"Runyan" wrote in message
om...
I just bought my first home last November. It's old and needs lots of
work. I have just moved to the lawn and garden area of the home. I
have many questions regarding drainage, runoff, retaining walls, grass
type, shrubs, plants (basically everything). I am also a compulsive
do-it-yourselfer. I have been considering two options for a path
forward. 1) Landscape designer or 2) landscape software. I
definitely believe in proper planning before action. Has anyone had
greate success with either of the two above prior to taken action in
their own? If so, how did you select the designer, or the software?

Thanks,
Brian

I hired a professional landscape designer when I moved into my home 6 years
ago. It was expensive, but worth it. The plan included design of the lawn,
shrub, and bedding areas; drainage around the house; a sprinkler system
integrated with the proposed and existing plantings; and a considerable
amount of "soil shifting" around the house, together with construction of a
retaining wall at one side. The plan was plotted to scale on drafting
paper. The original plan was going to involve far too much expense, and
they worked with me to eliminate some features and reduce others. We had
several sessions in which I described the general type of layout that I
envisioned. They worked around those ideas and made many suggestions of
their own. The final result was gorgeous. It is not the type of thing I
could have obtained from computer software or from simply talking to people
in garden centers. I already had a considerable amount of gardening
experience, so I had a lot of ideas -- but the design element became very
important and was not something that I could have done by myself. I added
flagstone walkways and patios a couple of years later, and I used the same
landscape company.

The landscape company/design group I used is a fairly small local company.
I selected them based on word of mouth, looking at properties they had
designed and planted, and telephone calls to references. I also wanted a
company that could integrate all of the elements I described (design,
planting, drainage, sprinkler system). There are not many companies in this
area that can do that. Their designer is a master gardener with a degree in
horticulture. Their price was based on: (1) the original, detailed plan,
including specifications for materials, plants, and labor; (2) I could pay
for the plan itself, or that price would be deducted from my total price if
I used them for the actual landscaping; this could be done on a
proportionate basis if I chose to use them for only part of the plan.
Incidentally, the preliminary plan was reworked (and plotted on graph paper)
several times before I accepted the final version.

MaryL