process + fees

Landscape Design Comprehensive Plans

Firecracker offers Landscape Design services for homeowners that want to improve and enjoy their outdoor spaces. Comprehensive plans for the residential landscape include a hardscape plan, planting plan, furnishings and lighting specifications on scaled, fully detailed drawings. Construction details and drawings may also be required for projects. Comprehensive plan design fees begin at $3,500 for a partial garden and $5,000 for a full garden renovation. Prices vary depending on the size and complexity of the project.

 Design Process

After a brief phone conversation identifying your needs and whether Firecracker is a good fit for your project, we will schedule an on-site meeting to discuss your project in greater detail. On-site initial meetings are $200. Clients are sent a survey to complete prior to the initial meeting; we have found this helps our clients formulate ideas for their garden.

 A written proposal is sent to the client after the on-site meeting. The proposal outlines the project scope and fees. When design goals have been agreed upon, clients sign and return the proposal to Firecracker with a 50% deposit to secure project work. The remaining fee is billed at the concept meeting (25%) and final design meeting (25%)

 Site analysis – The site is photographed and measured, possibly visited several times to understand light, wind, topography and particular intricacies of the landscape. A site plan is drawn using existing plans, field measurements or combination thereof.

Concept design – Based on client input and external research, at least one concept design is developed for the project. Concepts show layout options for garden areas such as pathways, patios, fencing, lawn and planting areas. Mood boards and a tentative materials palette is presented as well. General plant sizes and locations are included in concept drawings. and Concepts are presented to clients at a 1-1.5 hour meeting.

Final design – After the direction of the design is agreed upon, final plans are drafted that include detailed measurements of all hardscape, lighting, furnishings, planting plans and plant lists. Plans are drawn to scale and can be used for construction bids. Plans can be installed in a phased-in timeframe or all at once by homeowner or contractors. Final plans are presented to clients at a 1-1.5 hour meeting.

Construction oversight

Firecracker offers construction oversight for garden installation so that you can have complete confidence your design is installed the way you want. We help you select a contractor to install designs and oversee the installation process, so that things run smoothly. We charge a $500 fee for reviewing bids from one contractor that we recommend. If you’d like to review more than one bid, an additional $500 fee will be incurred for each additional contractor during the bid review and procurement process. Construction oversight services are billed at 12% of completed installation costs.

Plant procurement, selection and plant layout

We bill at an hourly rate of $125/hr for plant procurement, selection and plant layout upon installation.

Garden consultations

Looking to spruce up a corner of your garden or having trouble figuring out some problem in your outdoor space? Consults offer you individualized plant and furnishings recommendations, plant placement suggestions, garden layout options and other suggestions tailored to your needs. We create lists of ideas for you, quick sketches to get your ideas put into action, and local resources to help you with all your outdoor projects. To get the best out of these meetings, we have all our consult clients fill out our project questionnaire, prior to the scheduled consultation.

 Consults are $450 for an initial meeting, up to two hours in length. Additional consults can be scheduled at an hourly rate of $175 thereafter. We have clients that use consults one time only, and others that are regular clients who we work with over time. We find that consults are best suited to specific problems within a garden vs an overall garden design of your outdoor space.