Where are you at...that will matter.

Thanks keck - -I'm in Fairfield County Connecticut. Sigh.

Based on my experience with buying plants, you're overpaying for a lot of those by a substantial margin. Go around to a few nurseries and see for yourself whether these prices are inflated. In my area (Pacific NW), those plants would be a lot cheaper.

Way, way, way overpriced in my book. I have a lot of experience... interviewed a dozen landscapers when we had our job done last year.

Usually you pay "retail" for the plants and material, and that covers the cost to install which is usually twice the cost of what the landscaper can buy the material for. You're paying $75 each for 18" boxwoods that you can buy for $25-30, plus steep labor on top of that. A total ripoff.

Obviously this person is not cutting you a deal, friend or not. Honestly I think he's 2x the price he should be at.

On second thought I think he's more than 2x the price. I wouldn't even both negotiating just go get other quotes with the same plant list so you can compare apples to apples.

I am not sure of prices in CT but the plants seem way over priced to me. Tell him you will buy your own plants. You can probably get wholesale prices if you buy all at once. And please do not go to just any nursery but go to a grower. A grower will give you the best prices and guarantee their plants with no problem.

I've had a fair amount of landscaping done for my house in the Boston area and the prices have always been shockingly high. Labor costs are high across the board in this region for all types of construction trades -- unlike the West coast we don't have a large supply of cheap illegal immigrant labor.

Markup on plants for the proposals I've gotten was generally double the retail price -- which is shockingly high to begin with. I paid $60 each for my 2 foot boxwoods, and believe me I called around to several nursuries to make sure that was in fact the going rate. For that reason I've had the landscapers just do the "hardscape" work and bed preparation, and I've done the planting myself. I don't have a truck to haul mulch and soil, and I have no desire to learn how to operate a backhoe, but digging a hole and putting in a shrub is not beyond my capabilities.

You haven't really described your garden in enough detail for anyone to opine on the reasonableness of the pricing you're getting. Will the new walk-way be brick, stone, or concrete? How long and wide will it be? What type of lot do you have? How large is it? Is it steep or flat? Do you have easy access, or will plants and materials need to be carried some distance from the delivery truck?

On the face of it, prices for the plant materials on your list don't seem unreasonable to me. Many of the plants in your list are quite large. Don't forget than in addition to the cost of the plant itself, someone has to source the items, pick up and arrange delivery, maneuver the plants and shrubs into position, plant and possibly stake them, dispose of the plant containers and other debris (rocks, excess soil, etc.), then possibly replace anything that doesn't survive. All of these things need to be factored into the cost.

You might be able to save some money by substituting smaller sized plants for some of the faster growing large specimens. You wouldn't have the instant gratification of fully-grown garden, but the plants would probably grow up in a year or two. You might also have the landscapers deal with only the largest or hard-to-find plants, then obtain and plant the others on your own.

Did you obtain any bids for the project from other landscapers? If not, that would probably be your best way of determining whether or not you're getting a competative price.

Hope this helps.

James

Well, of course, "cheap labor" is relative in the Bay Area on the West Coast, where minimum wage is actually quite high (although still not more than barely adequate, given our high cost of living). We use a referral non-profit source for Latino day laborers and the cheapest workers are $12/hr with more skilled labor costing $15-25.

I've read both your posts and can't see where you've said what size area you are landscaping. I assume it must not be that large if you are upset with the pricing? It's hard to tell how much area you are talking about, and I think the Landscaping Forum folks have a good point when they noted that many of your specimens are larger than average. Large specimens are similar to special order stock, always very costly. I can buy a 1-gallon container plant from the Evil Orange's garden center for $6.99, but it cost us $250 to buy a 4' variegated sweetgum. I wasn't going to find that plant just anywhere, and in fact never have seen another one despite regular and frequent haunting of the local nurseries (one of my addictions, LOL). I once picked up a 4' Japanese Maple 'Aureum' for $85 and came home all excited because I'd seen similar speciments six months before for $150 and up at the very same nursery. If I could have afforded it I'd have bought something bigger, since they grow really, really slowly.....but you get the idea. By buying larger specimens you do get that immediate visual 'impact' that tiny little 1-gallon containers just can't match.

Our lot is considered quite good-sized for the San Francisco Bay Area, about 5600 sq. ft. 15 years ago the local paper ran an article on what it cost to landscape an identical size lot, assuming some hardscaping was already in place but more was needed (such as a deck or patio, not large or elaborate, just a plain square with some built-in seating). They had several landscape designers draw up moderate budget designs. Costs came in -- remember, this is 1990 we are talking about -- from $25,000 to $50,000.

Flash-forward to 2005. The newspaper did a similar article, and costs came in $50,000 to $85,000. This was not fancy stuff, like outdoor kitchens or flagstone patios (stone is really, really costly out here, which I know makes all the New Englanders laugh out loud), just simple basic designs that were properly installed.

One of the best cost estimators for urban homeowners I've seen, was the recommendation that landscaping should be around 10% to 15% of the value of your home and lot, for an average design (again, not the swimming pool/outdoor kitchen/extra outbuilding with bathroom stuff). Of course, if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, that is still a lot of money. It means that our little two bedroom starter home, being worth about $600,000 -- we live in a marginal neighborhood that is has only been gentrifying for the last 10 yrs so is still 'affordable' -- can put a value of about $60-90,000 on the plants and hardscape we've installed, either on our own or using professionals.

Expensive? Sure is, but if your housing area justifies that kind of return, then even on a strictly bottom-line basis, it could be worth it. And if you live in the place long enough, you could easily figure that if averaged over ten years, for example, you received a good value for your $$$.

"One of the best cost estimators for urban homeowners I've seen, was the recommendation that landscaping should be around 10% to 15% of the value of your home and lot, for an average design (again, not the swimming pool/outdoor kitchen/extra outbuilding with bathroom stuff). Of course, if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, that is still a lot of money. It means that our little two bedroom starter home, being worth about $600,000 -- we live in a marginal neighborhood that is has only been gentrifying for the last 10 yrs so is still 'affordable' -- can put a value of about $60-90,000 on the plants and hardscape we've installed, either on our own or using professionals. "

This is completely nonsense in my book. So someone buys a $500,000 house and they should expect to pay $75,000 on landscaping?

Everyone in my entire 250 lot neighborhood has averaged between $15,000-$30,000 on landscaping for homes priced 400K-600K.

Do it yourself and you can probably do it for $5,000.

I'd buy smaller plants. In three years they will take off: the "Baby" comparison of Sleep, Creep, Leap. Labor will still be half of your cost though. I doubt your landscaper will plant and guarantee stuff you buy yourself -- why should he?

Do you really *want* all that stuff? In my experience, landscapers like to over-plant; it looks great when they hand you the bill, but in three years your place is overgrown.

Who is going to tend this garden? If you will be hiring help, you will have some pretty hefty ongoing expenses. I forgot to note if you have or will install a sprinkler system.