Design Plans
- Result from a site or property visit by the Landscape Designer
- This first visit entails an interview with the home or property owners to discuss
- How is the property used – programming movement around the property is a basic necessity to site design
- Where are the views, vantage points (decks, patios, windows)
- Areas to screen with plant material or fencing
- Budget
- Timing
- Access
- Site measurements (Any Legal Plot information from real estate transaction is useful – have a copy ready)
- Building (s) with locations of doors and windows
- Property boundaries
- Walls existing or proposed
- Plant beds, existing or proposed
- Soil samples for laboratory testing (if necessary)
- Parking area (s)and driveway
- Septic and other underground utilities such as water pipe and electrical wire locations.
- Stormwater management
- Input this data into AutoCAD in order to lay out the key landscape features, readily make changes or adjustments, and most importantly – for accurate take-offs (measurements of areas and lengths for material and labor estimates)
- A Retaining Fee of $1200 is expected before any measurements and data entry are undertaken.
- Second visit with homeowners is an opportunity to review the initial site plan and cost estimates. At this stage the project may be broken down into phases in order to spread the billing and work out over whatever time period the client is most comfortable with – often, an understanding of primary site features is established. Plant material is reviewed in whatever detail the client prefers. The budget is agreed upon and the work is scheduled.
- Included in all final site plans and quotations are:
- A plan view of the property with the building footprint (s) and all proposed
features, such as patios, walkways, driveway, walls, lawn and planting beds with trees, shrubs, annuals and perennials.
- This final plan view is mailed with a contract for the client to sign and mail back to our Whitehall office. When this is received, the work is scheduled. There will be a stake-out of the property beforehand by the Landscape Designer.
- Our range of services for new construction and for reconditioning include:
- Site clearing – this includes tree removal or pruning, stump grinding, excavating and hauling, and ends with course grading.
- Retaining wall and other footings are completed, and large tree holes are excavated after course grading.
- Before fine grading proceeds, sub surface wiring for lighting and pipe for irrigation is completed.
- Fine grading –
- Begins with stone installation
- Natural flagstone with either irregular edges or precut with or without flame edging or
- Concrete pavers in a wide variety of shapes and sizes as selected by the client from catalogs.
- Retaining walls are available in a wide variety of materials, from rounded boulders from glacial deposits, limestone blocks, shale, and any concrete block that is available on the market.
- Once the paving materials are completed the trees and shrubs are set;
- This is followed by topsoil delivery and spreading;
- Perennials and annuals are set in place by one of our managers within the plant beds. Laborers plant this material, mulch the plant beds.
- Lastly, if turf is included, hydro seeding or sod completes the work list with watering if irrigation was not included.
- Turf management includes fertilization and mowing as well as pruning and weeding.
- Spring and Fall clean-up maintenance is primarily for the lower maintenance properties where one or two visits per year are all that is required to prune, mulch, and remove dead or old perennial and/or annual plant material.
- Tree Service is also offered as a maintenance program. It includes deep root fertilization and pruning.
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