How to Know When to Hire a Landscape Designer
Should you DIY or should you hire?
Lots of people like to work in their own gardens, it comes back to our roots as humanity where putting things in the ground was our very way of life. These days, most of us don’t have to focus on landscaping design and planting gardens just to live but there are definite advantages to hiring the professionals when it comes to major landscape design.
The first thing to mention is:
Go Local!
You should always go local when choosing your landscape designer. Why? Because they’re going to know the climate, species of plants and flowers that are native, your area’s soil type, and they’re going to have to travel less to get to you so that any meetings you have will be easier to manage.
But, on to the reasons why hiring a designer is a great idea.
Tapping Into a Bigger Idea Pool
Landscape designers and landscape architects are professionals who spend the majority of their time thinking of ways to create awesome outdoor spaces. There’s nothing better than putting two heads together for thinking through a problem, designing an outdoor space in this case, and when one of those heads is a professional, things go smoother than ever.
A designer is going to be able to take any general ideas you may have for your garden and turn them into actionable plans, utilizing their past experience and expertise.
Site Analysis
Something that we’re all at risk of is selective blindness when it comes to things we’re intimately familiar with. To make sure you get past this human weakness, bringing in fresh eyes is always a great idea.
The people you hire will be able to come into your space and see it from an outsider’s point of view and not only will they see problems easier than you will, they’ll also understand how your small piece of the outdoors fits in with the wider ecosystem around you.
Understanding Feasibility
When we’re working on a project by ourselves, it’s often easy to lose track of the bigger picture and actually understand what’s in our ability to deliver on. A landscape architect or designer is going to be able to understand the feasibility of your landscape project much more than you are.
This gives you the benefit of a professional opinion on if something is possible in the space that you have. Remember that they won’t have the final say on what happens, so you won’t end up with a space you don’t like!
Budget Creation
Personal projects tend to balloon in cost when the scope expands, as it’s likely to do when we’re DIYing it. A designer is able to work out a ballpark figure from your idea stage, and then with your input will figure out the exact costs of the design you’re thinking of.
This way, you’re safe in the knowledge that things are going to cost exactly what you expect them to, and you’re also getting the benefit of experience when it comes to the cost of materials and items.
Project Management
The big advantage to a landscape designer is the management aspects of the project. Any project is going to have last minute changes and things that pop up out of nowhere. A good designer by your side will ensure that anything that does come out of the weeds will be quickly and efficiently dealt with.
Overall, this management of a project will help save you time, effort, and money when random unknowns don’t turn into costly mistakes.
If you’d like to talk to a professional about your garden design needs today, then have a look at Quiet Nature’s garden design page and contact us when you see something you like.