Garden Design/DIY/Coaching ... Phase One
The next step was to figure out what could the client do herself in order to save money. The design already called for four berms in order to transform the flat space into a more interesting landscape, so we ordered 10 yards of dirt and the homeowner wheelbarrowed it all to the back yard creating four big berms. That saved a good $1,500 in labor. The client also decided to do the final mulch, and to lay the top dressing down for the paths … saving another $1,000 or so.
After that decision, we looked at the available budget for the first phase and decided what would be the best bang for the buck. In consultation, we choose to look at what takes the longest to mature over the greatest amount of time and get started there, first. In other words, we put the bones of the garden in first.
The bones are those trees and shrubs that will perform the functions of screening, focal points and elevation. Because the budget didn’t call for bringing fully grown plants in by crane, we decided to go with shrubs in five gallon containers and trees in 10 gallon containers. All in all, the first order was roughly 100 plants in that category and these plants will grow to provide different heights, colors, textures, shapes and more.