The Landscaping Process

If you have ever had professional landscaping done to your house, then you know that it can be a pricey endeavor. The money to be made in the landscaping business explains the countless number of professional landscaping companies that exist all over the country. But who do you hire? Do you look to a contracting company to do the design and construction, or do you hire a designer and contract the building to the company? Or maybe hire a designer and do the planting yourself? As you can see, just getting the job started can be a confusing issue. As a student currently going for my bachelor's degree in landscape horticulture, I will do my best to explain the most efficient, cost effective way to go about the process of landscaping your property.

Many people just decide to hire a company that does the entire process; design, construction, and planting. But this is usually not the best way to go. The main reason for this is because most landscape companies are very weak in the design department, if they even have a designer at all. It is true that a company that has access to heavy machinery is necessary to do things like level the ground or move large boulders, but a good designer is trained to work with the landscape, and can often save the client thousands of dollars by avoiding large costly tasks like this and using the landscape to your advantage. A landscape designer or architect knows how to work with the landscape to create larger spaces, shade parts of the house, block wind, and use different shapes, textures, colors, and locations of certain plants to create a more soothing environment. This is something that the average landscape contractor does not know, and it almost always shows in the final design.

Trained designers go through an entire design process that includes multiple drawings, each consecutive one becoming more detailed. This allows both the designer and the customer to know what the landscape will look like before planting or construction is even started. This also allows the customer to change different things that they don't like before it is too late.