The Verdance Landscape Architecture Process.

We don’t just want your landscape to be beautiful when it’s built. We want it to serve you over the seasons and years to come.

Our thorough and methodical process results in an inspiring, uniquely personal setting for the best times of your life. Step by step, our process guides you through the following phases:

Our work begins with an on-site review to evaluate your site’s opportunities and challenges, discuss possible design approaches, and estimate project budget, timeline, and resource requirements. For an even clearer outlook, upgrade to our Periscape® Site Strategy Session for in-depth research, feasibility analysis, customized roadmap, and Califriendly™ Readiness Scorecard — tools designed to help you make confident, informed decisions. Please note that while a 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 consultation or Periscape® session 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 explore several concepts that articulate 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 MWELO (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.