Now that you have a working design and budget, it’s time to shop!

Buying Plants comes down to three things. Price, selection, and time.

Price – Save the Most Money

Trees, shrubs, edibles, and flowers are priced based on their age. The older, the more valuable. The most expensive plants are usually the oldest and largest. Japanese maples and boxwoods cost more compared to similar size and age plants because they grow more slowly. You will always pay a premium for slow growing plants. You’re paying for time!

To save the most money, find a wholesale source for your most common varieties. Google wholesale nursery near “your town and state”. Call them and see if they sell to the public. Some wholesalers charge a minimum order so figure out your design first, then you’ll know what you need.

If the wholesale nursery has a price list, catalog, or inventory with prices on the website, they’ll sell direct to you. Call them if you like the price and see if you can pickup or have delivered. Pickup is going to be less expensive, always.

If you can’t find anything or the wholesalers won’t sell direct, save money by shopping the box stores first. The most common box stores are Lowe’s and Home Depot. Depot usually has better quality material, but it can be pricier.

If the garden center has multiple sizes of the same variety, buy the smallest size container. It will grow and appreciate, turning a $5 shrubs into a $50 plant into a $500-5,000 specimen.

Treat your landscape like the investment it rightfully is! Your landscape appreciate at 9% over the life of your homeownership (click here to scientific journal article).

Time – Save Years of Frustration

To save the most time and skip buying a potentially weaker plant, shop your local garden center. Call ahead if you’re just looking for one plant.

You’re usually going to pay more from a local garden center but 99/100 times, the local garden center has better, healthier plants. So you pay for what you get. This is more true in live goods than other kind of product. Low price live goods (plants) must be grown with cheaper inputs or be younger. Local garden centers purchase from smaller, family owned nurseries and national brands, so their plant material is superior.

If you need to save money, buy fewer plants and space them farther apart. It’s ok for gaps between shrubs. When I view properly spaced plants, I know an intelligent designer and/or homeowner did their homework about plant spacing.

If you’re just looking for a single specimen, start at your local (independent) garden center. The bigger and older the plant, the more expensive it’s going to be.

If you’re shopping for edible plants, check out the local garden center or farmer’s co-op in your area. They have the best selection and the price is reasonable. You’re saving so much money growing your own food! For more on growing and landscaping with edibles click here.

 Selection – Save Time and Money

Garden centers always have superior selection to Lowe’s and Depot. Call or check the local garden center website for specific varieties. If they don’t have what you’re looking for, they will know where to get it.

Local garden center employees have great knowledge and may have a replacement for you if unable to source the variety.

Spring offers best availability of trees, shrubs, and flowers. Cool season edibles are best found in the Fall. Click here for help deciding when to install.

Ebook

I go into more detail regarding exact plant prices in my ebook 7 Steps to Landscape Success.

In addition to design and install, I can help you find wholesale priced plant material! Call or email me elliott@mylandscapeguide.com to get started!

Now it’s on to Step 5, Site Prep and Install!

After vision (Step 1) and budget (Step 2), the fun begins with garden design. There are three ways to approach design.

Quick Approach

Take pictures of your landscape. Measure the lengths of the outside walls. Find landscapes you like. Copy them.

This can be a small area or your entire landscape.

There is no wrong answer, design is subjective, just like visual arts. Some people will love your design, others will hate it. To please the most people, especially if you’re planning to resell your home one day, landscape the foundation with evergreen shrubs.

If you’re designing your first home’s landscape, start small, find plants that you like, and use them in many places. I like two-three varieties around the home’s foundation. Next I like blooming shrubs and small deciduous trees in front or nearby the shrubs. Finally, in front of your shrubs (around the foundation), plant annuals and perennials. Evergreen green provides a great backdrop to see flower colors.

Check out this blog post on timeless landscape design.

Pro Approach – Avoid the 3 Common, Expensive Design Mistakes 

1. Do not install large growing trees and shrubs near the home foundation. Don’t do it. Plant large growing trees at least 15 ft from the foundation. Tree roots can crack the home’s foundation along with the danger of tree branches falling and damaging the roof.

Small stature trees like serviceberry, crapemyrtle, and dogwood are acceptable for foundation planting with some pruning required.

2. A controversial design decision I disagree with; (I see this approach all the time) planting one of everything. New gardeners and novice landscapers rotate one variety then another, and another. Choose one evergreen shrub variety per foundation wall to create uniformity. Uniformity is a design principle and is pleasing to the eye.

Choose a few varieties of trees/shrubs and replicate them throughout the design. Does this sound boring to you? Great design is simple. Seeing the same plants through out a landscape is pleasing to the eye.

3. When I look at a landscape I can tell if it was professionally designed or not. How? Plants in the wrong places. Simple common mistake. What do I mean in the wrong places? All plants thrive in different locations. Using a landscape designer, you get an unfair advantage because you don’t have trial and error. Designers know what does best.

Too many plants planted together? Probably done by a landscaper where they get paid for more plants. More plants sold and installed. More they make. This is an ethical conflict of interest. The best landscapers will coach you on spacing plants correctly, limiting the number of plants needed.

BONUS MISTAKE to AVOID: Only rookies use too many colors! Need help choosing colors? Click here

Pay a Professional Approach

I know, shameless plug. I offer landscape and garden design services. Basically I help you achieve the look you’re after. I help you pick the right plants for the right places. Contact me if you have a design question. Always happy to help!

 

Have you created a basic design? Now it’s time to purchase some plants in Step 4.

Remember how we talked about brainstorming in Step 1? Now get real with your landscaping budget. Your budget is unique but always based on the cost of time.

The older the plant, the more expensive it will be. 

Japanese maples (Acer japonica) and American boxwoods (Buxus sempervirens) are more expensive because they grow slowly. To save money and time, substitute crapemyrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) for jap. maple. Sub korean boxwood hybrids, Japanese holly, or ‘Conoy’ Viburnum for American Boxwood.

To dramatically cut cost, start with smaller plants. That usually means a three gallon tree or shrub. The three gallon size is the industry standard at retail.

It’s difficult to find, but a source for one gallon trees or shrubs is your most cost effective size. You will most likely find one gallon sizes from wholesalers or local garden centers.

Be wary, the older a plant is, the more time it takes for establishment. This means you may have to baby-sit larger plants because their small root system must develop into the ground before they become self-sufficient. Smaller trees and shrubs will establish more quickly. Larger plants have been in an artificial environment longer and need longer nursing care by you before becoming self-sufficient.

Provide the necessary free labor and dig your own holes to save on install.

This may seem obvious if you’re doing it yourself. Paying someone else to do the dirty work costs money. I wouldn’t be in business if this weren’t so! If you need large plants installed or you’re feeling overwhelmed, consult an expert. I provide a FREE site audit, just contact me, it can be done virtually!

Typically landscapers include the delivery and install in the price of a plant. If you know what you’re looking for, call around and get several estimates. You may learn that a landscaper buys wholesale and can install for the same price you would pay at retail. It never hurts to ask!

But is it really hard to install? Heck no, check out this hole digging article. You don’t have to finish in one day. At my home, I like to dig one hole a day until the project is completed.

What are you willing to spend this year on this project?

You don’t have to finish the entire landscape in one season. I believe in adding plants every season! If your budget is small, start with small plants and create new beds or foundation plantings each year. That way everything will be taken care of and nothing will die from neglect.

Once you have a budget in mind, go to Step 3, Garden Design Ideas and Common Expensive Mistake and How to Avoid.

Did you find what you’re looking for? If not, send me an email and I can help you figure out which plants to buy.