My wife and I are quite shit at design but are pretty handy. We recently bought a house, and we want to make the backyard a great hang out spot, but have no idea how to make it look good. I contacted a local landscaper about just paying for a design/plan and we would just DIY it but they never called us back. Is this an okay thing to hire for? Or do landscapers usually want to do the work themselves?
Landscapers usually just do the work, not the design, so yeah.
The other two comments have good recommendations, but I would also suggest considering what you want out of it. Are you looking for hardscape, shade trees, native plants, wildflowers?
The business I contacted had “landscape design and installation” on their website but It makes sense that they would want to do it all themselves. As for what we’re wanting: the lawn is in bad shape, gravel and construction waste throughout. So cleaning that up, and putting in native grass, with some drought resistant native plants. There’s a loose gravel area we’d like to replace with concrete or pavers or something. And there’s a small wood deck on the side we were thinking of expanding but not sure if it would look good. Plus we have a wonderful live oak tree that covers the entire yard with shade, and we’re not sure how to best design around it.