Landscaping Budget (Austin: fit in, city hall, to buy)

[llkltk]

What can you expect to get with a $500 budget hiring an Austin landscaper?

[motherofthree]

Just a landscape plan. My detailed plan cost $450 and used it to do all the work myself. I know people who have hired companies to do the plan and work and spend many thousands on a small area.

[CptnRn]

Do you have a design? Do you already have grass and trees? If so you could get a few planter beds with shrubs and accent plants installed for that amount.

Your best bet to stretch that $500 is to buy and install the plants yourselves.

You can get some good ideas for designs here, see the design templates: City of Austin - Landscape Designs

and native plants here City of Austin - City of Austin - Grow Green

I recently produced a design and estimated $2,000 for (plant costs and labor) to pay my yard man to redo my front yard with native, drought tolerant plants, which already has trees and sod and some shrubs.

[CptnRn]

If you are looking for a landscape architect, I recommend:

Carolyn Kelly Landscape Architect
2905 Oak Crest Avenue, Austin, TX 78704-6227
(512) 445-0431 ‎

She does excellent work and is a pleasure to work with. She is very knowledgeable about native Texas plants which thrive here and did much of the landscaping at the Austin City Hall.

[orngkat]

I would like to find someone who would just spend an hour or so consulting on ideas for an hourly fee. But I don't know what that should cost?

[llkltk]

We are drawing the plan out ourselves. The person we are using is a landscaper not a landscape architect. He doesn't even draw plans. We have grass already. We might go ahead and dig out the new beds and prepare them. All they would need to do is come in and plant and mulch. I guess that would fit into a $500 budget.

[CptnRn]

If it were me, I'd pay him to dig out and prepare the beds, heavy labor there. Maybe put in a few of the larger shrubs to get the bed started. Then you can easily buy and install plants yourself over time as you find them on sale.

[jobert]

I would second the suggestion of Carolyn Kelley. She is very knowledgable, and has worked on large scale commercial projects as well. She's also an outstanding individual with an elegant style.

Here is her email address if you care to contact her: carolyn@ckla.net

If you drew the plans yourself, she could use it as a Basis of Design (BOD) and refine your plans and selections to achieve your specific goals for the project.

[10scoachrick]

After 2 1/2 years here, I would say one of the most important things regarding 'growing' things is DIRT. It seems many 'landscapers' dig into the existing soil(such as it is), plant whatever, and then cover it with mulch. I'm convinced that bringing in real soil/dirt and adding to the existing is more conducive to actually growing something in cenTex. Raising beds is a great way to augment the existing soil.

I'd likely reduce the lawn area and add DG paths and sitting areas while making sure the 'garden' areas have really good soil.

Fortunately, DW is a former Master Gardener and our landscape dude has a good eye for plant 'placement', if not total 'design'. That $500 budget could become $2K in a blink of an eye .

Reminds me...gotta cut the back yard grass for the first time this season. Off I go...

[llkltk]

We're not doing anything intricate. Just a few simple beds and plants. We do not need a landscape architect or even a 2K budget. $500 is doable for what we want.