ecology by design | Why Hire A Landscape Designer

Good design is a process where mistakes are made on paper, and dreams are considered alongside practicality. Construction options are assessed before decisions are made that are difficult or expensive to change.

As a designer I am not only a sounding board for your own experiences, misgivings, and inspirations about your site; I bring with me a fresh pair of eyes and more fact than opinion. I notice limitations and benefits about your site that I filter through knowledge and years of experience, all the while listening for and inquiring about your lifestyle, needs, and goals.

Opinions and preferences enter the mix as we custom-fit your landscape to you. Unless you hand me both reins, together we find the solutions as your own understanding and appreciation of your site broadens. Participating in the design process tends to mediate conflicts between parties, as the design unfolds as a synthesis of wishes, opportunities, and limitations.

When the design process is complete I know the right people for installation, or I can find them through an extensive professional community.

Problems Become Solutions! 

• A clay hillside sloping and draining into the back sliding glass door gets cut back. A rock retaining wall is built and backed with a drain, and is backfilled with dirt from the cut. The yard behind the wall is now more level and you have a long, curving rock bench to serve as outdoor seating near the barbeque. A fire pit at the end of the wall tempts you to linger longer, out of doors. [see this project]

• A failing metal fence finds a new home in the back yard as a unique trellis, after a bit of welding and paint. [see this project]

• An unneeded concrete sidewalk is removed from a back yard and dyed to become a bench built into and retaining a small hill. The hill was created from dirt excavated for a pond in front of it. [see this project]

• A bamboo outdoor shower drains underground to a garden, where greywater is used by plants but never reaches the surface. [see this project]

Full Landscape Design, Planning, Consultation at any Phase, and Installation

I am broad and flexible, and I am at your service. I can coach you on your own way with a consultation or three, or I can create a full Landscape Master Design Plan that you use yourself or give to professional contractors I can recommend to you.

I enjoy working with landscape contractors and other professionals. I can liaison during the installation so that your landscape is built true to the design concepts, or more importantly, built as you like it.

Below are some ideas to get you thinking, and contacting me. Thank you for your interest in Ecology By Design.

Rates

• Please contact me for a specific estimate for your project.

• An initial consultation fee of $150 will be due at the end of the consultation, then deducted from your final invoice if work proceeds.

• Design costs and fees are always estimated up front and paid roughly in halves or thirds during the duration of project.

This site designed, hosted and maintained by Mary Geitner of www.9-VOLT.com.