Designs by Kim

We could not have been more satisfied. Kim met with us, sought to understand our need and wishes, outlined reasonable time lines, and completed her proposal quickly and efficiently. After a second meeting she incorporated our ideas for revision and developed a plan that included everything we wanted. Upon request she also identified two landscaping companies that could implement her plans. We hired one, TLC Landscapes, and were completely happy with the outcomes.

It went great. She is a very talented landscape designer and her price was very reasonable.

Kim came out to our house and asked lots of questions, made some suggestions and then took our information to develop a plan.  It took about 3 weeks to come up with a first draft.  We went back and forth a few times with some changes and she gladly made the adjustments.  She also made a few recommendations on contractors to do the work.  During the actual project in October, Kim came to the house and checked on how things were going and made a few suggestions.
The drawing was very professional and her knowledge of the plants to use is very good.  Kim was a pleasure to work with.

We love the first design. It is low care and easy to manage.

Kim visits with you to understand what your landscaping goals and preferences are, and walks around the property with you to understand the layout and plans. Then she goes away and creates a blueprint of the property showing all of the existing buildings and plants and where changes and additions will be made. She includes a full list off the plants and other items, so you or a landscaper could purchase everything needed to do the work -- all at once or spread out over time. We're doing the work ourselves over a few years, so for us it's more like a roadmap. For someone with the budget, they could hire their own landscaper or have Kim bring in a good landscaper(s) and get all the work done at once. Kim has a fantastic sense of what will look good both right away and when full grown. We used her for a house we built in Eagle ten years ago, and liked the results so much we called her back when we moved to Meridian, to get advice on enhancing our already nice landscaping here. She made us a set of plans, and now we know what plants and trees to buy when we have the budget.

Kim was first recommended to us in 2005 by our home builder.  She laid out a well-designed landscape plan that included a combination of blooms and colors throughout the season, from spring to fall, and "architectural" plants that have visual interest during the winter.  She has deep knowledge of hundreds of varieties of plants, and how they fare in various conditions and settings.  She learned our preferred color palate (primary colors) and plant preferences (e.g. more garden style and not so much native scrub style), and tailored her plant choices accordingly. 

Her output to us was a full blueprint -- showing exactly what plants to put where, plotted visually on a map of our lot, with the house and other structures filled in. A map key (shopping list) let us know exactly what to purchase, with common and botanical names, so there would be no question of what to get at the nursery.  Kim went through a couple of iterations with us to fine tune the plan, and was available by phone to answer questions about substitutions, even after we paid her. She even made recommendations on where to buy the landscaping plants and materials.

In our first experience with Kim, we had ignored some of her advice.  We put our own spin on where to locate an outdoor seating area, and over the next few years realized that Kim was right in her recommendation, and we should have gone with her initial recommendation.  It would have cost thousands to "fix" what was a no-cost option when first building.  Based on that realization, that it helps to have expert eyes on your plan, when we moved, it seemed wise to get her inputs on what we should plan out to personalize our "new" 10-year-old landscaping.

We asked Kim to come out and help us design updates to our Meridian home landscaping.  Though mature and very nice overall, we wanted to add some additional color and texture, replace a couple of dead or dying trees, and add a few trees for privacy and shade.  She pointed out where some existing landscaping would eventually get crowded and trees would come out.  Based on our color and texture preferences, she created a landscape plan we can use to update our new setting.  

We're using Kim's plans as a long-term roadmap.  We're adding a couple trees right away so they start growing and we get the benefit sooner.  The rest is about cash flow.  It may take us several years to do everything on the plan.  The plans include easy and immediate changes like replacing pokey plants at the front door with more lush and welcoming (to us) color -- and longer-term more expensive plans like adding a basketball court in the side yard.  And if I feel like putting in some sweat equity, I know where to focus my attention.