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Professional Help for Landscape Designs So you've bought your first house or perhaps you've finally achieved your retirement dream of five acres in the country. All that outdoor space is a blank tapestry beckoning you to weave it full of color, style, and tranquility. Yet, every time you think about breaking ground, your feeling is one of helplessness and fear. Admit it. You need professional help. Relax, don't feel ashamed. Most landscapes would be more appreciated, if they started with a better design. If only homeowners weren't so macho or naïve to admit that they need professional help. Even avid gardeners that know quite a bit about plants come to recognize that something is just all wrong with their garden layout or design. A garden should be soothing and relaxing, like a glass of fine wine. The last thing you need when you walk outside is to have your garden wake you up like a cup of espresso coffee. Finding a good landscape professional can appear confusing. There are landscape architects, designers, and contractors - or simply "landscapers." Which pro do you need? And once you decide that, how do you find one who you'll like? If solving your problems entails some heavy duty construction such as retaining walls and major changes in slopes, grades, hydraulics and elevations, then perhaps a member of the American Association of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is for you. Those who use this title must have taken a four or five year program at an accredited university and passed a national examination. But if you're the average homeowner with a quarter acre lot or less and a small budget, trying to decide what to interplant with your roses, an ASLA member may not be the way to go. Someone who advertises as a landscape contractor may have an instinct for design, but is more likely to be an installer of plants and decks; the person you call after you have a design. Landscape designers are apt to concentrate more on horticulture and less on hydraulics. But anyone can use the title "designer," so how do you begin to find a good one? Some designers have established enough of a reputation that they get all their business by word of mouth. If you really admire a neighbor's garden and suspect that they had some help putting it together, ask them who designed their plan. And just as hardware stores frequently have names of building contractors, local nurseries can often recommend garden designers. Letting your fingers walk through the Yellow Pages is a pretty hit-or-miss proposition, but landscape designers' ads do give you an idea about their main focus, whether it be natural- scapes, water features, or specific landscape styles like Southwestern, Mediterranean, or Japanese. Your initial phone call to a designer or architect is important. Find out as much as you can in a short time. Explain how big your property is, where it is, and the key changes you think you want to make. You'll learn pretty quickly if your project is too small or too far away from where the designer likes to work. Also ask the designer about credentials - training, years of experience, certification, and professional memberships. See if you can get names and phone numbers of former clients or places where you can see previous work. Tell the designer whether you just want a plan drawn or want to have every brick installed and every annual planted. Of course, you must talk about…money. The designer will ask you, or you should offer what you are willing to spend over how long a period. If the budget is tight or if you are doing the labor yourself, the designer may be happy to talk about a plan that can be carried out in stages over several seasons. Good designers will look at your outdoor spaces with an artist's eye. They are likely to give you more ideas in a couple of hours than you can produce in months. They will guide you in framing a view with trees, or shaping a perennial bed or patio to create an illusion of more space. It's not hard to find a designer to help you bring out the natural beauty of your landscape. Your landscape may literally take on whole new dimensions.
July 10, 2003 |