Benefits of working with a professional landscape designer?

Most people have an ability to draw and to imagine beauty. This has given rise to the booming Do It Yourself (DIY) culture especially when there is a difficult economy. Often the costly thing is for the professional and the amateur to stay separated when their cooperation would improve outcomes all around.

Whether you where going to develop a project on your own, or are going to leave it entirely in the hands of hired professional, here are several ways that your project can be more successful by working with a professional landscape architect or designer.

Before considering the ways a designer can help you, there is one important tip on choosing your designer… Go LOCAL…
Why is local important? Because it reduces travel time and response time in project planning and management. Meetings to discuss and review possibilities and concepts as well as project management and oversight are all easier when your dealing locally.

Concepts & Ideas

Landscape designers have lots of ideas. This is due in part to their training, but it is also their innate quality of the type of person that chooses this as a career. While the formulation of ideas is a human quality, the ability to translate an initial one idea into a feasible and improved idea using past experience and industry expertise is a unique talent of design professions.

Analysis of Site Property

Every parcel of land is unique as well as being part of the larger scheme of things. A professional designer will have the skill to understand the larger picture that will guide the entire design. They will also have the past experience as to how your proposed design may need to be modified to allow for less obvious site conditions.

Conceptual Design

Once there is a clear analysis of the project site, it is possible to come up with conceptual design ideas to contemplate. Every site has multiple solutions, but when the background research has been done thoroughly, a professional landscape designer will be able to narrow down the options to a concept that answers the needs, wants and wishes of the land owner while addressing the ecosystem characteristics presented in the existing landscape.

Installation Planning

Just because a human being has an idea about a design, doesn’t mean that idea is actually buildable or sustainable. We can dream up some pretty wild stuff! By working with a seasoned professional, you can be assured that what you develop together will have the ability to not only be built, but also to be sustained.

Accurate Budgeting

Understanding what things cost is very important. We are all quite familiar with how much any development project cost. The design processes requires unhampered imagination and creativity in the beginning, but once the direction and aesthetic is defined it is necessary to bring the project into the reality of money. A professional landscape designer will be able to reasonably provide a project budget range or ball park budget through experience or be able to guide you through the pricing/bidding process, so that you can determine whether to build the project all at once or to phase it in over a few years.

In House Design & Installations

Waynesboro Landscape and Garden Center designers work with in house installers offering what is known as Design/Build. Others designers may have developed strong relationships with professional landscape contractors however that is not the same as a company who’s designers and installers all work together within the same company.

Project Management

One of the real benefits of working with a professional landscape designer in the design development process is in having this person stick with you through the construction phase. Every project will have the potential to be improved upon as it is being built. Additionally, almost every project will have some “unknown” pop up during construction. Having your designer close at hand or as your project manager will ensure that you capitalize on opportunity and minimize any unforeseen pitfalls.

If you have a landscape project bubbling up in your imagination, think about contacting a member of our landscape design team to help you develop and refine your ideas into an actionable plan for you or a landscape contractor to build.