Initial Consultation

Our initial consultation is $50 for an hour long meeting and it has two purposes:

Needs Assessment

Our first meeting provides an opportunity for us to get a sense of what you’re looking for in your outdoor space and helps us determine if the project has the potential to be a good match for our services.  We’ll ask how you’d like to use the space, cover any practical concerns (ie privacy issues), and also go over garden images so we can get a sense of your personal style.  We’ll also tell you a bit more about Small Spot Gardens, our process and practices.

Garden Assessment

The initial consultation is also a garden assessment covering overall garden health and garden design possibilities.

Garden Health – Creating a healthy garden requires understanding the state of the existing soil and plants.  During the initial consultation we’ll take a soil sample that will be sent to a lab for pH, nutrient and heavy metal analysis (results generally take 2-3 weeks).  We’ll also observe and note issues in the following areas so you can make educated decisions about your landscape:

• soil compaction
• soil coverage
• plant diversity (important for pest management)
• irrigation problems
• individual plant health problems
• aggressive weeds

Garden Design – We’ll begin a design ideabook for you based on our conversation so you can reference images as you continue to plan your garden.  We’ll also observe and note patterns that already exist in your landscape and offer suggestions for repeating those patterns creatively to create a cohesive look.