Archive for do it yourself garden design

Landscape Design in a Day

It's amazing how much food you can grow in a 4x8 raised bed.

Carol Lindsay loves to create unique, practical and affordable landscape designs using her collaborative Landscape Design in a Day process.

Three years into my career as an independent landscape designer I wanted to create a simpler and more accessible process of affordable landscape design for smaller properties.  The result is Landscape Design in a Day, which works like this:

Step 1:  Using the Design in a Day kit, you answer a few questions and measure your site, saving time and money.

Step 2:  Your designer looks over your work and studies your landscape drawing and photos.

Step 3:  Your designer then interviews you over the phone, using email to further prepare for the design day.

Step 4:  Together, you and the designer create a design tailored to your needs.  Usually the design is created at your kitchen table.  At the end of the design day, you have your design and can start working on your dream landscape right away.  And you helped make it possible.

Landscape Design in a Days are typically $2495, occasionally $1895.  This includes the base drawing kit, flow design, hardscape plan and planting plan for the front or the back of a smaller property.  Most of my clients will install or have the new landscape installed in phases so designing just a front or back works well.

When I created Landscape Design In A Day, LDIAD, I expected to be working with people who wanted to keep it all hands-on. It turns out only about 50% of my clients are DIYers. DIYers like LDIAD because they are ready to roll up their sleeves and do the prep for their design process.  They save money and become more aware of their properties possibilities and they fine tune their wish list by completing the LDIAD kit.  Best of all the design is finished within 10-14 days so our clients are ready to get started.

Not a DIYer?  This process works for clients who want a collaborative design process,  want to save time and money but want the new landscape installed by professionals. These clients typically do their measuring and pre-design work but once the design is completed, they hire one of my fully vetted and talented landscape professionals to handle the installation.

Don’t want to measure and draw your base map? A few clients hire us to do this step as well.  That is an option. The price for preparing the base map ranges from $500 – $1000 for a typical LDIAD property.

LDIAD will provide a to scale landscape design drawing with hardscape materials and plantings.  A plant list with plant name, quantity and size to purchase is included.

First we focus on creating the perfect property flow and layout.  Clients and designer work together and finalize the preferred layout.  Next we focus on creating a planting plan.

Once you have your design you can DIY, use my referred professionals or some other professional that you prefer. That is a benefit to using an independent designer rather than a designer who works solely for an installation company where you are stuck in house only. I’m always available to consult, or refer you to services you need if I don’t have the answer myself.

Post design services are flexible:  Some clients hire me to handle all the details, some work completely on their own and some bring me in to guide plant placement and coach them on planting techniques so they can be more successful as DIY.

Here’s a link to my contact form.  Once I have your contact form I’ll look up your property and be better able to tell you about costs and the benefits of my design service.

Do it yourself garden design

Do it yourself garden design

I really enjoyed working on this Landscape Design in a Day project. Galen did all the measuring and all the work himself (except the concrete patio). This is a great example of what you can do with a plain backyard, some do it yourself garden design initiative, and a little help from your garden designer. I just have to share his kind words.

“Working with Carol was a very enjoyable experience. We knew what we wanted but needed someone to tie it all together to give it that professionally designed look. She listened to what we wanted from our backyard and helped us plan out the best use of space. Our backyard was very small and irregular shaped so it made things very difficult. We wanted the backyard to function as a gathering place but also as a play space for the kids while trying to hide the close proximity of the neighbors. We described our goals and she provided us with 3 different options. Once a design was chosen she expanded on the plan to help us choose the colors and textures of the hardscape and choose plants to best fit the space.

backyard garden designWe served as our own contractors and did much of the work ourselves to keep within our budget and Carol was very mindful of this during the design phase. I would not hesitate to use her again and would recommended her to friends, in fact our neighbors liked so much what she did for us they used her for their backyard as well.”

backyard garden design