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I tripped over this link this morning:
http://www.penick.net/design/services.html

You might find it interesting.

Nothing is more refreshing than someone who sees multiple sides of issues. You do well with that and articulate it well, Jason. I appreciate that.

Nothing is worse than people who declare something as “the only right way” and force it on everyone else.

Complex issues are just that, complex. They are never solved with simple solutions.

I’ve worked on a bunch of ‘new urbanist’ developments like this. Mixed use primarily refers to residential over retail or office. The idea is to recreate the old downtowns where SRO’s and apartments would be above businesses. Today, its condos or apartments. If they are done well, they can be nice. But most are not done well. I too, cannot stand…[Read more]

i think the generic term ‘smart growth’ tends to take on more specific and often misconstrued meaning for different people. In my interpretation Smart Growth is non-prescriptive, but conscious of context and character with particular regard to the current market/end user.

I think a lot of people tend to attribute smart growth to high density,…[Read more]

I’m in Houston, Texas and I charge $85 per hour

Mixed Use seems to be an expect part of smart growth, infill and retrofits. Its is a concept that people talk about but no one really explains it and the general public don’t seem to get it or like it. Who wants to live really close to lots of neighbours, some with screeming children, others with businesses, and a constant stream of customers day…[Read more]

I haven’t taken the exam but I remember a teacher telling me that for plant identification they just walk you around LSU’s campus and point at plants. No idea how many plants though. I have a pretty recent plant list from LSU (2 years old) if you want it.

Sent you a message. Did you get it?

for a medow area you should look into a mix of grasses. for a mono-crop planting (single species) blue fescue (more architectural look) or mexican feather grass (wild meadow look) then to mix it up you could add some muhlenbergia (deergrass) for some size and variation.

Ornamental grasses are quickly becoming a serious source of invasives in many parts of the country. Miscanthus has gotten completely out of hand in some areas, Pennisetum too.
In the Central part of the country, Eragrostis trichodes has a texture similar to Nasella, if soil and watering conditions will suit. But it is not native to California, so…[Read more]

Looks a little like Karl Foerster’s Feather Reed Grass, Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’

imho, try Pennisetum setaceum. its versatile and share similar traits.

mondo grass not suitable from my view..did u see zoyssia japonica??..or you try to integrate plant in the right sight making it more live

do you learn plants from south east asia country?

irrigated Carex praegracilis would work. If it is irrigated a bit it wont look ratty.

Thanks everyone for all the great advice! I think I will just charge a flat rate instead of hourly based on the size of the job. Thanks!

I’ve been using alot of the following:

Miscanthus sinensis (Maiden Grass)

Blue Avena (can’t rememeber horticultural name)

Schyzochyrium scoparium (Little Bluestem)

Another important point is scope of work. What goes into a landscape design can be so variable that establishing a modus operandi is essential in order to get your feel for what flat rate you should charge for a particular job. You’ll see that one may charge $50 per hour with a final design fee of $500-$600 while another might mention the same…[Read more]

For what it’s worth-

Before I went to school I did residential design for a couple years.

For a designer with no formal education, only field experience I would have considered myself a pretty good landscape designer. I charged $50/hour with what I would consider the typical mid-sized residential back yard running between $150-500. Most f the…[Read more]