Hiring a native plant landscape designer

A professional can do in a couple days what would take you a couple decades to accomplish. These folks have training and experience and need to be paid accordingly. Expect prices in this general range:

• Design and installation - $6 - $12 per square foot (more if including more expensive trees).

• Design without installation: For just one site visit and a general design, without all the details: Starts around $500.

• At the other extreme, for a detailed master plan for a quarter acre lot, including at least one site visit, a site assessment and measurements, all the plant details, and multiple conversations: starts around $2500.

It is very important to provide the designer with a property plat. Otherwise expect to pay a lot more for all that measurment and drawing to scale that they will need to do.

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If you get a design from someone who works for a garden center, expect that person to be recommending the plants that they stock. Independent native plant designers are not limited in that way and will be sourcing plants from multiple sources.

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An "estimate" from a landscape designer is not like an estimate for a plumbing job, where there is just one thing to be done and all you need to know is the price. For a landscape design, you need to first name a budget, and the designer will work within that to tell you how many and what size plants you can get for your money.

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Plan ahead!

Demand for native plant and native plant landscaping services has been booming. The best chance of getting the plants you want is to order in the winter for the following year.