Initial Site Visit
We are primarily a design build company. This means that each garden is custom designed to fit the client, their site, the architecture of their house, and their budget. (We can also bid your installation if you already have a design).The process begins with a complimentary visit to your property to assess it’s challenges and opportunities, to hear your ideas and to offer some of our own. At that time, an estimate will be given for the cost of design work, and you will be given a list of former clients to contact for references and Testimonials.

Base Plan and Concept Sketches
The design begins with a scaled drawing showing the existing features which are to remain – your house, property lines, mature trees, and features such as driveways, patios etc. Once this base map has been created, Kate makes several quick concept sketches showing different configurations, locations and sizes for the desired hardscape elements – items such as walkways, vegetable gardens, sitting areas, focal points etc.

Second Meeting and Final Plan
These drawings are then reviewed on site at a second meeting. Often you will prefer one of the sketches over the others, and we’ll simply make modifications to it in response to your feedback. Sometimes several ideas from different sketches are pulled together to create a hybrid drawing, and sometimes we will develop an entirely new scheme together.

After this second meeting, Kate can usually complete the plan, including plant choices for the major plants (trees and large shrubs), with an accompanying plantlist for the smaller plants. (At the time of installation, plantings are designed “on the ground”  - a much better system than following a fixed plan on paper, since one can place plants in relation to different viewpoints and more accurately position them to screen or frame a view, shade a given area, etc.)

Cost Calculations for Installation
Once the design is completed, we will bid the installation in two versions. A “deluxe version” usually uses larger plants and more expensive hardscape options (flagstone rather than crushed rock paths, for example), and includes optional features such as fountains, boulders, berms, and dry creekbeds which may be desirable but are not essential to the integrity of the plan. In the “budget version”, the plan is interpreted in the least costly manner possible, without sacrificing quality.

In addition, we’ll often separate areas geographically – front yard, back yard, phases one, two or three. In this way, you can spend your landscape dollars on the things you truly care about. Some clients want lots of huge boulders and are willing to wait for small plants to grow, others would rather do one part of the yard as nicely as possible, and leave the remainder for a future phase.

Contracts and Scheduling
Once you’ve decided how you’d like to proceed, a contract is drawn up and your job goes on our schedule. We do only one or two landscapes at a time, which means that although we usually can’t begin “right away”, once we do arrive the job goes quickly and smoothly, minimizing disruption and maximizing efficiency. Kate and her crew will work on your project every single day until the project is completed.

After Care
Once the job is complete, you will be supplied with written maintenance instructions, and we’ll demonstrate the operation and maintenance of your irrigation system. Approximately three months after completion, we’ll return to replace any plants that may have died. The remainder of the work we do – irrigation, walkways etc. – is guaranteed for a full year.