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

[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.