custom trellis design, for instance, will be more pricey. It takes time to design trellises, or ornate wrought-iron fences that are custom made. There are ways to keep costs down. Tell your designer your design budget. And then, as a separate figure, tell her your install budget number. That way she will know which materials to choose to make the dream a reality--a beautiful reality still, but one you can afford. When you go to a nursery for landscape planning advice, expect to get what you pay for. They can't see your property; they don't know the cultural conditions except for what you tell them. Photos are a help, but really, walking the landscape and seeing the topography, the sun pattern, soil issues--it’s all part of designing a plan that works. A good designer will see things that you have never imagined and share them with you as you walk about. These things might be potential issues, such as overly wet spots that might indicate drainage issues. And, they may envision different layouts from what you have imagined that are more effective and fluid. If you want to get to know them,
hire them for a consultation. Pay the
fee--from $50 an hour to $150 an hour depending upon experience--and be
prepared with a list of questions to ask, and a pencil and paper to
write down the answers and any other guidance they give you. Next: sign the paperwork. This protects both you and the designer. You both have a clear idea as to what will happen. The designer knows what you want and you know what you will get. Designing
a landscape is a process. After the consultation and the
paperwork signing, the designer returns after 2-4 weeks (or longer if
they are busy) with draft ideas that are drawn up (in my case, in
AutoCAD). These are potential plans. They can change greatly over the
course of the design process. You can pick and choose which ideas you
like best and they get re-combined into a master plan. But pick and
choose you must, and in a timely fashion. A checklist of what you want
should be established and you should sign off. Your final choices,
then, are taken and made into a master plan. ~ Nancy Tom is an environmental horticulturist who designs, installs and maintains landscapes for Down-to-Earth Gardens, Inc. This article was written for The Redmond Reporter, and The Kirkland Reporter, 2010. ~ Archived
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