Looking for a couple of recommendations in the Davis area...

[narya.livejournal.com]

Piano Tuner:

If you know a reasonable piano tuner in the Davis area, I'd appreciate their name or contact info. The piano hasn't been tuned in several years and is also in need of some minor (I hope) repairs - a few keys don't work.

It's a plus if they are available evenings/weekends, but not a requirement. I haven't had much luck getting called back just calling a few random ones found by google.


And this one is possibly a long shot, but do you know a good landscape/garden designer who does work in the Davis area?

We need to do some major yard improvements to resolve some drainage and erosion issues and also to make it more usable. In total, this will probably involve building some retaining walls and a patio or deck and doing a lot of planting (right now we have that lovely vacant lot look). It's going to be enough work that I'd like to get some kind of master plan done by somebody who is experienced and not aesthetically challenged the way I am.

I'm looking for somebody who could do a master plan and also advise us how best to stage the work over several years. There are some things that may need to be done by professionals, but there's probably a lot we can do ourselves, so it would be best if the designer were supportive of that.

Ideally we'd start actually doing the work next spring, so there's no extreme hurry, but I would like to start talking to people now. I have a few names already, but additional recommendations would be very much appreciated.


Thanks in advance for any recommendations! (And also, thank you kjc007 for mentioning the Somerville Gardening Club in an earlier comment. That's really nice to know about!)

Comments

[mderidder.livejournal.com]

We have actually been looking for someone to do a master plan for our yard as well.

Here are the names of some of the people we have gotten quotes from:

Mahoney's Garden Center - $250 for 3 hours and $100 off a $500 purchase within a year
Crowley’s Clippers - $250
R & S Landscaping - $300
Mike’s Landscaping - $2500 - $3000 (not a typo)
Julia Houriet (NELDHA) - $60/hour (estimated total cost of $1000-$1500)

I'm curious if anyone has a hypothesis on why these prices vary so much.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_meej_/]

Speaking as a Landscape Architect, my hypothesis is that there's a wide variety in terms of the amount of output they're planning to provide you. There's also a good chance that the landscape supply/installation places are looking at the plan as a "loss leader" that gets you to purchase the material (or even the installation) from them, whereas the other, more expensive pair of prices are based on planning to do an actual, non-cookie-cutter design. It depends what you're looking for. A three-hour plan is barely enough time to meet with you quickly and draw up something very sketchy, let alone actually think through a design...

To the original poster: If you've really got serious drainage issues, definitely *don't* just go with the quick garden-center designs - they'll provide an OK palette of plants for you, but won't necessarily handle the grading issues well. (They might, if it's a landscape architect on staff rather than a "landscape designer" - there's a licensing system in the state that regulates the title - but it'll definitely be a case of "you get what you pay for.")

Julia Houriet's estimate above looks fairly reasonable for a complete but quick plan, but expect that in a more involved situation, especially if there are drainage issues, you'll probably need a topographic survey (maybe $1000 on its own? depends a lot on the property size) and the plan itself might involve more work, also, and thus more cost.

Depending on schedule, I'd be happy to try to poke my head by and give you a better sense what you're getting into (gratis - in the "helping out a neighbor" sense), but I don't know that I've got time to take on an actual client situation... But at least you'd get a little more info.

[narya.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your advice. I think we actually have a pretty good idea of what we're getting into overall from our inspector's report. Our drainage issues are more things that make it difficult to garden (the water drains downhill into the lawn, turning parts of it into a swamp) rather than things that are likely to damage our foundation (which is good).

But if you have time to answer a couple of additional questions I'd greatly appreciate it.

So from what you said above, "landscape architect" is specifically a regulated term. If somebody is not a "landscape architect", then are there specific other qualifications that I ought to ask them about? I plan on asking everyone we seriously consider working with for references from customers who had a similar amount of design work done by them. Are there any additional questions I should ask about their experience?

Also, my list of things that we should be prepared to tell a designer is:
- how we'd ideally like to use the yard
- the estimated time we'd have available to spend doing yardwork, maintenance, etc
- budget (preferred, hard maximum)
- the issues our inspector brought to our attention
- the fact that we'd like to consider what work we might be capable of doing ourselves and that it would be ok to stage the work over a longer period of time

Are there any other things they're likely to want to know?

Thanks very much for your time and help!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_meej_/]

I think that sums it up (well, other than any particular likes or dislikes for certain plants you might have) fairly well.

Good to hear the drainage issues are more in terms of ponding in the lawn and so on; if that's a real concern, it might be worth exploring putting a small drywell into the lawn or something along those lines, but if you can deal with a wet lawn, just make sure the designer knows about it and picks plants that can tolerate intermittent "wet feet."

In terms of other qualifications, I can't think of specific certifications or anything - I think the plan of asking for references from folks in similar situations is a good idea, and I'd recommend asking specifically about handling drainage issues, as well as asking about their background a little just to get a sense of where they're coming from. I'd had a sense from your initial post that you were talking about more significant regrading work, walls, and so on, but if it's mostly minor changes these things might be less of an issue.

[rufustfi.livejournal.com]

I can recommend Barbara Popolow, a landscape designer who also runs Derby Farms in Arlington Center. More info at her website: http://www.derby-farm-flowers.com/home.html