What should you look for in a professional landscaper? Choose a professional landscaper who has a sense of vision for landscaping, not just someone who likes to work in a garden. Look for some evidence of...
Look for some evidence of talent and I think you are going to have a sense of that. My experience from my clients and from talking to other people that do landscaping is that you can tell whether somebody is really creative or they can just do a good job. There are a lot of people that do good work or implement good quality work, but they don't create environments with it. There are lots of talented masons, there are lots of talented horticulturists, there are a lot of talented irrigation contractors, there are lots of talented deck builders, but that does not mean they are going to give you a great project. You need somebody who has vision. You need somebody who has got a level of enthusiasm and excitement and aptitude for doing landscaping.
You also need to see somebody's work and that could be in photographs, that could be a website, or that could be a friend's house that you saw or some place that you drove by. I think you have to have a reason for calling them. You do not necessarily have to see the work, you just have to hear something good about them. And you have to know what is important to you. Is creativity important to you or just a clean landscape? There are plenty of talented people that do quality work and they are studious and particular and call themselves perfectionists. It does not mean those people are creative. It just means they know how to put together a nice clean walk or nice edge on a flower bed. You could hire almost any accountant that likes to putter in a garden and you will see a perfectly pristine garden. So, I think when you are looking for criteria in a landscaper, you have to know what's important to you and I think what's important to you should be that you are adding value and creativity and cohesion to your home or environment- and that the person you are going to hire is going to do a quality job and stand by what they do. Unfortunately in the home improvement business, people don't honor the terms of their contract -- even people with licenses and insurance and all that kind of stuff required of businesses. So, you have to do a little bit of research and you have to use some sense. It's good to have somebody with licenses.
