How to keep your landscape looking beautiful

One of the biggest challenges we face is keeping the beautiful gardens we design, beautiful. Once the plans have been installed, we are no longer needed, and all we can do is watch from the curb as our so-carefully-considered perennials turn into shaggy messes... shrubs sprawl… and delicate roses blow their brains out in the heat of summer. Even though we tend to emphasize water-wise, low-maintenance gardens, we just never know how much TLC they'll actually get.

That's why one of the first questions we ask a client is, "how much do you intend to spend on a gardening maintenance service each month?" If their answer is "nothing, I'll take care of it all," we're in for a rough ride. On the other hand, if they say, "oh, a few hundred or so," then clearly they are more realistic about their garden’s needs—and their own abilities. 

Our best recommendation is to hire not just a lawn-mowing service (although, if Verdance is designing your landscape, you won't have much of a lawn to mow), but a fine gardener: someone who knows (or will learn about) your plants in detail, who will prune them when they should be pruned… feed them what they love to be fed… and even evolve the landscape design over time with annual color and replacement plants that enhance the design. 

The best fine gardeners aren't cheap, but they are so worth it when your garden blows away anyone else's in the neighborhood, every day of every season of the year.

A good design with a great gardener? Priceless.