Sweet Bee Garden provides a flexible range of design and consulting services to Sonoma County residents, from general concept sketches to detailed planting plans. Whether you have a small patio or a multi-acre estate, we are excited to help you.
We specialize in garden designs that feature resilient plant pallets that are place and climate appropriate. We love to bring nature closer to home by designing pollinator gardens, wildlife habitat, bird gardens, or butterfly gardens. If you are interested in self-sufficiency and homesteading, we specialize in integrating edibles, herbs, chickens, bees and other urban livestock to your landscape, as well as rainwater harvesting and greywater systems.
If you are remodeling your home or doing other building work and the county or your city is requiring a landscape plan, we are happy to design to meet the new Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance.
If you don’t need a full design, but would like assistance in plant selection, general layout, how to work with your site, etc., we are also available for consultations or customized design packages.
Read below for more info on how the design process works, or contact us today to get started!
How the Design Process Works:
Initial Consultation:
After an initial phone call or email conversation, we will meet with you to discuss the garden and your needs. During this meeting, we gather information about your garden requirement and preferences. We encourage all members of the family that will be using the garden to be involved in this process. At this time, or before continuing any work, a design proposal and an estimate of design cost is presented.
Site Analysis:
Before any design work can begin, we complete a detailed site analysis with photos and measurements of the existing property. If you are on budget, this is one stage of the design process that can completed by you, or if you have an existing survey, it may suffice. Large scale projects may require official surveys. After measurements have been gathered, a to scale base map will be drafted.
Design Process:
The design process begins with conceptual drawings, or preliminary plans. These hand drafted and sketched drawings show general ideas of feature placements, layouts, and planting areas to give you a feel for the landscape. At this stage, we will meet again, and to review the plans and have conversations and make any necessary changes.
The final design plan is a hand-drafted to-scale page, and will incorporate the concepts and any changes discussed in the preliminary plan stage. The final design also acts as a planting plan, which shows the location and spacing of the plants. The design will include a plant list with botanical and common names, quantities needed and recommended purchasing size. We do not include any construction drawings, but can also provide a concept irrigation plan, if requested.
Installation:
After the final design plan is presented, you are ready for installation! Where you go from here is up to you. This plan will allow a professional landscape contractor to estimate and order material for the installation, or act as guidance for you to complete the project yourself. We do not offer any actual construction or installation, but are happy to offer guidance to our DIY clients, or monitor the progress of your contractor to ensure correct placement and integrity of the design.
Maintenance:
Even a low maintenance garden will require some care throughout the seasons. We can provide customized maintenance instructions for each of our garden designs. If you want to learn more and develop the skills in order to care for your garden yourself, check out our coaching services.