Posts Tagged landscape designer

How Much Does Landscaping Cost?

This is a question wondered by anyone who is new to the landscaping scene. Whether one decides to hire a professional or they opt for a do-it-yourself project, cost will always be a major concern. And, unfortunately, regardless of how you decide to landscape, be prepared to shell out thousands of dollars. That’s right… landscaping is not a cheap venture. This is especially the case if you hire a professional. Don’t believe me? Just see for yourself. Call up a landscaping professional and ask them How Much Does Landscaping Cost? Chances are they will want to set up an appointment for an onsite estimate. And when they’re done, you can expect figures between $5,000 and $30,000 depending on the size of your land and your home’s value. But don’t let that discourage you from landscaping your property. If you can’t afford the Full Monty from a professional landscaper, you can break the project up into parts. This includes doing parts of the job yourself along with utilizing free resources. Yes, you read that right… there are actually free resources that can help lower your landscaping costs. Some of them are sponsored by the government in an effort to promote environmentalism. A specific example can be seen in Seattle, where there’s a city-sponsored program that allows homeowners to plant 10 to 40 trees, completely free of charge. Another strategy could involve using a landscape designer. However, try to forgo doing the obvious… calling them and asking “How much does landscaping cost?” If you do this, they’re going to want to talk you into designing everything in hopes of realizing a bigger profit. So, instead draw up your own landscaping plans before you even talk to them. If you need help doing this, there are a plethora of landscaping programs that are designed with the beginner in mind. Anyway, once you have completed your plans, send them to the landscape designer. They will only charge you $1,000 or less to help you see your plans to fruition. Of course, you’ll still need to think about the labor, but at least the design part has been effectively taken care of. Now, let’s discuss how to deal with labor, when you’re trying to reduce your overall landscaping cost. Here you have three options:1. Hire a professional for tough projects only, (such as hardscaping)2. Get friends and family to do planting work, (as this is pretty easy to do). 3. Use a mom-and-pop landscaping company. If this still doesn’t help you, consider additional payment options, such as a home equity loan or using a secured credit card. In summary, don’t be afraid to ask professional landscapers “How Much Does Landscaping Costs” Sure, the answer may not be very pleasant to hear, but if you break down each of your landscaping projects, you can still build your dream garden.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Landscape Design For Homes in Houston Texas

Have you cut out and collected pictures of great landscaping ideas, but now wonder how to actually put them onto your own property? Have you wanted to capture the vision of a stately French mansion on your property in Houston, Texas? Would you like to know whether the plants you’ve admired in European and New England countryside estates will grow on the Texas coastal plains?

If so, you need the services of an experienced residential landscape design professional. A competent landscape designer or landscape architect takes you through the entire design development process, which includes: consultation and program development, analysis of the existing site, conceptual landscaping design, construction documentation and permitting. And then on towards turning the vision in your mind from virtual reality to actual reality.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Professional Landscape Maintenance

Professional landscape maintenance is the systematic growth management of the organic synergy of your property. All vegetation ultimately works together to both the foundation for and keynote elements of every traditional-style landscape. What you pay good money to install continues to develop after the landscape designer leaves, and it needs professional landscaping maintenance to grow in a healthy and aesthetically pleasing direction. If maintained professionally, vegetation on all levels will literally evolve the landscape before your very eyes. If shortcuts are taken with DIY maintenance attempts, or if vegetation care is turned over to amateurs, the landscape will lose its value.
Understanding what professional landscape maintenance truly entails will help you better make an informed decision about what to invest in, and in whom to invest your money.
Gardens
Expensive gardens require professional landscape maintenance that will ensure their continued vitality and intended aesthetic function. All share a common need for the basics of plant maintenance that include the essentials of trimming, fertilizer, and water. While these may appear at face value to be very simple tasks, they can become very complicated in direct proportion to the style of the garden and the type of plants that are growing in it.
This is due to the fact that specialty gardens may feature unusual plant species that cannot be maintained with generic methods. One species may benefit from a certain cultivation or fertilization technique, while a species growing right next to it can wither and die from the very same treatment. Investing in a professional landscaping maintenance agreement that retains the original landscaper as the “gardener on call,” so to speak, ensures that your investment in that special French garden, Italian landscape, or Renaissance-style knot garden will continue to beautify your yard beyond the first few seasons of its planting.
Parterre gardens,
Parterre gardens rely on shrubbery for border and basic form. This shrubbery has to be trimmed from the perspective of the big picture of the garden and not just the individual plant. Additionally, the gravel foundation of parterre gardens functions as a drainage system for the plant life it surrounds. This gravel has to be turned over periodically to prevent standing water from forming that can damage the plant life in the garden. Professional landscaping maintenance agreements help ensure that both the aesthetic and functional elements of the parterre garden remain true to form and viable in expression throughout the year.
Knot Gardens
Knot gardens go hand in hand with a passion for flowers and a love for herbs. The first knot gardens, in fact, were fragrant herb gardens carefully planted to mimic Elizabethan embroidery designs and pre-Roman Celtic symbols. As such, this type of garden has always relied on a blend of very diverse plant material arranged to encourage the intention of intertwining different species into a new synthesis of organic expression. Maintaining such a blend of vegetation without knowledge of each interdependent species is virtually impossible from the perspective of generic yard services. Professional landscaping maintenance is an absolute must for preserving the vitality and ensuring the continued growth of a classic knot garden or any of its many modern derivatives.
Trees
Turning amateurs lose on your trees is the equivalent of evolving your landscape in reverse. A big tree looks virtually indestructible when you stand underneath it. It is easy to assume that pruning the tree, landscaping around it, and lighting it is a simple task that anyone with a ladder, a pair of gloves, and a few basic tools can do.
This is a great way to kill a tree by cutting off too many limbs or severing a vital root. Damage to bark, as insignificant as it may seem, leaves the tree vulnerable to parasites and bacteria that can kill it with infestation and disease. Never trust people who mow lawns to sculpt the pillars of your landscape. Such people may assist in tree removal after a hurricane blows one down, but asking them to maintain the vitality of a tree often takes the tree down before the hurricane has a chance to arrive.
Instead, hire a professional landscaper for any and all tree maintenance, including installation of any garden or flower bed around the base and root system of the trunk. Never try to install tree lights yourself or let a freelance “tree lighting contractor” around your favorite oak. Let a professional landscaping maintenance contractor find you an outdoor lighting design company who will safely light the tree without damaging it.
Shrubbery
Maintaining shrubbery involves more than trimming the top of shrubs. Many shrubs are sculpted to resemble other forms and need an artistic touch beyond simple pruning. As resilient as the shrubbery itself may be to amateur attempts at maintaining it, its form and function as a design element can be significantly damaged to the point it no longer works with the landscape. Professional landscapers should always be brought in to handle any trimming that needs to be performed to maintain the appearance of garden or perimeter shrubbery. They should also be called anytime there is an anticipated hard freeze during the winter or a particularly violent windstorm brewing on the horizon. Professionals can cover your bushes and shrubs to protect them from severe elements and give them a better chance at surviving harsh weather in a form that continues to work with your landscape.
Written Agreements
Professional maintenance can be obtained from a reputable, established landscaping company anytime you recognize a need for it. However, pay as you go services can quickly add up to considerable costs if you think only of short term investment and immediate gain. Exterior Worlds is always willing to work with any client to establish a written landscaping maintenance agreement that allows the homeowner to invest in ongoing services at a reasonable price with expected intervals of service and consistently satisfactory outcomes.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts