Maybe you have a neighbor with stunning landscaping that takes advantage of the natural surroundings, adds beauty to the property, balances recreational and scenic considerations, and just generally inspires feelings of admiration. Or maybe you’ve just bought a home and you realize the landscaping needs work and you have a vision of what you’d like to see the property become. So now you’re considering a major landscape project or a remodeling. What you might not know is that those beautiful yards you’ve seen or the one you envision can take years of work.
With your enjoyment of your property and its resale value on the line, you don’t want to throw good money after bad results.
You need a landscape architect, not a landscape designer, and you need a master plan.
A landscape architect does not actually build the features on your property. Instead, a landscape architect is a trained expert who can develop a plan that fits the features of your property and meets your goals. The master plan that a landscape architect will develop brings order to everything by establishing what work needs to be done, when it should take place, and how much it will cost.
Let’s look at 7 good reasons that a master plan for your project makes sense:
- You can set goals and then prioritize how you want to achieve them. It might not be possible to do everything at once, and some parts of the design might rely on the completion of others. Having a master plan makes this easier to manage. With a master plan, you can take the entire property into consideration so that the final results will be cohesive. Even if aspects of the plan phase in over multiple years, there’s an original unifying vision that ties everything together and keeps the project focused.
- A master plan makes budgeting easier simply because you know when certain projects will start and how much they will cost, allowing you to plan accordingly.
- With all components of the final product complementing one another, your landscaping will increase your home’s curb appeal and add to its resale value.
- Even if selling your home is years away or not in your plans at all, a well-designed plan for your landscaping still provides immediate and lasting enjoyment of your property.
- Having a master plan means you are always working with a highly skilled professional. This gives you peace of mind because you know the work will be high-quality throughout the project. Compare that to a more random approach that might involve multiple companies that have different standards and produce different results.
- In addition to making budgeting easier, a master plan also saves you money in the long run because the designer will make sure to get everything right before any work begins. Homeowners who plant trees for scenic value and then come to realize that those trees obstruct cherished views as they grow larger can appreciate the value of a master plan that takes things like this into account. So can homeowners who hastily hire a contractor to install a fence or build a pool and then learn that the finished product crosses a property line or isn’t up to code. That results in extra work that costs more money, and it can be a very expensive mistake. The landscape architect who designs a master plan for your property will make sure everything is right before any work begins.
- Finally, a master plan that spaces work out over time, often years, creates flexibility to assess how everything is working and if any adjustments are necessary. If you try to do everything at once, you might step back and look at the final result and realize it isn’t what you wanted or expected.
