Nursery Sales and Landscape Design

• A nursery salesperson with landscape design knowledge can increase sales and enhance their professional image
• Many nurseries now employ landscape architects who offer clients professionally designed landscape plans for a fee

Customer Implementation

• Clients can implement the plan in phases, doing the work with your guidance
• Some clients may request bids from the nursery or a landscape contractor for the entire project

Expectations and Assistance

• Salespeople aren't usually tasked with creating full landscape designs for customers
• Salespeople assist: Solve plant-related issues, offer plant suitability advice, interpret architect plans

Company Landscape Work Policies

• Familiarize with company policies related to landscape work

Possible Approaches

• Employing a landscape design team
• Referring clients to affiliated landscape architects
• Having trained staff on-site to handle landscape design queries

Discussing Landscape Issues

• These discussions require time
• Interpret customer intentions, address problems one at a time, and assess client reactions throughout to ensure alignment

Landscape Design

• A unique, ever-changing art form, differing from paintings and sculptures
• Landscape designs evolve continually due to living plants being the primary medium

Development of Planted Areas for Value

• Should improve in beauty and value annually if plants are carefully chosen, situated, and maintained

Difference Between Art Forms

• Landscape design is three-dimensional, working with height, width, and depth, along with color and form

Landscape Design Definition

• Art of organizing outdoor space for human enjoyment and satisfaction
• Arranging outside areas to improve individual and community lives

Public Awareness

• Growing recognition of the benefits of landscaping

Pleasures of Nursery Work

• A nursery salesperson has the pleasure of enhancing the community's beauty and helping customers fulfill their need to grow plants

Benefits

• Beauty
• Increased land value
• Soil erosion control
• Air and water purification
• Noise reduction
• Privacy
• Control wind, sun, and temperature
• Air circulation
• Shelter and food for wildlife

Successful Design Essentials

• Designs should cater to the customer’s needs and interests
• Nursery salespeople should have insight into: Plant growth, culture, and size limits, site intentions, client preferences, and landscape architect plans

Understanding Architect Plans

• Requires grasp of scale and appreciation for landscape design's value and process

Home Landscape Planning

• Well-planned landscapes boost a property's resale value, beautify the area, and delight families

Design Focus

• It goes beyond mere plant placement, to conscious space arrangement for human satisfaction
• Goals of landscape design include: Maximizing site use, forming connections between home and site, and reducing maintenance

Common Landscaping Mistake

• Wasting money due to poor planning

Landscape Design Rationale

• Understanding the "why" is key

Reasons to Landscape

• Improving appearance, growing plants, or aesthetics

Common Issues

• Landscapes that dominate instead of serve
• Overuse of plants limits functional space for people

The Designer's Approach

• Includes assessing needs, studying methods, surveying materials, and analyzing the site's environment
• Site ecology plays key design role

Improving Building Appearance

• Sensitive design enhances buildings by adding warmth and relating them to their surroundings

Landscape Design vs. Art

• Most art looks best when new not landscapes
• Landscapes improve over time

Planting Impulses

• Can be overwhelming
• Planning yields more satisfying results

Base Plans

• Created to scale
• Consult a landscape architect for planning, but good results can be achieved independently

Scale Options

• 1/8" = 1' for properties
• 1/4" = 1' for smaller ones

Drawing Inclusions

• All the things described should be on your drawing

Sketching Process

• Layer tracing paper over the base plan to sketch ideas

Compass Directions

• Always indicate to relate to house
• Note the rising sun's direction

Winter/Summer Direction

• Winter: Sun rises south of east
• Summer: Sun rises north of east

Preparing a Base Plan: Step One

• Measure all property lines and record it on a rough sketch
• If the lot's plot plan is available, utilize its dimensions

Preparing a Base Plan: Step Two

• Ensure house aligns with property
• Create reference line adjacent to house to find reference points A and B

Preparing a Base Plan: Step Three

• Determine one house corner's location with street edge and nearest property line measures
• Measure each house side from this corner

Preparing a Base Plan: Step Four

• Draw plot plan at scale (1/8"=1' or 1/4"=1')
• Draw curb line in double, create property lines, and indicate compass

Preparing a Base Plan: Step Five

• Know city easement, where city can remove plantings
• Locate one house corner and record its dimensions, noting house measurements

Preparing a Base Plan: Step Six

• Mark other features by measuring from known reference points:
• Windows, above/below utilities, outlets, prominent landscape features, trees, neighbors' features, roof overhang

Preparing a Base Plan: Step Seven

• Transfer data from sketch to final plat
• Now the base for home landscape design is ready

Design - Needs

• List needs from all family members

Common Needs

• Driveway, parking, play areas, outdoor space, garden, privacy, windbreaks

Landscape Qualities

• It's practical and beautiful

The Site Itself

• Ideally, select the house site, house design and landscape development at once
• Selecting your site, consider the house's location and landscape

Returning to the Plan

• Revisit plan from step one, checking site problems
• Tape tracing sheet atop plot to create a sketch

Landscape Analysis Checklist

• Views from and of the site
• Summer breezes and winter winds
• Drainage and slope
• Soil type, depth, and testing (contact the Extension office)
• Transfer info to base plan