(1) An excellent landscape design and installation company works from a ‘personal landscape plan’ created for your specific family. This plan should include specific items related to your family, such as; colors you like, number and age of children and pets, what you are trying to accomplish, your lifestyle habits and most importantly, budget options.
(2) Communications with the company’s office and staff is critical, especially in project based, landscape design and installation. The company employees should be professional in their appearance, call when running late and follow up swiftly with requests for information.
(3) Materials for projects in the landscape industry have changed over recent years. New items from tree types, grass varieties, new shrub introductions and hard materials are now far better and more cost efficient for the homeowner.
(4) There is an order to any project, no matter the size, and it should typically go something like this: (a) a landscape plan approved by the family or HOA, (b) permitting (if any), (c) a utility search of the area to be worked on, (d) demo or removal of old landscape or hardscape areas, (e) drainage and soil work, (f) installation of hardscape and large trees, (g) installation of irrigation system, (h) installation of shrubs and small plants, (i) sod installations and landscape lighting to finish.
(5) Your outdoor patio is or can become your outdoor entertainment center. If you have recreational equipment outside such as grills, tools, or furniture, they need protection from the elements and so do you. The sun or ever-changing weather should not prevent you from enjoying your home during the entire year.
(6) Pick a patio shade cover design and installation contractor that will make your addition look like it’s part of the original construction and that there is aesthetic synergy with your home’s exterior.
(7) In home improvement, a ‘pergola/arbor’ has come to mean an outdoor patio structure formed of horizontal trellis work supported on columns or posts. The origin of the word ‘pergola’ described tall arched structures on which grapevines climbed.
(8) Drainage is always one of the first items of any project to consider. Over 95% of all landscape projects have some type of drainage from stone swales to ‘take away’ water. What’s more, french drains behind walls are not just optional, they are required.
(9) Ask your landscaping professional about new water collecting systems, underground cistern systems, rain barrels and wells as these are hot and significant topics to consider because of our recent post drought period.
(10) New paver stone patios are a great change from the old concrete patios.
