Our process starts with you. We take the time to learn about what is important to you and your family. We look at your needs and wants, your lifestyle, activities, sports, pets, children and the age groups who will be enjoying your outdoor living areas. We want to know how often and what kind of outdoor entertaining you are interested in hosting. We discuss your budget parameters so we can plan accordingly. A thorough and well planned consultation is the crucial first step to ensuring your satisfaction with the final landscaping project.
This next step is an assessment of your unique property, identifying the advantages and challenges any planned landscaping will encounter. We will measure the property and pinpoint any existing or potential drainage issues. Next, we determine the existing elevations and, with the use of a surveyor’s tool, we “shoot” the grade. This allows us to precisely plan for ease of usability and maintenance. Once we have completed those important steps, we then look at your property in terms of its’ unique regional issues. For instance, we determine what wildlife, such as deer, need to be considered in the final plan. We also look at the climate factors in your particular spot. For example, if your home is located on the eastside of a mountain slope, the sun goes down earlier for you. This affects which plants we will recommend. We make sure the plants will thrive in your environment. We assess your soil and note any natural features that can be incorporated into the plan. We look at the architecture of your home so that we can highlight and frame it with a complimentary landscape plan.
Once we have completed the consultation and site analysis, we can begin the design plan. Keeping your goals and the functionality of landscaping choices in mind, we first look at the hardscapes we will recommend. Hardscapes include materials such as flagstone, boulders, pebble walkways, drainage, stone patios or raised decks. We also select items such as mulches to fit with the climate and other factors which we have uncovered during our consultation and site analysis.
Respecting both aesthetics and suitability, we look at softscapes that best matched to your lifestyle. We select the plants, trees, shrubs and other items to include in the estimate.
As the final step in the design plan, we create a rough installation estimate for your review. Included in this package is an outline of the phases for the installation. We make sure at every step that we eliminate costly rebuilds, which other companies can overlook without using a phased installation. Our plan follows a logical and deliberate design to minimize disruption and to prevent damage to already completed landscape work during the phases.
Once the estimate and logistics plans are ready, we sit down with you to walk through the ideas, process and rationale of the design. We will bring your imagination to life as we describe how the “end picture” will be created, framed and highlighted.
When we describe the plants we have selected, we also include an educational overview to provide a clear understanding of the type, blooming schedule, texture, purpose and maintenance involved.
Included in our presentation is an installation briefing with a description of the phases. We make sure you know what to expect and how long it will take to complete the design.
As with any plan, modifications can be made to fine tune or expand the initial design. The next step is to incorporate those changes and provide a line item detailed estimate. Depending on the size of the design, a 50% deposit will get things started!
The first phase of the installation is any demolition that needs to be completed. Following next is the critical sub structures including drainage, conduit, gas lines and grading. Once these two essential steps have been completed, major structures can be built. Boulders, hardscape and any key structural elements, such as pergolas or fountains take shape and claim their space. Main lines for irrigation come next with the softscapes following quickly behind. Plants, bushes, trees will set their roots down and final irrigation, including sprinklers and heads, will be installed to support the new growth. Ground decoration, mulch and rock will be added with grass and sod following in line. Our final step is to detail and cleanup your landscaped picture. We pay attention to the details. We take tags off plants, make sure weed fabric is not exposed and do the final touch up to ensure your complete satisfaction and future enjoyment.
Your custom home deserves a custom landscape design. Second Nature is with you, start to finish in that process.