07 · Project Planning & Consulting
A plan, a budget and a schedule before anyone digs
Site assessment, project planning, a second look at an existing design, permit guidance, and management of the bigger jobs.
01What the service covers
The thinking before the building
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Site assessment
An on-site look at slope, soil, water, sun, access and what is already there, with your goals for the yard on the table.
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Project planning
The layout, the materials, a budget and a schedule, and the order the work has to happen in.
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Design review
A second look at a plan you already have, with changes that keep the look and bring the cost in line.
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Permit guidance
What the city or county will want for walls, structures, electrical or drainage work, sorted before the build.
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Project management
For larger jobs, scheduling, supervision and coordination with the other trades on site.
02When it pays
The jobs that need a plan most
A single bed or a short walk does not need a formal plan. A sloped back yard with a wall, a patio, drainage and a lawn does, because the pieces depend on each other: the wall sets the patio’s grade, the patio decides where the water goes, and the water decides where the drain runs. Built in the wrong order, one undoes another.
Planning also matters when other trades are involved. A pool builder, an electrician and an irrigation crew all dig, and the landscape should go in after them, not get dug up behind them. Setting that sequence is part of the job.
If you already have a design, from a landscape architect or a previous contractor, Hunter will go through it against your actual site and say where it may run into trouble or cost more than it needs to.
And a plan for the whole yard lets you build it in phases over a few seasons, with each phase fitting the last. The project starts like the rest: a free consultation on site.
03Answers
Planning and consulting questions
Why plan a landscape project before building it?
Because the expensive mistakes happen in the ground: a patio set at the wrong grade, a wall without drainage, a lawn on top of a buried problem. A plan settles the layout, the materials, the budget and the order of work before money goes into any of it.
Can you review a design I already have?
Yes. Hunter will go through an existing plan, point out what may not work on your site, and suggest changes that keep the look while bringing the cost in line.
Will you work alongside my pool builder or general contractor?
Yes. Coordinating schedules and sequence with other trades on the job is part of the service, so the landscape is not torn up by the next contractor through the gate.
Do I need a permit for landscaping work in Tennessee?
Planting, mulch and sod need none. Tall walls, roofed structures, new electrical or gas, and work inside a drainage easement often do, and the city or county decides; sorting that out is part of the planning.
Can a big landscape project be done in phases?
Yes, and a plan for the whole yard is what makes phasing work: the drainage and the grades go in first, and each later phase fits what is already there instead of digging it back up.