By By Rick Nathanson /
Journal Staff Writer
You provide the sweat
When Colette and Drew Gilliland relocated from Oregon and moved into their Rio Rancho home 3½ years ago, they kept the living room window blinds shut to hide their view to the backyard.
“It was pitiful,” she says. “It was rock and sand and dead bushes and not friendly for our children, or anybody else.”
The Gillilands decided, “argued, really,” about how to landscape the yard, she says. Inquiries were made with landscape contractors who shared their vision for the yard’s design and provided estimates in the $15,000 to $17,000 range.
“I thought there’s no way we can do this, it’s out of our price range,” she recalls. “But then I thought maybe what we need is a consultant to advise us on what to plant and how it would all look together and what works best in the Southwest because we really didn’t know.”
That’s when a friend mentioned Cheryl’s Landscapes on Wheels, a service operated by landscape designer Cheryl Thompson and geared to do-it-yourselfers.
Cheryl’s Landscapes on Wheels is one of several local businesses that guides homeowners on landscaping their backyards.
“We wanted to do the work ourselves but couldn’t figure out what plants to use or how to design it to make it all work together,” says Gilliland, who operates a graphic design business from her home.
The backyard is now landscaped, and for much less money than those estimates.
“People willing to provide the sweat equity can save 50 percent or more, “depending on how much work they’re willing to do and how big the project is,” says Thompson. She started her business in 2006 but worked as a landscape designer for the previous 15 years. About half of her clients, she says, are do-it-yourselfers; for the other half she does full installations or subcontracts to complete the work.
While Thompson doesn’t do irrigation systems or hardscaping, such as concrete walls, water features or patios, she does incorporate these into a design and provides homeowners with a list of subcontractors.
“I don’t charge by the square foot,” she says. “I charge by the cost of plant material and labor. There is no cost for the design work when clients buy a minimum of $500 of plant material from me. My specialty in design is using low-maintenance xeric plants that have a lot of color and texture.”
For do-it-yourselfers, Thompson places the plant material on the spot where they are to be planted. She guarantees the plants for a year if an irrigation system is installed at the same time. A typical backyard irrigation system costs between $800 and $1,200 if professionally done or $300 to $500 for a do-it-yourself project.
Thompson says she works closely with the homeowner. Her hand-drawn designs show the vegetation coverage at maturity “so things are spaced properly and to avoid overcrowding,” she says.
She gives written instructions for planting, a xeric plant maintenance calendar, a new plantings watering schedule, tips on seeding and maintaining lawns and a primer for a drip-irrigation system.
Mike Dooley, owner of High Desert Gardens in Rio Rancho, finds 10 percent of his customers are do-it-yourselfers. Many came to him after seeking landscape designers, only to find prices in the metro area range from $45 and $75 an hour, he says.
“You rack up six, eight, 10 hours in design costs, well, that’s a fair amount of change, and it kind of defeats the whole idea of doing a project yourself to save money,” he says.
That’s where Dooley comes in. “What I do is an initial consultation. I go out and mark the ground with contractors spray paint to show where they want their shrub beds, dry creek bed, grass area, patios, walkways or outbuildings. Pretty much anything that you would see on a plan is what I mark on the ground. Then I give the homeowner tips on how to prepare the ground and when they’re ready I come out and bring the plants and set them on the ground where they should be dug in.”
His consultation fee is free when customers buy at least $500 of plants. If someone purchased 20 plants at $30 each, he or she would exceed that by $100, he notes.
Homeowners often can save about 50 percent by doing the work, Dooley says.
For homeowners disinclined to do the work, Dooley does much of it for an added charge. The installed cost of a backyard landscape generally ranges from $3,000 to $8,000. He doesn’t do hardscapes or masonry, irrigation systems or water features. He provides subcontractors, but he will coordinate the project.
The Gillilands were fine with doing much of the work.
“I’m ecstatic, I love it. It’s my sanctuary,” Gilliland says. “It’s like having another room for our home.”
The Gillilands’ backyard retreat
Following landscape designer Cheryl Thompson’s design, they dug in 48 plants, most selected for a xeric yard exposed to full sun. Among them are sages, lavender, catmint, blue mist, spirea, sumac, potentilla and evergreens.
The Gillilands relocated three rose bushes on Thompson’s advice and preserved 10 small trees, including fruit trees.
“We didn’t even know we had a peach tree until after we started watering it,” Colette Gilliland says.
The cost of plants and weed barrier came to about $1,200.
They also laid a flagstone walkway ($350); created a raised bed with concrete blocks ($800); spread 20 cubic yards of gravel ($1,900); installed an irrigation system ($300); bought lumber and erected a children’s play structure ($1,000); and contracted the installation of about 450 square feet of synthetic lawn ($3,400).
The total cost was less than $9,000, far less than the $15,000 to $17,000 estimates.
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