RENEGADE GARDENER™

The lone voice of horticultural reason

Don’t wait until May to contact a landscaper!

If you have arrived at the stage where you are ready to hire a landscaper, start calling now. Too often, homeowners wait until spring (or midsummer), only to discover that by April, good landscapers are booked for the season, and even the hacks won’t be able to get to your project until fall.

And this is the way the industry is in the north. For readers in USDA Zones 6 – 10, the landscaping season never really stops. I have a friend who is a wonderful landscape designer in Portland, Oregon (hi, Debbie) and I always forget when I e-mail her in February about something dumb that here I am sleeping in until noon, sitting around in my underwear playing video games, while she’s working weekends trying to get designs and bids together for some Monday morning client meeting.

So regardless of what state you are in, start the process of landscaper selection in February, if you want to get anything accomplished in ’07. I’m already booked into the start of June, and that’s just stuff left over from last year. Get out to the home and garden shows this month and next and talk turkey to landscapers you find there, contact your state nursery & landscape association for lists of members in your area, and start setting appointments.

Don Engebretson
The Renegade Gardener