The Garden Design Group

The Garden Design Group DC, LLC, is owned by landscape designer and writer Jane Berger, a certified member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) and a graduate of the landscape design program at George Washington University. 

Since 1997, the Garden Design Group has been designing gardens of all types:  Asian-inspired and English-style cottage gardens, wildlife gardens, shade gardens, formal gardens. herb gardens and more.  I'd be happy to design your garden, either on site or online -- just drop an email to this site (info@gardendesignonline.com). I work in DC, MD, and in VA communities north of Alexandria.

Design begins with a one-hour consultation, which includes a walk-through of your existing site and a detailed conversation about your garden goals.  If you simply need some ideas that you can implement yourself, I'll throw some out before the end of the session. If you want to continue with a formal design, the charge for the initial meeting will be credited back to you.

(Click on images for larger view)

Before the meeting, I'd like you to think about the components of any successful garden: what kind of landscapes you like or dislike, your favorite colors and plants, whether you want a lawn, a patio, a play area for your children.  I'll ask you to consider a rose garden, an herb, vegetable, or cutting garden, whether you want plants that attract birds and butterflies.  I always try to give clients a four-season show of blooms and color, and a feature or two that will make your garden very unique.

The next step begins the design process. I'll measure the site to scale and take an inventory of existing plants and conditions.  I'll then sit down at the drawing board and come up with some "concept plans" to show you at the next consultation.  Those plans are modified as you desire.  At that point, you can install the garden yourself, hire your own contractor, or retain me to help you see the installation through to its completion. 

If you live outside the DC Metropolitan area, I'd be happy to travel to your property or to design your site from a distance with the help of lots of photos and measurements supplied by you.  Happy Gardening!

(click to enlarge images)

Comments

[Kristin maresca]

My husband and I just purchased a house in Silver Spring and are looking to for some design assistance with our garden. We would prefer to just get the design help and install ourselves, possibly with some consulting help along the way. How can we arrange a time to talk? Thanks!~ Kristin

[Rick]

Jane,

I am looking for a landscape designer for my ledroit park townhouse (small, elevated front yard, small square of land in the back yard, with 2 car parking concrete, and 2 street boxes) on 1st street, NW.

I came to this blog, but was hoping to come to your web site to see your portfolio or examples of your in-town, townhouse, etc work. Can you please direct me to some pictures or send to me via email?

I really want a herb, vegetable, and butterfly yard and I don't want to see the cars parked on the pad, if possible. The street boxes would something, too.

Could you please give me any kind of huge ballward (Fenway, Yankee Stadium) estimate for 1) a consultation 2) a design, and 3) and installation? I know this is hard to do blinded, but it means a LOT to me to even have a very rough estimate for a townhouse estimate and some pictures.

Thank you very much,

Rick

[Serena Fossi]

Jane, I took your advice from the LDG newsletter and checked out your "pretty cool" site. Looks great.

Just thought I'd mention that I run a small business, primarily in DC tho I have a few clients in VA and a few in MD. By your description, it sounds like your methods for design are very similar to mine except I do a lot of the gardening and installations myself. In any case, I'll keep my ears open and hope we cross paths at some point.

Since you have such a great site, are you considering including some of the larger issues, especially as they apply locally? I'd love to see some locally specific articles about the goings on with low impact development, applications of storm water management to small sites (and large public impact ones too) including rain gardens, invasive effect on natural areas and what gardeners need to know, public greenways and parks. Working on a project in Rockville, for example brought the DEP people to the table and there are some great green roof and other "green" methods being considered right in Rockville. Serena Fossi