Posted by Mike | Posted in Landscape Design Ideas | Posted on 21-03-2011
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Now's the Time to Design Your Landscape
January's chill and the snow of recent weeks may have you housebound and thinking of warmer climes, but the daylight is already 20 minutes longer than just three weeks ago and growing by two minutes daily.
There most certainly will be a couple teasings of spring weather in our winter; there always is this far south in New Jersey and this close to the Gulf Stream. This is the beauty of living in Cape May County.
Be ready for the first chance to be outside and start to make plans for your gardens. Landscape changes and designs may range from the addition of a shade tree or new vegetable garden to a new screen planting or total renovation of decades-old shrubbery.
Consider enlisting the help of a professional. Just like a doctor who sees many patients with similar symptoms, a landscape designer hears many of the same quandaries that the homeowner designed garden has brought to bear, and can fix them easily.
These similar ailments, such as overgrown plantings, shrubs too close to your house or each other, too much shade, no shade, or just plain hum drum layouts with haphazard color can be remedied in a season with the proper advice from a professional.
Engaging a certified landscape designer or contractor to consult with you is often more reasonable than one might imagine. Some offer free first consultations and can steer you in the right direction immediately.
Other will set a small fee to start the process, hoping that you will either commission them to draw a design for the yard, or even hire them to do the changes they have suggested.
Landscape designer fees are valid investments, with time spent consulting with you, photographing, sketching, and presenting ideas. If a designer is able to set a fair fee, then that designer will also feel justified working up new ideas that are specific to your needs.
The old adage "free estimate" shouldn't be confused with true landscape design. If you know exactly what you want, or the idea you have is simple, any contractor will give you a free quote. But if you expect original ideas, not the cookie cutter stamp, then be willing to spend just a little.
Cape Shore Gardens offers free one hour consultations in February, (while supplies last!) normally a $125 charge, and can usually do single sheet designs for $200-300.
More involved phased plans or plans with intricate details for paving, decking, waterworks, and lighting will cost thousands in the big city, but can usually be done for several hundred dollars here.
Does the design fee apply to the cost of the job? If you pay a designer, you can then shop the design for the best price, having worked out good ideas and compensated the designer. If the designer is part of a design/build firm, there usually is a sliding percentage of the fee rebated depending on the amount of work done.
Remember how much better you felt after the doctor gave you medicine? I am sure that you and your garden can feel the same after a house visit by a professional landscape designer.
Visit www.capeshoregardens.com, or call 609-465-5161 to schedule a free visit.
—Submitted by Stan Sperlak, Cape Shore Gardens, designing landscapes in this area since 1980.
About the Author
www.CapeMayCountyHerald.com
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