Investing in a landscape plan.

1. Why should I have a landscape plan before investing in my yard?

When answering the phone or meeting with people for the first time, many people have this question in their mind. It goes something like this...

“Why do I need to spend money on a design, can't the landscaper just put in a beautiful yard without the additional expense of a designer?... or “I know what I want and don't need a design. I'll just tell the landscaper what I want and they'll put it in?”...or “ The landscaper has years of training and he'll design it the way I want it as he builds it.” or “ I don't want to spend money on a design, just landscaping.” or (DYI)“ I know what I want and will figure it out as I go”.

Many times these questions are unspoken, nevertheless, it is in the thoughts of many when approaching a landscape project. Even though you would never build a house without a clearly written plan, why do we devalue our landscaping by insisting we don't need a clear, written, professional plan?

professional landscape design maximizes your investment

Many times, this type of thinking creates a “do over” situation. That is, it's not done right or according to your satisfaction the first time, so, you have to do it over (sometimes more than once). Whether you've planted a tree too close to a building or the drainage system failed, it is all avoidable with a professional landscape design.

A landscape plan, if done properly, always saves money by evaluating, personalizing, problem solving, customizing, and organizing your landscape efficiently. Our process of spending time on initial consultation, site analysis, preliminary design/ revisions, and the final plan “turns ordinary yards into extra ordinary gardens”. On average, we work with our clients for 6-10 hours to create a professional design. Try getting a contractor to spend that much time on your landscape bid!

Landscape design avoids a "do over" project

A customized landscape design will plan necessary details often forgotten by homeowners and contractors. Landscape projects have a life of their own so that proper order and resources determine the final outcome . From drainage to irrigation to hardscapes and planting, every detail is important on your project. (See illustration below).

People want to know that they are receiving value for their money and hard work. Whether you're going to hire a contractor or “Do It Yourself” a landscape plan will assure that you are adding value to your property for daily use and also resale value when you sell. On the average, landscaping adds 100%-250% per dollar spent on landscaping. With that kind of a return on investment, why wouldn't you want to have a well planned landscape before breaking ground?

Many people can't visualize a new landscape until it is complete. Landscape plans can help you visualize your landscape to ensure you get what you really want. Our landscape designs in plan view are rendered in full color to help you visualize your new landscape. We can optionally render your landscape plan in 3D with sections drawn and a video walk through, as if you were there.

Visualize your landscape before spending $$$ so you'll love your yard

After 25 years of professional landscaping in the pacific northwest, my desire is to help as many people as possible to get a landscape they love, optimize the most value as possible, and create as low maintenance landscape as possible.

America The Beautiful Landscape Design...”Turning Ordinary Yards into Extraordinary Gardens!”

Please call for a consultation (360-828-8597) or email jeff@americthebeautifullandscaping.com, the first 30 minutes is always complimentary.

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The Four Season Landscape: Winter

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Landscaping is an art form. To enjoy this living art, it must be carefully planned and then artistically executed.. Many times yards are put together with no more thought or plan than a grocery list. Some people treat landscaping haphazardly as if making a watch by throwing hands, gears, steal and a little glass into a clothes dryer and then expecting a watch capable of keeping accurate time to come out.

A truly remarkable garden, reveals its' unique beauty during four seasons. Each season decorates outside rooms for the enjoyment of those who enter. Both function and form of this art makes all who enter at home.

The place to start planning a four season garden is with the winter season in mind. Obviously, much of our

northwest winters are cold and gray. The winter garden should be a place to see unexpected life and beauty in the midst of gloomy days. The only way this can happen is if the landscape plan includes structure, function, color, fragrance, and balance.

The structure of a winter garden will include framing views through transparent deciduous plants as well as screening unwanted views with evergreens. This structure is many times called the “bones” of the garden. It includes things like trees, walls, fences, paths, evergreen shrubs, patios and water features. When you look at your landscape in the winter, do you see a garden appropriately decorated for the season or an empty garden waiting for a better time of the year? If you answered, a better time, perhaps this is the time to contact a local landscape designer to get more information about starting the design process.

