Professional Landscaping Design

What makes professional landscaping design, as you call it, different from yard service companies?
First and foremost, professionals work to create a sense of expansiveness in the yard. Property is always worth more when it looks larger than it actually is. Whereas the yardman trims vegetation to create more open space, the professional landscaper actually fills space with structures and forms that make the property look more occupied, more livable, and thus larger as a result. Much more than vegetation and gardening is needed in order to do this. Landscaping companies will often truck in large trees to help extend the view, or to create a natural barrier between the homestead and an adjacent lost. Other structures such as outdoor rooms, fireplaces, fire pits, special patios, and arbors can make a yard appear up to 2 or 3 times its actual size. A sense of fluidity and motion can then be integrated into the landscape through the installation of walkways and driveways. This fluidity helps to unite the many elements throughout, and to harmonize architecture with Nature and human living experience.

Who benefits the most from professional landscaping design?
Most of our clients are owners of custom homes valued at a million dollars or more. However, it is not uncommon for us to work for clients living in homes valued between half a million and a million dollars. Many of these individuals purchased their homes when they were valued at less than $500,000 dollars, and they are now looking to make improvements both to their houses and to the surrounding properties that will maximize the resale value of their property.

Certain features, such as custom gardens, special landforms, ornamental water fountains, and exterior structures can only be added effectively under the management of a professional landscaping design firm. If these things are done by a yard services company or an amateur contractor(s), then they most often will not work harmoniously together. The money will be wasted, and the resale value of the home will subsequently be diminished.

Do I need professional landscaping design for pool installation or renovation?
Absolutely. If you hire a swimming pool company directly, more than likely you will get a great looking pool that does not look so great in respect to the rest of the landscape. Swimming pools are a symbol of a luxury lifestyle, and as such must convey an aesthetic that extends beyond themselves. This means that the pool must be built in such a way that it reflects the architecture of the home and the surrounding keynotes of the landscape. Think of the pool as the mirror, and the professional landscaping designer as the maker and polisher of that mirror. The pool contractor can provide better results for you if the landscape professional first designs a master plan into which the pool fits like a central hub with many spokes of functionality and aesthetics leading to and from its central position.

What type of patio should I have installed around my pool?
Concrete is a good and affordable material to use for building a patio, but plain concrete lacks the aesthetic to do justice to a truly high-end property. It makes better investment sense to have your landscaping professional upgrade its appearance through staining or coloring. This makes it more noticeable to the eye, and it will still have the same reliable, durable qualities it has always been known for.

However, if you really want to go all out in upgrading the look of your property, consider investing in a more sophisticated material. Professional landscape design experts frequently lay pavers over a concrete base that provides the same hard, reliable surface, but have a much more Old World look reminiscent of cobblestone. They can also create a patio out of almost any type of stone, including limestone, sandstone, quartzite, and slate, just to name a few.

What questions should I ask a professional landscaping design company to determine if they are legitimate?
Ask to see a business license, and make sure they are bonded. Written references are to be expected as standard protocols, and pictures of case histories either online or in print media should also be made available to you.

Equally important is the questions that the professional should ask you. Do not work with anyone that tells you what you need without asking you what you want. Work with someone that asks you to express yourself, listens, then asks you more questions to clarify your expectations. More than likely you “feel” what you want more than know how to say it. Part of the job of the designer is to help you put your feeling into words, and your words into form.