How does the design process work?

At Nature’s Designs we specialize in tailoring our design plans and process to meet your individual needs. We offer plans in an a-la-cart style so that you can decide what best fits your needs and budget.

Items are estimated individually or services are provided on an hourly rate basis.

Here is an outline of a typical complete plan process-

Consultation

One of the best ways to start with your garden design is with a consultation.

During a consultation we will walk with you in your garden space and note what is working and what is not, as well as you visions and hopes for the space. We will make recommendations on plants and strategies to best meet your needs, and we will provide onsite troubleshooting for existing issues or problems you are looking to have addressed. We will make suggestions for the overall long term maintenance of your garden space, as well as offer instructions on pruning and plant care needed.

After an initial consultation is will be easier to determine your project needs.

Preliminary Garden PLan

You may have started with a consultation, or you may know right away that you would like a designer to help create your new garden.

We begin the Preliminary plan with a design intake meeting, this is similar to a consultation, but more about information gathering and less of recommended idea sharing and garden advice. Followed by a site visit to measure and photograph the garden space. We always welcome any house plans or site maps you may have.

Once the site is measured we create a base plan drawing that maps out the space intended for landscaping.

A plant pallet is then created for your garden project inspiration. This will be a huge selection of plants that fit the perimeters of your project, style and wishes as well as plants that are best suited for you garden location, soil and exposure.

The next step is the creation of your preliminary plan, where we combine the best selection of garden features, plant material, and layout to meet as many of your needs and garden goals as possible with the most aesthetic design and sustainable selections.

The plan is then sent to a blueprint office, and printed out for your design presentation.

A preliminary plan is a combination of all of your design wished displayed in the designers best choice of layout with a conceptual plant pallet suggested. The Preliminary plan is a 2’x3’ 2-D, scaled CAD drawing that uses illustrative plant symbols to show size, texture and form of plant material, as well as hardscape and space layout for the garden.

Revisions

The next phase in your garden design development is Revisions.

Sometimes none are needed and we get to skip this step, but a few modifications are normal and this is often a small part of the project that adds polish to your plan.

Once you have reviewed your Preliminary plan you may want to make a few changes or adjustments to make the plan really tailored to your property and personal style.

We will meet and review the needed changes and make plan adjustments as needed.

Planting Plan

After the Preliminary Plan is complete we can create a planting plan to fine tune your plant pallet and make sure it is perfect for your garden.

We will utilize our plant pallet brainstorm from the preliminary concept development to make adjustments that fit your garden site and style.

Planting plans look much like Preliminary plans, but the descriptive circles are replaced with plain circle with a plant code to identify the plant material for installation.

The plant varieties are clearly defined and selected and listed on a chart on the plan with the name, size, count needed for installing your garden.

Irrigation Plan

Once you have your plant materials and placement defined you will want to make sure those precious plants are irrigated and happy.

We create irrigation plans that show your site, the point of connection to your water source, the piping need from your water to your valves, where to ideally locate your valves and controller and how to structure the hydrozones and station numbers of you system.

Your Irrigation plan will show PVC and drip pipe needed to go from each valve to each plant.

Material recommendations suggested.

HardScaping details,

project elevations,

& drainage plans

If you need a lot of hardscaping in your landscape plan you will probably want to have some additional plan details.

As a licensed landscape contractor we offer Drainage Plans, Hardscape Plans and Details, as well as Garden Elevations, especially useful in visualizing large objects like pergolas, walls, grade changes, or below grade details, on an individual bases.

These are very important working drawings when construction need merits their creation as a visual building guide.

Choose Your LANdscape contractor or prepare for your diy garden installation

Once you have all of your garden planned out, and you may have taken any number of the above steps to get here, you want to start planning for the construction of your new garden.

It is best if you choose a licensed landscape contractor who you feel comfortable with and you feel good about their assessment of your home and project.

If you decide to go it your own you might want to request a punch list from Nature’s Designs on key project sequence elements, and contact local soil or stone suppliers to get help calculating the volume of materials you may need to purchase for your garden.

PLant Order

You have plans and labor arranged and now you are ready for the fun part! PLANTS!

Nature’s Designs offers plant ordering to all of our clients.

You may prefer to shop on your own, or have your landscape contractor furnish the plants.

We procure the very best in locally produced nursery stock, and always hand select the best grade of accurate specified varieties.

The plants we provide are delivered and placed in the landscape according to your garden Planting plan, and arranged for planting.

Site Layout

& Designer oversight

During the construction process we will remain on call to help you and your contractor layout garden features according to the plan.

We are available to mark out the location or pathways, planters, an other landscape installation features,

including irrigation chases, piping, valves,controller, wiring, emitters, etc. , Carpentry recommendations and instruction,

Soil, stone, rock or fountain placement, and other detail assistance.

Maintenance check ups

Once your garden is complete and begins to grow and flourish you will want to establish some garden maintenance practices.

Whether you maintain your new garden yourself or hire in help we offer maintenance check up appointments to keep your garden on track and help guide your plants to the best established form.

We recommend seasonal check ups, and are also available as needed.

Please see our scheduling page to schedule any of the above service you are looking for.