OK. I need to start moving on my back yard. It's a project that I wanted to tackle myself. However, three years into buying my house, other than a patio and patio cover, my back yard is still dirt and the fences leave much to be desired.

I'm more than happy to entertain the idea of paying someone to finish the back yard. My problem is that I haven't a clue on how to go find somebody to do it and how to make sure I'm picking the right person(s) to do it.

For those who have picked folks to do landscaping, what was your approach?

 

It was word of mouth for me. I hired a landscape designer to put a plan together but that was money wasted. I paid about a grand for a high level CAD design that wasn't to scale and didn't give any detail. I had a design in my head and just needed a carpenter to build my deck, an excavator to grade my yard, and a landscaper to build a retaining wall. The landscape designer did put in touch with a carpenter he uses to build my deck and a landscaper to build my retaining wall. I found an excavator on Craigslist and I general contracted all of my own work.

Good luck!

 

Word of mouth is the best way to find a reliable, quality, honest landscaper to do the work.
You may want to just call a few from the yellow pages - get estimates from all of them.
Ask for references from previous work, and previous customers.
a good landscape contractor may be able to design and build what you want for your back yard project.
This way your only dealing with 1 vendor.

 

I use the "whomever left a flyer in my mailbox last" method.

 

My advice would be to first come up with a good idea of what you want to do. Throw a dart at a landscaper that you find in google or the yellow pages and get an estimate. From there you'll know if your idea is within your budget or at least a realistic dream. If you have to tweak your design then have the company adjust their quote accordingly. Next start getting quotes from other local companies for the same work and ask questions about how to save money from each of them. Most will tell you that you could save by doing ______ yourself. From there you could can start wrapping your hands around the project and pricing out individual items within your job such as 65 Fury Convert did.

Or you can do what I did, and ask all my buddies if they know anyone and hope they hook you up with a good deal.

Good luck on your project!!!

 

Talk to your neighbors and see who they have used.....provided you like their landscaping. I'm going to have to do that as well. I have some shrubs that I need to have cleaned up and I'm not sure I want to do it myself.