Landscape Designer in New Hampshire

Thinking about landscaping in New Hampshire? Trying to decide if you should DIY or hire a professional? I suggest you start by speaking to a Landscape Designer. As a Landscape Designer based in New Hampshire myself, I can help you put together a beautiful plan that will suit your needs and taste. I will also talk to you about your options of DIY or I can also assist you in choosing a contractor for any or all parts that you’d like installed. No matter what your circumstances, speaking to the Landscape Designer as your first stop on the Landscaping journey is a wise choice. A consultation visit with the Landscape Designer will give you lots of ideas and help you envision the special circumstances you may face with your property. You would never build a homewithout doing a plan first. The same idea applies to a quality landscaping project. If you want quality results, you should always start with a plan. I used to work with large landscaping companies.

You wouldn’t believe the number of times that someone came in and had started their landscaping on their

own. They gave up because they said that it looked ‘hodgepodge’ or just didn’t look good. They almost

always said that they wished that they’d started with a plan. Keep in mind that many landscaping

projects take special skill and machinery and are probably best left to the professional installers. But,

there are aspects of the landscape plan that you can certainly tackle by yourself. Having direction helps.

Landscape design is an invaluable tool. Here are some benefits of having a Landscape Design done:

 The design is a great communication tool between the homeowner and the installer so that

everyone knows just what is expected and what is to be done.

 The long-term vision becomes clear.

 You’ll know what you’re getting. No need to guess what plants will be in your beds or what

shape your patio will be.

 An accurate budget is possible only with an accurate plan.

 It’s a great document to refer back to in order to reference things like a plant variety.

 It may be necessary to have a Landscape Design to satisfy State or other agencies when

permitting is required.

 A plan makes it easier to accomplish the project over time. You can refer back to the plan and

continue where you left off.

 The plan is drawn to scale and is easy to read.

So, even if you are doing some (or even all) of the landscaping yourself, consider starting with a

professionally done Landscape Design. And having a plan is very important when having your

Landscaping done by a professional. The company knows the exact materials to order, and the crews

know exactly what to do. You know just what you’ll get.

The amount of money you can expect to pay for a professionally done landscape design can range from

about $1,000 to $6,000 for the vast majority of residential projects. The lower end of the budgeting is

for simpler projects that are not as far travel time and aren’t as difficult to lay out. The upper end of the

price range is for properties that are usually on shorefronts or that require significant hardscaping or

grade aspects. The shorefront properties take extra time and work to implement the NHDES (New

Hampshire Department of Environmental Services) permitting rules, so that is a factor in that type of

pricing. Properties that have a lot of slopes will take much longer to measure and figure out the proper

hardscaping elements. I will always quote you a design fee after I meet with you and review your

property.

Here is the way that my landscape design process generally works:

1. First, you call me and we discuss your needs and we set up an initial consultation visit at your

site.

2. I quote you my design fee, and we sign the landscape design contract. A down payment is

made.

3. I start with obtaining my site measurements. If I need to wait for a NHDES ‘Existing Conditions’

plan or some other special circumstance like that, I’ll let you know what that would entail.

4. Then, I’ll get a ‘Preliminary Plan’ done and email that to you. Along with that plan, I’ll also send

you photos of what the plants look like.

5. We will review that preliminary plan by phone and I’ll make unlimited changes to the plan at this

point in time.

6. The changes will be made, the plan sent back to you, and now the amount of allowed changes

without incurring any additional hourly design fees is going to be reduced according to the

contract.

7. Once any final tweaks are made to the plan, you will deem it to be ‘final’ and the final payment

on the landscape plan will be due.

8. The plan will then be yours! You can then obtain proposals / bids from your favorite Landscape

Installation Contractor for any portion of the project you’d like to get a bid on. You can even

compare ‘apples to apples’ by getting some comparative bids. I do not suggest that you

necessarily choose your contractor by choosing the lowest bid. That should only be one

consideration. Choose wisely. Look at their work. See if they are responsive.

9. If you decide that you need any further assistance from me, just give me a call.

10. That’s my landscape design process in a nutshell (at least at the date of writing this blog post!),

but if you ask me, I’ll send you my actual design contract so that you can review all the details.

Have you ever had an experience like this? You have a Landscape Contractor out to your place because

you’d like a price to do something (let’s say you want an area of your yard to have a small wall with a

patio and a walkway with a planting bed area). The landscaper that you have there doesn’t do

landscape designs. So, you walk around with them, and they pace off a certain area and quote you a

price. Don’t you wonder how they came up with that price? Do you wonder if it’s accurate? Don’t you

wonder just what the final shape of the patio will be? And, really, don’t you wonder just what’s going to

be in that planting bed? If you have a professionally done landscape design, all those questions will be

addressed before you ever get your proposal and before a shovel ever breaks the ground. You will know

what to expect.