Preparation Before Consultation

Winter is an excellent time to begin planning a landscape design, and a landscape professional can provide helpful advice and direction. To make your meeting more successful considerable thought and preparation is needed on your part.

First, determine your life-style needs. Do you have children, and if so, what are their ages? This will determine if you need a swing set or any other play area provisions. Do you want to do any entertaining that may require large lawn or deck? You might require some service space for practical needs such as a clothesline, tool shed or vegetable garden.

Most people also look for a landscape requiring little maintenance. How will the yard look from inside the home? If you happen to have large windows, special plantings may be necessary to maximize the view o shade the window. Unwanted views may need to be screened with rows or groupings of plants.

The possibility of future remodeling or additions to the home is another consideration. A transient life-style requires plants that grow and serve their intended function quickly. If you plan to stay in one place for awhile the landscape can be filled with less mature plants which will grow in time.

The next step is to gather information in order to determine your likes and dislikes. Thumbing through magazines, books and newspaper articles for different landscape styles is a good idea. Driving around and viewing different yards is also helpful as is talking with neighbors and friends about their lawns and gardens.

Once you have determined your landscape likes and dislikes, you need to review the different kinds of individual plants you like and list them. Consider long needles or short
needles on evergreens, rigid or soft shapes and color preferences.

Next, determine your priorities. The lawn is usually laid first in order to get out of the mud as quickly as possible. Either the front foundation plantings or any large shade trees which take the longest time to grow should follow. Then consider major screening needs. Background shrubs and flower beds should also be considered.

A landscape plan can be divided into short and long term projects. Keep in mind that the sum of the partial projects will be higher than the initial total due to starting and stopping expenses for each project.

A general rule of landscape budgeting is to spend approximately 10 percent of the value of your home and property. Your landscape is a permanent investment in home improvement, and the initial outlay will considerably increase in value over the years when it is properly conceived and later on cared for.

After laying the groundwork of careful consideration of your landscape tastes and needs, you are now ready to meet with a landscape professional to create your landscape masterpiece.