I'll check it out and return for a reaction!

Okay, I read the whole post and it is indicative of the economic problem in our country. Here is a landscape designer with a fine reputation who is struggling with the task of creating a design for $10,000 in a million+ home. That pretty much says it all, Ida. Economic concerns have fallen over everyone, like a quiet New England snowstorm that happens in the middle of the night: you wake up to a new world.

I'm guessing that garden design will be impacted by enviornmental factors more and more... that is, xeriscaping in arid climates, fewer exotic plantings and less lawn for all. It is too difficult and expensive to "fight" Mother Nature.

What saddens me is that I can see a negative future for landscape designers and workers, garden centers, garden clubs, and garden lovers as the idea of a garden becomes a luxury. If unemployment continues to rise and people worry more about their financial future.....then ?

Molie

Marie,
Interesting thread I think the OP and all those that responded are magnifying how every one of us through out the country and likely through out the world are in a holding pattern waiting to have a better understanding of what our economic future will mean to our individual budgets.
I happen to currently be traveling through the Mid-Atlantic trying to get a feel for whether or not the region would be a good fit for a second home. I have spent a lot of time making connections with realtors and looking at properties in three different states. My impression will come as no surprise to you that the American landscape is plastered in for sale signs with empty real estate offices. I should mention that no where have I seen that prices have dropped but the agents clearly stress that the price is negotiable.
Unfortunately for me I have discovered that what I was looking for (30 partially cleared rural acres 30-45 minute drive to urban center) is a thing of the past, It appears that all of the larger tracts of land were bought up sub divided and are now filled with empty overly built empty homes (for sale..cheap). To exemplify this yesterday I stopped in Oriental, NC a small beach town on the coast. The streets were not only lined in for sale signs but it was clear that there were more realty offices than a community of that size could (or should) support. The century 21 agent was only able to come up with one property in the county that met my criteria. The price seemed too good to be true but what the heck I was willing to look and please keep in mind that the quality of this land has been repeated through out my trip, ie 30 acres of shear mountain ect. After driving for seven miles past new empty subdivisions I arrive at the property and I was shocked to discover that the entire 30 acres was swamp, I hopped out of the car to snap a few photos for Joe and was SWARMED by mosquitoes. Yikes were people spending so recklessly over the last few years that it didnÂt seem unreasonable someone would buy these extremely undesirable properties?
Do I think there will be changes in the nursery industryÂyes indeed and not necessarily for the worse, there have many threads complaining about the vast number of new plant introductions that have been disappointing to say the least and questions about the length/quality of field trials and the new aggressive marketing of a plant.
Well tornado warnings are over and I need to hit the road.

Hmm.. It is water front maybe I could get use to wearing muck boots and mosquito netting!

Katy, that gives new meaning to "waterfront" - and as my SIL (and friend) discovered, living on the water may not be worth the price. She recently moved into a town on Long Island after suffering for years in a beautiful, exclusive, and quaint beach community; she was basically indoors all the time at her beach house, because of the skeeters. I'd rather drive to the beach than live in a place where I can't spend time in my yard.

Back to the main topic - here's a direct link to the thread for anyone else who wants to read it.

Here is a link that might be useful: the thread

I must say when I first read the price of 10k for plants I thought it was easy peasy but after adding up the cost of a few choice plants in my yard I realised the landscape dollar doesn't really go that far. It is also one thing to plant a rare specimen from four inch pot in your own yard and be excited about it but I think that same plant would be a tough sell to a new homeowner.

I thought the price of lawn - $3500 for a very small area, something like 25 * 45 feet, was awfully high. The idea that this might be skipped, on the other hand, didn't make sense to me, since that would identify the garden as "to be done" and significantly lower the value of the landscape to any potential buyer.

I see landscape futures differently from Molie; as people give up extravagant vacations and McMansions, they will work harder to make their yards and gardens into sanctuaries, and they'll spend more of their money on design, choice plants, etc. My DH has a small painting company that caters to a very well-heeled clientele; they don't seem to be slowing down as far as taking care of and improving their homes. So far so good ...

How far 10K could go?
My answer is: nowhere.

Here is the ACTUAL budget for the almost finished 7000sf 3.2M house built on 2.35a lot.
-Norway Spruce x9 x 200.00,
-Colorado Spruce x9 x 275.00,
-Montgomery spruce x2 x 200.00,
-Knockout rosa x15 x 35.00,
-Green Velvet boxwood x180 x 20.00,
-Blue Star juniper x40 x 15.00,
-Magic Carpet spirea x 40 x 15.00,
-Oakleaf hydrangea x3 x 70.00,
-Endless Summer hydrangea x15 x 30.00,
-Cornus kousa x2 x 100.00,
-River birch x1 x 250.00,
-Rhododendrons(assorted) x10 x60.00,
-Azaleas (assorted) x12 x 25.00,
-Lawn(approx 5000sf) x1 x 10000.00,
-Top soil x80 x 30.00
-Labor and delivery x1 x 5000.00
-Irrigation system N/A
Total: $ 29.5K

At first glance it seems like a lot of plants, but for 2a property this is just a drop in a bucket.
I live in area where during the house boom era 5000-6000sf houses on 1a lots were selling for 2.5-3.5M (translation-$500 to 600/sf). All those spec houses were delivered landscaped with landscaping allocations being within 7-8% of the construction budget (generaly 35-40% of the selling price). In another words, landscaping (including some hardscaping, irrigation system, lawn, perimeter and foundation planting) WAS in 65-100k.
While those so-called "landscaping" wasn't something special or fancy it nevertheless provided enough carb appeal and at least homy feeling for prospective buyers.
Not anymore!
Right now builders trying to unload their semi-finished or finished specs at steep discounts (to 2005 prices, but still in $400-450/sf price range) and landscaping is something that is on a bottom part of the list of their priorities. One of the insiders to the industry told me that landscaping budgets now cut to 2-3% or not provisioned at all in order to deliver price which is the only competitive advantage they could provide in a saturated market.

This is very interesting, George. Just out of curiousity, is this the budget for the house that was described in the original post/ How did you get it.

The OP is apparently very well known and respected in the landscaping world. Do you know of him?
Marie

Marie, no, it has nothing to do with OP, but it's an actual/real budget from the desk of the local builder.
I was given it to check if he is not overpaying, LOL.