Everything You Need to Know Before Hiring a Landscape Designer

Ah, garden dreams. We all have them. You drive by someone’s front yard and gasp at how original, yet welcoming it is. Or you go to a friend’s garden party and get positively green with envy over their, well, greenery and the overall flow of the space. To achieve such greatness, you decide you need to hire a landscape designer. And then you realize you have no idea what to do next. 

Believe me, I feel you. When I decided to let the water-guzzling lawn in front of my new house die, I knew I’d need an expert to replace it with something fresh. After all, the garden hadn’t been re-thought since sometime around 1950—the endless line of red roses and weird walkway were dead giveaways. And while I love vegetable gardening and can design a raised bed, my site, frankly, was way beyond my skills. 

Enter Jessica Viola of Viola Gardens, in Los Angeles, California. I’d stalked her Instagram and visited her website, so I knew she was as passionate as I was about native and low-water plants, both of which are essential due to climate change. I also interviewed her once and found her as thoughtful as she was talented. So, I emailed her to ask if she would come take a look at my front yard, and she said yes. We threw around some ideas and I hired her just like that. I ended up with an incredible garden that, even before it’s fully grown in, is already one-of-a-kind and just right. 

But here’s the truth: This is not the way to find a garden designer, and I think it only worked out because I look at gardens and talk to designers all the time in order to do my job. 

So, don’t do what I did. Instead, read this article. Viola spills the tea on how to find the perfect firm, why communication is key, and why an unexpected problem can lead to an