01/23/12

Welcome to Garden Designs For the Prairies

For a  design drop me a line at aruuki@gmail.com

Although my favourite style of design is softscape, which is using perennials to create a layering of colour and texture with shrubs and trees, over hardscaping, I continue to work with all forms of design. One of the main trends is the practical low maintenance approach, but the use of grasses, and especially leaf colour is huge in design right now. In any design paying strict attention to easy of maintenance, water use, and all season beauty is a must.

Your Design

At our first meeting, meeting you at your house and walking through the grounds, I ask you a ton of questions on what you are looking for. I need a copy of your Real Property Report and if you have pictures of things you like and things you don't like those would be very helpful. In order to get a design that you like you need an idea of what you want and the style and budget that you are comfortable with. (On average; soil, sod, a caliper tree and some front shrubs cost around $20,000.00.  Usually my designs also include patios, water features, lots of colour through perennials, flowering shrubs, and gravel areas. Generally the installation costs usually start around $30,000.00 to $50,000.00. (Don't worry, I also do very small designs for small planters or patios too.))

After our walk through, we generally figure out where all of the patios, paths, focal points and trees go. We also site out where shrubs and perennial gardens should go. I charge $350.00 + GST and this usually takes a couple of hours. We draw everything out and mark in options.

If you want to continue to a full design, then I will create:

I charge $1350.00 + GST (This includes the $350 from our first meeting). One note, though, for acreages I charge $1900 + GST simply because of the large volume of plant choices and time needed.

Most designers would go back to the office and create your design. I add one extra step.

I add a second meeting. About 2 weeks later, I come back with quick hand sketches. I always create the design you asked for, though, often the land lends itself to other possibilities. So, I like to throw out different ideas of concepts that I like and different hardscape materials. At this point you look at the different designs and start mixing and matching, inserting and deleting design elements, making all of your mulch, brick, or cement choices. I also bring in a laptop and we look at the pictures of the plants that would best fit in the yard, that way you can add ones you like or delete others . These steps are important because in this way you have a clear hand in designing your own yard. Don't worry though, if you make the wrong choice I will help you through it. Unfortunately this takes the "Tada" out of the presentation of the final design because you made all of the choices.  And yes, you are pretty tired by the end of the 2 hours from going through all those options.

I then go back to the office and draw up your design on the computer.

In the third meeting, about a week later, I present you with the design, and the construction details and we review the choices we made in the second meeting. Usually this only takes an hour. As well I give you the plant care package with a little write up on each of the plants used in the design. A good proportion of my designs are for homeowners that are doing the work themselves. I divide the work up into areas that should be done each year. For these clients, I will provide a link to my online step by step tutorial. Each on the individual steps involved in your landscape is explained and will hopefully help you create a better landscape.

In addition, many of the clients want to do the grunt work and have me come in and do the finishing work (I charge separately for this service, $55.00/ hour). I will come in before you start, get you going, check on you (If you veered off course, get you back), and then come to do the finishing work once everything is done correctly.

I always make a design so that I or any other landscaper could look at the design and give you a quote. My company can definitely do the landscaping for you but for many years now I have been booking 6 months to a year in advance.