Susan’s design process encompasses all aspects of the garden, including hardscape elements like patios and pathways, plant material, hydrozone planning and lighting design. While your design experience may vary depending on the scope and complexity of your project, most follow these basic steps.
Initial Consultation and Site Visit
This meeting is an opportunity to tour your existing landscape and to determine requirements and objectives. This is a working session, and Susan will provide specific ideas on how your new landscape can be laid out. To help you prepare for meeting with Susan (or any designer), she has created a free guide on how to Prepare for an Initial Landscape Consultation.
Site Analysis and Measurement
After the proposal has been accepted, a second visit is an opportunity to measure the property and gather specific site information, as well as review design goals. Measurements and photographs are used to create a base map, which becomes the basis of your design.
Preliminary Concept Plan(s)
These plan view (overhead) drawings will convey alternative ideas for the style and overall layout of the garden. Sketches or photographs may be included to help you visualize the design. Clients may elect to skip this step on less complex projects.
Design Documents
All documents are prepared in the CAD program Vectorworks. While every design is different, most design packages include the following:
Landscape Plan
Provides a detailed, scaled, working drawing that your contractor uses to install the design.
Planting Plan
Indicates botanical and common names of all plants, location, and quantities and a private, online photo album of your plant palette. Susan’s notes on planting and irrigation follow environmentally sound principles as outlined by Rescape California, EBMUD, Contra Costa Water District and University of California Master Gardener publications.
Online Plant Palette
A private, interactive file with descriptions and photos of all the plants in your design.
Hydrozone Plan and (Optional) Lighting Plan
Plants are grouped into water-usage zones for efficient installation (note: this is NOT the same as an irrigation plan). The lighting plan shows location and fixture type for low voltage lighting plans.
Contractor Selection and Installation Services
At the end of this process, you’ll have everything required to work with a contractor on installing your design, however, Susan stays involved with most projects to provide assistance with design details, plant placement and site observation in consultation with the contractor.