David, I checked out your profile and I can see you are an ambitious individual. It's very impressive that you have started a successful business at such a young age :-) And that does change somewhat what my typical advice would be. How much does a college education matter to you? What sort of a fall-back plan do you have if your landscaping business does not thrive? How would you prefer to earn a living, should it come to that? I am not intending to spread gloom and doom but ours is a service industry highly dependent on disposable income and if that income dries up - as it did about 7 years ago - ours are the first kind of businesses to go down the drain. It is just a reality that you need to be prepared to face. Like I said previously, it is a BIG jump from a lawn care business to landscape design and installation. I think you anticipate taking your business into the design-build realm and that is a somewhat natural progression. But design-build firms tend to focus on residential projects. It is a whole different ballgame when it comes to commercial landscape planning and design and that is typically well beyond the scope of a design-build. If I can make an awkward analogy, it's a bit like designing and building a skyscraper compared to building and designing a single family residence. The first has a team of architects that do just the design portion. Once approved, the whole ball of wax is turned over to the general contractor and the subs for construction and typically (except for some limited oversight or approval of change orders) that's the last the architects are heard from or involved. With the SFR, the designer is often the general himself and is intimately involved with the construction process all the way through to completion. So to finish this analogy, LA's are not normally associated with a design-build company and usually work completely independently from any installation contractors. You will have a big learning curve here so my suggestion is to start small. Hire a designer, maybe even on a part time basis as the need arises. Note that I said 'designer', not an LA. Until you have established a landscape design reputation, you won't generate the need for a full time designer and most LA's will require full time employment plus benefits. And their higher/different level of training typically calls for a higher salary as well. Plus, residential landscape design does not require the same educational background or licensing requirements - the vast majority of LA's never do residential projects - there's just not enough money in it to make it worth their while. Although an unlicensed, fresh out of college LA may appreciate the experience of a design-build environment, before moving on to bigger and better things. You will also need to educate your crew into the technical aspects of landscape installation. They will need to know about grading and drainage, how to install irrigation systems and landscape lighting, build retaining walls, install various hardscape elements, operate heavy equipment, etc., etc., etc. Pretty different from lawn care skills or light pruning :-) None of this has answered your question about getting a degree yourself. And I can't answer that for you. Part of it has to do with my very first paragraph - what kind of fall-back plan do you have for your life and your career? I can say that most accredited universities - those that provide degrees in Landscape Architecture - do not offer night classes. And the course work is very intensive. So you have to be prepared to put your business on hold while you attend 4-5 years of classes and whatever apprenticeship period your state requires or turn it over to your brother or other responsible employee to manage in your absence. But at the end you will have a degree you can rely on for employment (albeit very specialized employment) elsewhere or in the future. An alternative is to get formal training in landscape design. This is typically a two year Associates degree and is often offered through community or technical colleges, sometimes in association with a horticulture degree or certification. Night and weekend classes are common so you can run your business AND still get an education. This type of training should also introduce you to all the technical aspects of the business as well but all the classroom, book-learning in the world will not prepare you as well as hands-on experience. And you definitely want to get that well under your belt before offering these types of services to paying clients. So even with a landscape design degree, an apprenticeship with an established design-build company is highly advised. I seem to have written a book here :-) Let me just sum up by saying that moving from residential landscape design into commercial/municipal landscape design projects is not common for a design-build firm. Most DB's do not have the skills or resources to accommodate that switch nor are the developmental bodies that sponsor or oversee these sorts of projects inclined to look at DB's as a source for either a designer or an installation contractor for the same reasons. Sure, I do a few commercial projects now and then but most are just simple parking lot planting plans or just larger scale residential projects - like designing the common areas for condo associations or street plantings for a residential development. And these are all types of projects a non-licensed designer or a DB with adequate experience is able to handle. I hope all this is somewhat clear :-) feel free to ask for any clarification you might need. Familiarity with the subject sometimes leads to overlooking or leaving out significant points but I think/hope I've hit most.

We are on a tight budget and wondering about building in stages, for example: finishing off the main square footage with a general contractor and then finishing off the square footage where the other two smaller bedrooms and bath are later ourselves. We would designated this space as storage for the drawing plans. Pros's Con's ?? Are you financing this build yourself? If not, this may be difficult to do because the bank will consider it a one bedroom house and will appraise it as such. That will impact how much they will lend you for construction.

I did not mean to patronize, but to point out that the license doesn't necessarily equate to talent, skill, or creativity. Certain professions require a license and I'm glad for a regulatory body to protect myself and society. We shall see what he comes back with next month. We gave him our drawings thus far, but we are not creative/design people so we got tapped out and requested his assistance both with the design and the timeframe and budget. He also has our plat and inspiration pictures from last time (cut out of magazines or photocopied like the good ol days before Houzz and pinterest). For those worried about him designing in CAD, he already sketched some on Tuesday when we met (enough to get ink on my table) and I imagine there will be more of that next time.

Bring your site plan. Bring photos of houses you like, and even rooms and details you like. Bring a very rough sketch showing any rooms that need to be near other rooms or if you want a particular room looking out at a view. Bring your feelings of how you want your house to make you feel or even if a particular item (like a piano, or in my case a hand crafted buffet) needs to be incorporated into the plan. Bring what is important to you. For example, in my home, I knew I wanted a courtyard feel to my home with the house being a U shaped house to help give an intimate and "enclosed" private feel since we were working with a small lot. When I was in my 20's I had studied in Mexico and fell in love with the hacienda's with the house surrounding the courtyards. Those created a small, private oasis within the city that I found to be soothing. Ideally, I wanted my kitchen/dining next to my living room on the bottom of the U shape and my DH's study and our master bedroom anchoring the top of the U shape. I wanted all the spaces to have easy access to our backyard courtyard, so that meant doors and sliders. Because we were on a narrow lot, we needed to go up. I wanted my studio on the second floor with a balcony so I could photograph still life setups in natural light and also so I could photograph my finished drawings. Despite the Fl sun, I didn't want this area enclosed because it would hamper my photography. However I did want very large eaves surrounding the whole house to help with passive solar gain. Our eaves are 32" wide. I had my 80" wide buffet that I had designed and a woodworker had made for me and I wanted that incorporated near my dining area. I love craftsman houses with their wide moldings, their knee braces and rafter tails outside, their use of natural materials and their porches. All of the above, along with photos is what I would bring to an architect if I was asking them to design my house. For your home, think what is needed and important to you, but also what makes you happy when you're in a house.