At Arbeen Landscaping, we are often asked how long beautiful yards will take. Unfortunately, there’s no one solid answer as it depends on the whole project and what may be involved in the process, along with dependency on weather conditions as well. In this article, you’ll learn about the landscaping building process as well as how long it might take to complete certain types of projects for properties.
How Long is the Initial Consultation?
The initial consultation, design, and planning can take anywhere from about one to two weeks. Once you call in for a consultation, we can schedule that and come out to your residential or commercial property. During this consultation, we will ask about your wants and needs, as well as your total budget. Our designers will collect that information and plan out landscape design plans for you, which may take about a few days to a week to complete based on the current workload that we might have. We’ll send you designs for your approval and then you can review it and see if you need changes. If you don’t have changes, we can schedule you as soon as possible, but with changes, the process can be much longer. Here are some other things to consider:
Keep Seasons In Mind
If you contact during a less busy time, there may be slots as early as the next week or so. But keep in mind that landscapers tend to become very busy during the spring and summer months, with wait times of up to eight weeks or two months depending on your workload. On average though, there will be a wait time of about two to three weeks before you can start on your project. If you want to get your project installed as soon as possible, try calling during the winter to get the design process and consultation ready for spring.
How Involved Is Your Project?
When our experienced landscape crew and contractors begin the first steps of installing your new landscape, softscape, or hardscaping. How long the process can take will be solely reliant on how involved your project may be. A smaller planting bed renovation will more than likely only take about a day to complete, provided you don’t run into any complications in the process. If you have larger hardscaping elements such as a patio, fire pit, retaining wall, or water feature, those can potentially take about one to two weeks. Generally, an average project will take about two to four days to complete.
The Size of the Land
Naturally, smaller projects take less time than larger ones. If you want to landscape your front walk and find yourself working with a ten by ten patch of land, you may finish your landscaping work within three days of starting it. However, if you want to get through your back porch and give it the most gorgeous party patio on the block, then you may need to spend upwards of about a month preparing your lot.
The Soil You Live On
The soil around your home can also make it kind of difficult to finish a landscape build. Homeowners living above clay, for example, will usually have to spend more time preparing their land for their plants of choice.
The Plants You Want to Bring Home
However, the biggest influence on the amount of time a landscaping project takes is its design. You’ll want to work on your own or with a professional ahead of time to determine what kind of design you want to implement in the space you have. That said, you can fit plants wherever you’d like. If you’re determined to increase your home’s property value and curbside appeal, you’ll want to apply thought to your landscape build from your front windows and from the road.
Basic Principles of Landscape Design Plans
As you’re bringing together the plants you’d want, keep these following principles in mind:
Color
Color as a concept unites your landscaping with your home. Pick a color scheme for your landscaping with the acknowledgment that some colors- like green, for example- are unavoidable. When you think of your landscaping in terms of color, you can better match your desired flowers, bushes, and trees to features around your home, lending to the cohesive nature of the work that you’re about to do.
Unity
Ideally, you’ll want your landscaping to appear cohesive in nature. This way, your home can resemble a completed picture instead of several features forced together by proximity.
Balance
Finding balance in your landscaping can be tricky. You’ll want to figure out early if you want to have symmetrical or asymmetrical balance styles. Symmetrically-balanced landscaping will mirror back on itself, where asymmetrically-balanced work will unite similarly-colored elements without presenting an exact reflection of certain arrangements to the viewer.
Contrast
The contrast in landscaping allows you to play with size, arrangement, and color. Smaller flowers can lead to the beauty of larger bushes if contrasted appropriately. Similarly, object features can grow more poignant in your lawn so long as equally large trees or bushes do not overshadow them.
Transition
Transition refers to the process through which your yard becomes your landscaping and vice versa. You can lend to the transition both between kept and unkempt lawn and between portions of landscaping by using the size of certain plants to your advantage. Texture also plays a role in landscaping transitions, as smoother textures can slowly give way to larger and more eye-catching plants.
Line
You’re under no obligation to plant all of your bushes, flowers, or trees in a straight line. However, by taking perspective into account as you work, you can arrange your foliage based on how onlookers might view it, embracing “the line” as you do.
Repetition
When you landscape a patch of land, you’re not just planting several different, singular plants. Don’t be afraid to repeat flowers, bushes or even trees! Repetition carries the eye through a landscaped work and lends itself to a previously-mentioned concept, landscaping unity.
Getting Started
As you plan out your landscaping, keep in mind the size of your lot, the soil near your home, and the landscape design plans you want to create will all impact the amount of time it takes for you to complete your project. Before you break ground, plan out your budget and ideal schedule with one of our landscapers to keep track of your progress over time. Reach out to Arbeen Landscaping for all of your landscaping needs. We specialize in creating beautiful yards!
