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Final Design

Flowerchild
18 years ago

I have been working on a very small garden design for a client. I have it drawn on thin graph paper to scale with templates and colored pencils. Looks pretty good...finally. I need to know how to get this ready for presentation. What do you do now? Is there a way to have it copied on thicker paper? Or mounted? I really don't feel the graph paper looks very professional.

Oh how I wish I had added this course to my curriculum. I'm not planning on going into landscaping but I do like to design gardens. I'm an Estate Gardener with a couple of other small clients. Up until this point I have just put together plant lists and the clients have trusted me to coordinate them all. Now this one wants a picture. I've been working with the BH&G Landscaping/Deck program but have not mastered that enough to make it work for this small project. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Comments (7)

  • adamante
    18 years ago

    If you are a "just put together a plant lists" type of guy/girl and are good at it hand off the this client to someone else and concentrate on what you are good at. There are far more drawers than garden enablers, not wanting to sound too new age you understand.

  • lnscapr
    18 years ago

    I always do blueprint drawings because I love the "professional look" and remember how impressed I was many years ago to see my home landscape design on a blueprint. If that doesn't work for you, I'd do a black and white copy from the tracing paper or graph paper on decent stock...THEN color it with colored pencils. That should "wow" them! I rarely do colored renderings because most clients don't want to pay me for the extra time it takes. But if you have the time..go for it. A professional presentation makes a big difference to many clients.

  • jeremy_b
    18 years ago

    If you used the kind of graph paper with the non reproducing lines, then you could probably just go to Kinkos or somewhere and have a color copy made. Maybe have it blown up a bit at the same time. If it is regular graph paper, then I think the only option is to keep coloring until all the lines are covered. Mounting is easy, just get a piece of foamcore board and some spray adhesive. I think black foamcore really makes the drawing pop, if you leave a border around it.

    Good Luck

  • Flowerchild
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Thanks lnscapr. I will try the B&W. Yes, it is time consuming. I already WOW'd them with an impressive slide show I put together on a CD. That looks very professional. Now if I can get the plant placement idea across I will be OK. I might pass this slideshow idea on to others that have not tried it. The best part about this is I can keep a supply of pre-planned gardens and have them ready. With just a few changes to suit the sites or clients it will make life a lot easier. I think!! The possibilities are endless Cool Color Gardens, Hot Color Gardens, Shade Gardens..... I dream gardens all winter when I can't get out to work in them.

  • bonsai_audge
    18 years ago

    Although it's nice to be able to have a supply of pre-planned gardens, I think that it may be better to avoid tapping into that supply too often. People usually come to a landscape designer/architect to get specialized treatment that they can't get from a big box store. It's a good idea just to give people a general idea of how the proposed plant selection may look grouped together, but not for the basis of an individual design.

    -Audric

  • Flowerchild
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Thanks Jeremy that will work for me.
    Audric, yes I totally agree with the specialized individual treatment. That's what I always give my clients. Wouldn't stay in business otherwise. I thought just having a grouping of plants in categories which I can pull from is a nice concept. It's rare that you can duplicate a garden because each site and each client is different.
    Thanks for your thoughts.

  • Mike Larkin
    18 years ago

    I do the draft drawing on graph paper. On this is the house and hardscape. Then at home I use tracing paper creating the beds and plants ---- its cheap and I often change my mind many times. I take the tracing paper to Kinko's and for about 5 -6 bucks, can get a nice 24 x36 print. Each plant on the list has small color photos attached. Big enough so they can identify the plant. I print this at home. I also give them a reduced version -(about 50% reduction) of the landscape plan. Many of my clients are do it yourselfers and like the smaller version to carry along to the nursery. Total cost about $12-15 per client. So far no one has complained and it is easy to do.

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