Cost-Saving Tips For Landscapers

With costs a main concern of landscape clients, contractors can propose money-saving projects to their price-conscious clients. The key is to know where to make the cuts that have the greatest impact on the bottom line.

Reduce Plant Sizes
Every plant of the same species matures at a specific height and diameter. This is true whether it starts from seed or plant. Big budget projects where instant landscapes are desired allow landscapers to buy plants from specimen growers specializing in mature plant material. Though their landscape will be installed at a large size, your clients will eventually reach the exact same size for a fraction of the price.

Produce a planting plan showing the location of each and every plant that goes into the landscape. In the plant list, specify the size of the container proposed. Container size is how the industry prices nursery plants.

The optimal size for a shrub on the planting plan is a 5-gallon container. Herbaceous perennials are 1-gallon containers. The box sizes graduate up from there.

Because all the plants achieve the same size at maturity, you can offer clients a lower bid planting smaller container sizes than those designated on the plan. Do not reduce the number of plants because this negatively influences the design, just drop their purchase sizes.

Vary hardscape material finishes
Anything built of concrete or masonry demands a large share of the landscape budget. The basic costs of a concrete slab or a block wall doesn't vary much, but the finish materials used can significantly increase costs. Often the materials such as stone finish over a slab offers a really high-end look, but price is beyond the budget. To better understand how to save, consider a movie set with one side detailed out to face the camera. Your landscape has a movie set side, which is determined by the most important vantage points. This is where you propose to use the high-end stone or tile for immediate impact.

Avoid specialty construction
Today's landscape industry offers prefabricated amenities. These are factory-made portable units that take the place of expensive onsite construction, offering enormous savings on both masonry and mechanical. A common example is the plug-and-play fountains.