What did she say when you told her what your budget was? Is there a possible compromise between your ideas and what you can afford? Could you stage it over a number of years?

I also wanted to have a designer do my front and side yards, but I just didn't have the $$ to get a designer to do it.

But I was nosing around on a few local nursery's webites last week and found that many of them offer design services on an hourly basis. One of the has 3 options:
-Onsite Design: they come out and measure, go back, draw up a design and you implement it. That's $85 per hour, and with it, you must pay for travel 1 way.
-Inhouse Design: you pickup their kit, draw out your own space, take pics return it to them. They give you an idea of the design costs, you pay for 1/2 then, and 1/2 when you pickup the design. This is $75/hour
-Inhouse Sketch: again, you pickup their kit, draw out your space, take pics, set an appointment and return it to them. After a quick consult, they ask you to "shop" for 60-90 minutes while they sketch up your plan. They limit this to 500sf, due to the time constraint. This is only $65/hour.
Since the Inhouse sketch is so cheap and my space is relatively small, I think I'm going to go that route.

I checked with other nurseries, and it seems that this is kinda the "going rate" for our area.

So, I would encourage you to check with some of the larger locally owned garden centers in your area to find out if they have design service available. It seems much more economic than a free-lance designer.

Designers are not like dentists, where they all do more or less the exact same thing in the exact same way, with the same skill set.

A "nursery" designer may or may not have any training, credentials, or experience. They may or may not push the use of plants of which they have a surplus in stock. One of the reasons it's less expensive, is because you will be purchasing the plants from them, and they make a profit there, about 50% where I live.

If you are looking for a fairly generic design, a foundation planting or simple border, you may be OK with choosing a designer based on price, and you may get lucky and find that the nursery has employed someone with talent. I would, however, wonder how will you get any kind of continuity or sense of overall unity if they will only work on 500 sq. feet at a time. The landscape needs to function as whole, not just as a series of disconnected plantings, and what you do in one area is going to affect what you will do in another.

Same goes for a "free-lance" designer. You should look at a portfolio of completed work if you want to make sure you're getting what you want.

I would be inclined to spend more on design portion with an experienced and talented designer, and implement the plan over time as funds allow.

Here is a pretty good website for design information. There are lots of books on design, a search of this forum for books will turn up recent discussions.

Here is a link that might be useful: link

If you are going to go the nursery designer route, try to get a referral. I had someone come out from our local nursery and was very disappointed. I had two goals:

1. Identify the shrubs, etc, at our new house that I couldn't identify myself.
2. Give me some general design ideas - mainly for discussion and brainstorming purposes.

Seemed like a good deal -- $150 for 1.5 hours. Well, her design advice was very run of the mill. And she misidentified most of the things I wanted her to identify for me. E.g. I was pretty sure the plants along my house were daylilies, but never having grown them, I deferred to her insistence that they were tradescantia (spiderwort). So I planned a bed around the blue flowers -- guess what -- orange daylilies of course. She also told me a shrub was a portugese laurel, when in fact it is spurge laurel. Told me my rhodos/azaleas were beyond redemption and had to come out -- with some judicious pruning and cleanup they are looking beautiful and were gorgeous in bloom in the spring.

So be careful!

That said, going rate for a design only around here seems to be about $800-$1500, so maybe get another quote.

Good luck! I decided to try and tackle things on my own, but I'm rethinking that already. I just don't feel that I necessarily have the perspective to make the most of the plot of land. I can do a basic garden, but that's not what I want. :-)

If you feel you can design the landscape yourselves, there are lots of good books out there about different kinds of landscape design - but the first step is to think about what you want. Japanese garden, low-water native plants, tropical look, cottage garden style, Mediterranean style, etc. Think about how you want to use the garden - will you do outdoor entertaining and, if so, do you need a barbecue/dining area with some shade overhead, or perhaps you want a cutting garden for flower arranging? Need an area for your kids to play, or perhaps a veggie garden? Want a water feature, or maybe a low-water succulent garden? Books are available for ALL these kinds of gardens, plus many more! You can break up your property into smaller garden "rooms," and each can be as different as you like.

BUT, whether you do it entirely yourselves or hire someone to help with the basic design, leaving you to do the actual installation, you've got to do your homework first and figure out what your budget AND time frame is. You'll save a lot of money by purchasing smaller plants, which is great if you're not in a hurry. Perhaps the $40K plan called for a lot of large, mature trees and other large specimen plants. The tree which is only $20 in a 5 gallon pot can easily be $250 - $500 in a 24" box! If you allow a few extra years for your landscape to mature you can save a huge amount.

I don't know where in the U.S. you are, but here in San Diego County many garden designers charge $75/hour and up. It could be money well spent to hire someone knowledgable to come up with the plan but one designed for you as the homeowners to install. Contact your local garden clubs and ask for references to local designers. Sometimes, depending on what you want, a "landscape architect" will specify a great deal in the way of hardscape (walkways, patios, shade structures) that costs a lot to have a professional do, but spend far less on the actual plants. You might want to hire a "garden designer" instead if there isn't much hardscape involved, or if you feel confident you can do that part yourselves and mostly need help with the plant selection and placement. Good luck!

inkognito: We have not replied to her yet, though her quote was over $1K of what she has verbally estimated during her visit. We do need quite a bit of hardscape work upfront (where she had made notations that some of these were "contractor issues" including the drainage plan and she was more concerned about the overall "look.") She also mentioned bringing in an arborist to look at some of our root issues of mature trees over grasses.

thisismelissa: Thank you for the suggestion of using a nursury for design. A friend of ours has recommneded a lady that will help with plant selection which we are considering using at a later point; however, first we are looking for ideas how to define/redefine our planting beds and hardscape--as that is the more expensive/permanent part that needs to be done upfront.