Winter silhouettes create great effects in the landscape. It can be repeating, combining and contrasting vertical or horizontal shapes that creates effects, especially when snow falls. I feel there's always something special about newly fallen snow that dramatically highlights the structure of a landscape that visually excites us during this season.

When you look at trees in the winter, you can notice how heavily branched trees with massive scaffolds appear much more commanding than trees with slender, fine texture branches. Some trees have interesting curving and crossing branch patterns while others have uniform evergreen foliage that seems like it has been painted by an artist. Weird but lovable plants with oddly twisted and spiral branches really come into their own in the winter. Some trees have even been adorned with unusual colors of creamy brown, yellow, red, or purple. These and other observation help us enjoy the winter season, not just making a season to wait for a better time.

Even though we may not spend much, if any, time in our landscape in the winter, we'll notice if the spaces could be useful for screening an unwanted view such as a neighbors junk pile or framing a beautiful view such as snow covered mountains. We also expect our landscape to provide safe and easy access to our homes and out buildings. On the occasional sunny and warm winter day, we may want to have a place during the winter where we can enjoy a meal or a cup of coffee. Is your landscape a winter wonder land or a gloomy mess that you don't like during the winter? Perhaps it's time to discuss your property with a landscape designer.

The well planned winter landscape can include flowers and colorful berries, sometimes attracting beautiful birds and wildlife for our viewing pleasure. Red, yellow, green and purple are my favorite colors of winter. They can be seen often if you're looking at a well planned winter garden.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to be welcomed home with a sweet fragrance that had been planned in your yard. There are surprise plants that we rarely notice until they perfume our landscapes sometime during the dark and gloomy season we call winter. It really is a refreshing reminder that spring is coming !

Balance in life, for most of us, can be quite challenging. Balance in our landscape is almost impossible without proper planning. Whether your yard is formal, mixed beds, northwestern, cottage, or whimsical in style, there must be some balance in order for your property to make sense to those that occupy it. Balance should be evaluated with the contrast of evergreen verses deciduous, flowering verses foliage, fragrant verses visual, rounded verses spikey, elaborate verses simple and curving verses linear. This balance may seem abstract, but, it only starts that way and then, with much planning, develops into a full scale landscape. This balance always starts with the landscape in the winter. For more information about how your landscape in the winter, please contact us at jeff@americathebeautifullandscaping.com

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Master planning: Creating Timeless Landscapes

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We approach landscape design in a way that can create a timeless landscape, relevant today and for generations to come. Your landscape can nourish your soul and lift your spirit when your property’s potential has been beautifully maximized with practical harmony.

 In order to create a timeless landscape we exercise interactive design practices and principles of art. Think of your property as an art canvas on which a design is already started, but which requires skillful editing.

The four major parts of your master plan are:

Part one: The approach and arrival sequence. This is the part of your property that creates a welcome mat and announces who you are.

Part two: The Hub (your house):Your house is the center of activity and attention on your property. One of the goals of master planning is to seamlessly integrate your property with your house. Therefore, views from outside the house, as well as inside the house, are important. Your house and your property should relate to you, as the owner.

 Part Three: The perimeter consists of outdoor spaces closely related to openings(windows and doors) of your house. This area of your property provides beautiful, convenient, and functional areas for relaxing, dining, and entertaining.

 Part Four: Passages to destinations. The passages animate movement around your property and invite enjoyment of garden spaces removed from the house. The passages could include functional and aesthetic flow to special places on your property. Destinations are varied and may include kitchen gardens, sanctuaries, retreats, ornamental pools, sports fields, trails, etc.

Every garden has a quality that designers call genius loci; the spirit of place. This spirit of place becomes the inspiration that will guide you through count

less design decisions. When the design, art, functional, and aesthetic elements come together through the creative process, the genius loci will be dominant. As the project grows, visitors to your garden will grasp the spirit of place.

How can we help you create a timeless landscape?

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