Our work begins with a consultation at your home to discuss your needs, identify your site’s challenges and opportunities, consider design directions, and provide resources and define strategies to help you move forward. The consultation is billed hourly, with most lasting about two hours. After the scope of work has been defined, we can send you a proposal detailing our services and fees. Please note that while the consultation does not oblige you to continue with Verdance, in consideration of your time and money we generally only schedule consultations for projects that align closely with our strengths. To determine whether a landscape design consultation is the right first step for you, please read about who achieves the best results working with Verdance.

In the all-important Predesign phase, we build on the information taken in during the consultation, refining your design program, developing "idea books,” and researching town ordinances and requirements that will apply to your project. We will work with a surveyor to accurately measure and map your site, and analyze your adjacent and environmental conditions against your intended uses. Ultimately we'll draft a base plan of the existing landscape, which will serve as the foundation for our conceptual exploration.

Especially if we’re creating new outdoor living spaces for you, we will want to sketch several concepts that explore how the spaces can best relate to each other and to your home. These schematic diagrams will show the primary features we propose, including circulation patterns and lines of sight. With your feedback, we’ll either develop additional schemes or identify one direction to evolve into the Preliminary Design.

The Preliminary Design embodies our overall vision for your landscape. Drawn to scale, it shows all the major hardscape and landscape elements, including primary features and types of plants. Along with additional drawings or images to help convey the look and feel we envision, you’ll get a clear picture of our design intent, with enough information for a landscape contractor to estimate installation costs.

With your approval of the Preliminary Design, Verdance will develop the specifics of the plan and help you find landscape contractors with the appropriate expertise. Based on preliminary cost estimates, we’ll update the Preliminary Design as needed and identify the materials that best suit your tastes and budget — from paving and plantings to fixtures, furnishings, lighting effects, and other details.

Verdance will prepare detailed installation drawings for you to submit for permit and/or bid with one or more landscape contractors. These typically include a layout plan including locations and finishes of the built features; a planting plan including the locations, names, and quantities of all new plants, with an irrigation plan if necessary to satisfy your local WELO (water efficient landscape ordinance) requirement; a landscape lighting plan; and any other information such as furnishings, containers, or other accessories that will complete the design.

Throughout installation, Verdance remains on hand to coordinate the project, answer questions, adjust our plans, and provide any other guidance to ensure your new landscape thoroughly delights you.

Even when your contractor’s work is done, ours isn’t: we can find you a great maintenance gardener, purchase additional plants or accessories, or help you understand how your garden will perform over time.

If your project would benefit from this level of attention and detail, please send us a New Project Inquiry and we will follow up with you right away to continue the conversation.