saypoint: Thank you for the link. I will check it out. I love the idea of a phased in approach--though we do need to address our retaining wall, drainage, hardscape and fence upfront--all $$ items :(

kalieamn: Thank you for the warning about getting references. I'm toying around with idea of doing the hardscape design ourselves and having hte contractor do the drainage plan since she does not get invloved in that anyway. We havge a general idea where we want to have pathways and much of the patio is already there--though we want to replace/modify it, plus the designer said she does not do a drainage plan anyway; then bring in a designer later with help with plant selection and perhaps finding one that works on an hourly basis.

susi_so_calif: We actually have a pretty general idea how we want to build on/change the present design--after living in the house for 15-years; though there are a few problem areas where we are looking for ideas and solutions. Interesting distinction about the architect vs. designer--as she had mentioned she was not an architect and would focus more on plants, but right now I feel we need more focus on the drainage/hardscape and just definiton/fine tuning of planting beds--which is the part that will need to be phased in.

Given the amount of money you will spend on drainage and hardscape, I think this is where you should spend money on a designer with experience in those areas. Once the hardscape is in, you won't be changing it anytime soon, and may have to live with mistakes for a long time. Even a consultation on an hourly basis to go over what you propose to do would be a good idea, IMO. I'd call around and look at portfolios of some designers who do hardscape. They may be able to suggest subtle changes to your ideas that will take your design from serviceable to stunning.

The planting design portion is much more forgiving of mistakes. You can move plants or take them out if they don't work, without incurring too large a financial loss.

saypoint: I would love to find a designer to work on an hourly basis; however, would it be a designer or a landscape architect? The designer we met was rather vague saying some things were "contractor" issues--like how different hardscape would meet up with our stucco/weap screet as well as the drainage plan. I found more knowledgeable advice from the two contractors we met in terms of these two items; however, they were weak on plant care/selection as well as which plants to keep and which to remove. Is this the typical focus/detail for designers or just her business model?

You could certainly try to find a landscape architect who would be willing to work on a small project, but unless you are in a very rural area, there should be designers in your area who know enough about hardscape construction to be able to help you create a design that could be installed by others. The key is experience with hardscape design -- you don't want someone to design something that will look fabulous but cost twice as much to install as a generic design.

You might also find a contractor who has installed enough well-designed hardscapes to have some creative ideas about use of materials or ways to tweak a plain design to make it both functional and beautiful.

It sounds like the designer you met has little or no hardscape experience or knowledge of construction and drainage techniques. More of a "garden designer" than landscape designer. It may take some extra homework on your part to find the right person for the job.

Then again, you may be confident that you can design your own with the guidance of the installation contractor. When I was putting in a patio and walks, I knew more or less what I wanted, but didn't want to be making decisions on the fly while the heavy equipment was idling in the yard, about details I may not have thought about beforehand. I hired a designer to help me with the design and produce a drawing the contractor could refer to. Everything was specified: base materials, surface materials, edge treatments, lighting locations, number of steps, height of low retaining walls, and orientation of patio and walks to house and existing garden elements. Nothing was left to chance, and the detailed drawing meant I could get multiple bids on the exact same work if I wanted to.

This was in stark contrast to my first patio installation, when I lived in another state. A mason from the yellow pages assured me he was the man for the job, and he and his buddy gave up hand-digging the sod out for the base and poured concrete right on top of the grass (they talked me out of brick on sand). They mortared on a soldier edge, put brick on top, and dumped sand on it, which of course washed right out of the gaps as soon as it got wet. Abbott and Costello, I think, was the name of the company, or it should have been. Fortunately, we moved away while it still looked decent and left it for the new owner to deal with.

saypoint: You make a very valid point for not designing on the fly and I'm making a note of all of those variables to work in our plan upfront. When I worked with an architect for our home remodel, my DH and I did much of the "design" ourselves--just by knowing our existing home and lifestyle and looking at similar homes in the neighborhood and open houses. I literally spent hours driving around the neighborhood taking pictures of houses with architectural features that I liked,poured over magazine and tore out photos and tweaked my designs on graph paper and design software. The outside leaves me stumped how to graph it out as I can't divide it up like I did the house: i.e. kitchen, master bath, etc. I do have a set of plans with property dimensions which is a place to start. I'd even be willing to get some landscape design software (as long as it's not too complex) so I could create elevations--something the designer wouldn't even do.

I'm probably most challenged with the backyard--which could be another option to have someone design that and not the front--as the front yard I get lots of ideas from the neighborhood and it's more of a public space. It's pretty much dominated by a huge Sycamore tree and we know we want the pathway to arch from the driveway to the entry and then over to the opposite side yard where we plan to add a gate and bike shed behind the gate. The softscape has always been a challenge between having a northern exposure and the shade from the Sycamore tree--but that is phase 2 in my mind.

It's in the backyard, we have the retaining wall and are planning a more complex/$$ patio, possible arbor, rear back area for a patio swing, side yard to have a raised vegetable bed, plus bike/garden shed. Lots going on--without even getting into the softscape.

Many of the architects we met with did not impress me with their creativity and though we worked closely with two, they were more in terms of specifying the construction details for our design. Same was true of our kitchen and I did lots of reseach on the kitchen forum and gots lots of valuable feedback in the process. Right now, I'm in the fact gathering stage; though we're also on a time schedule since our patio is so chopped up right now and the kids are tracking in dust and dirt on my new floors. Most pressing is that I have to finalize our exterior paint choice--which is why we've been focusing on hardscape materials to get a feeling for the overall hardscape color scheme.