Subject: New Homeowner Needs Advice on Selecting Landscape Designer

From: [email-masked] (scott.d.brenner)
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 13:59:52 GMT

My wife and I bought a house last Fall.  We've got just under half an
acre of property.  The yard is primarily grass, but there are about
30-40 trees of all sizes scattered about.  Some were planted by the
builder (dogwoods, white pines, spruce, etc.) and some were there when
the land was still virgin woods (many cedar, an oak, etc.).  The former
owner also put in some nice shrubs and small trees (hollies, Japanese
red maple, boxwoods, burning bushes, scrub pines, norweigen spruce,
etc.)

There are some problem areas that I'd like to do something about.
These include minimizing the view of a chain link fence (we back to a 
golf course), hiding some utility thingies near the sidewalk, and
making the overall landscaping seem a bit more "coherent."  I'd also
like to make everything "nicer" (I know this is hard to define and
explain to someone else; I plan to drive around and videotape other
people's landscaping that I like.)  

I'm willing to spend a few years achieving my goals and thought it
would be a good idea to get a landscape designer or landscape architect
to make a plan for me that I could implement (on my own) over the next
few years.

So... does anyone have any recommendations on how to pick a good 
designer/architect?  Or would this be a waste of money?  Is there
something else I could do?

Please send advice and recommendations directly to me at the e-mail
address below (not the one in the headers).  I'll post a summary of
responses if requested.

a T d H v A a N n K c S e

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Scott D. Brenner                  AT&T Consumer Communications Services
[email-masked]                             Piscataway, New Jersey
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