Our landscape design services fall into two general categories:
- On-site Design for clients based in southern Washington
- Online Design for clients located across the U.S.
For on-site projects, we’ll conduct many of our services in person. With online projects, we’ll rely on you for photos and maps of your site, and all consultations will be conducted via telephone and email.
But, whether you’re located in Portland or Boston, our design process is the same. We’ll go through a series of five creative steps with you to learn about your objectives and reveal your site’s hidden potential:
1. Project Consultation
We begin each project by asking you to complete a short Design Questionnaire to help us better understand your objectives. We’ll then schedule one or two meetings or telephone consultations to discuss your goals, review initial design ideas, determine the project scope and agree upon a budget and timeline.
2. Base Mapping
Utilizing survey information and photos provided by you, or field measurements taken by our staff, we’ll prepare a base map of your site. This scaled drawing will show your property’s project boundaries and the locations of all its main features including structures, paved areas and trees.
3. Site Analysis
Next, we’ll study and analyze your site to understand its design potential. Features such as soil types, drainage, light and shade, vegetation, topography, views and other conditions will all be assessed to determine your landscape’s “opportunities and limitations.”
4. Conceptual Design
Here, your new landscape will emerge in the form of conceptual sketches. The conceptual design illustrates all existing and proposed site elements, including vegetation and other improvements to your property such as paths, patios, benches, planters and arbors. Based on your feedback, we’ll make adjustments to the conceptual design so that it meets with all your objectives.
5. Final Site Design
Once your design is complete, it will be fleshed out into a final site design to guide the construction of your landscape. This detailed document specifies locations, sizes and shapes of all site elements, including both vegetation and property improvements. It also includes a detailed planting plan that identifies all plant species, quantities and sizes for planting.
