New for 2020: Garden Coaching for DIYers

Initial Consult: $320.00

Rate: $80.00 per hour
First two-hour+ site visit with garden walk-through with you
Verbal ideas and suggestions during our visit
Ask me anything about soil, sun, wind, drainage, plants
I will use existing native vegetation as a guideline for your garden
Rough sketches, un-scaled made on site with Sharpie and trace paper for you to keep
Written recap sent via email with photo examples/inspirations tailored to your garden conditions, suggested plant lists pertaining to the areas discussed and resources such as nurseries and other material suppliers

Extended Coaching: $65.00 per hour (after initial consult)

Follow-up site visits to clarify and fine-tune design ideas and answer any additional questions
Nursery visit with you to select plants
Installation questions regarding compost, soil, mulch, amendments
Plant lay-out and other install guidelines on first day of DIY install
Maintenance guidelines and pruning questions answered/demonstrated on site throughout the garden season and in years to come

For site visits outside of a 30 mile radius of my home office, an additional travel charge of .58 cents per mile will be added R/T. All payments are due at the end of each garden coaching session. Check, VISA, MC, AMEX, DISCOVER and VENMO are all happily accepted.

Due to high demand, I am booking new consults starting the middle of June 2020 and the written recap turnaround time is now 14 days.

Formal Design Consultations

Consultations are initial visits to your home, garden or landscape. We meet and we walk through your property and discuss the project goals. After we speak, I take photos to follow up the site visit with a written document outlining ideas and offering example and inspirational garden photos. The written recap also states a quote for formal design – see below. If what I propose is a good match for you and you hire me to do a formal landscape design, the consultation fee is deducted from the formal design fee. Consultations are $160 plus tax.

Formal Landscape Plans/Plant List

Formal landscape plans and plant lists/planting plans serve large projects/gardens, new gardens or landscapes with several program requirements by creating scaled, industry standard documents for installation. At the time of the initial consultation, additional design time is calculated for a design fee and presented in the written recap. Formal plans involve sustained design time and site visits and take from one month to several months, depending on time of year and scope of work. Formal landscape plan packages include a scaled landscape plan, and plant list. Rate: $80.00 per hour. Formal plans start at $2,400.00 and begin with a kick-off meeting, site measurements, site analysis and inventory. As of 2020, I will be using DYNAscape CAD for Landscape Designers. If you have had an initial design consult with me, then a $160.00 credit is applied toward the formal plan cost.

Planting Plans for Landscape Architects/Contractors

When a specialized planting plan is required, I collaborate with landscape architects and other landscape professionals. Together, we assess the site and program requirements so I can develop a detailed planting plan and plant list to support the comprehensive landscape and hardscape design. At the time of installation, I offer Planting Management to place and fine tune the plant materials onsite and answer any planting questions from the landscape contractor, architect and/or homeowner. Rate: $80.00 per hour.

Types of garden projects

Meadow Gardens

meadow garden with thistles

Where is the most obvious place for a meadow garden? The area currently planted with lawn, or that hardpan area at a construction site. Perfect green lawns require staggering amounts of fertilizers, weed killers, and insecticides — chemicals that poison environments and harm insect, bird, fish and other wildlife populations. Insecticides – equal opportunity killers – kill the good bugs along with the pests; fertilizers are dissolved salts and fungicides contain heavy metals. Enter the meadow garden, at base a grassland punctuated with blooming, nectar laden flowering perennials and other broadleaf plants. In Meadows By Design, John Greenlee describes a meadow as “a symphony of color, lights and texture.” A meadow garden is its own living, ecologically-balanced environment composed of ornamental plants and grasses that suit the site conditions without the chemical inputs of lawns.

Gardens for Wildlife and Pollinators

I often receive requests for gardens to attract and sustain birds. Both the diets and nesting sites of birds vary. Some nest in canopy trees while others are ground nesters, preferring the shelter of clump forming native grasses and shrubs. Non-migratory birds require winter shelter in the form of coniferous evergreens. So, creating a habitat for birds is best accomplished with a multi-faceted approach of providing food in the form of insects and berries and shelter via evergreens, understory trees and meadow areas including clump forming ornamental and native grasses. Native plant materials offer the best possible environment for birds, pollinators and other critters of a healthy ecological system.

Construction Remediation

The landscape after a new home construction or remodeling/addition building is often compacted hardpan in which only hardiest of weeds volunteer. In actuality, a bare site fresh off construction is prime for creating a meadow garden of native, hardy and adaptable wildflowers and grasses. Post construction, immediately covering bare earth with meadow plants prevents unwanted weeds and woody volunteers from entering the landscape and prevents erosion. Depending on your budget, we use premium seed mixes from specialty nurseries or plant plugs for a full, more immediate effect. The benefits of a wildflower swath or meadow plantings over formal gardens is lower long term maintenance with less fuel inputs and zero toxic poisons typically required for the traditional turf lawn. Meadow gardens always provide shelter and food sources for pollinators and birds in the form of native wildflowers, perennials and grasses. Typically, meadow gardens require mowing once per year.