Five root causes explained in “Secrets to the Top 5 Garden Woes.”
You arrive at your design conversation already seeing your garden differently.
The foundation your design project starts from — written by a Certified Professional Horticulturist with more than 30 years guiding homeowner gardens.
No commitment — just clarity.
One Tree. Seven Sustainable Outcomes. Most homeowners see a tree and think: pretty. It’s also working.
A single tree in a professionally designed landscape works for every creature, every season, every year.
- Cleans the air
- Captures stormwater
- Reduces erosion
- Lowers soil surface temperature
- Shelters wildlife
- Supports biodiversity
- Feeds pollinators
Every plant in your landscape is doing quiet, essential work. It’s how your garden becomes part of something larger.
Invest with Intention.
When you’re ready to take the next step, your design project picks up where your Garden Tour Conversation ended.
From site measurements to final Design Delivery, every step is done with you — your vision on paper, refined until it’s right.
- A collaborative proposal that translates your Garden Tour Design Notes into a complete project scope: features, timeline, and investment fully outlined. Your vision is documented and the path forward is confirmed.
- An on-site measurement and baseline drawing of your property, so the design is built on accurate, real-world data — not guesswork.
- A done-with-you design process, from potential solutions, bubble diagrams, plant palette to final layout, every decision reflects your vision, not a template.
- A Final Garden Design that becomes your plan, your motivator, and your guide through the Build It phase — the refuge you’ve been reaching for, on paper and ready to bring to life.
A Garden Tour Conversation is where the design begins. From there, we co-create your landscape step by step — so you’re never figuring this out alone. We’ll cover what you need now, and in the future, including how you want to work together. When you’re ready to move forward, a written proposal documents the full scope — and the work begins when you approve it.
Design is where we explore your purpose, Garden Wishes, solutions to Garden Woes, and begin co- creating your garden refuge. Three milestones guide the work: Approved Requirements and Agreement; Preliminary Design Review, and Final Plan Delivery. At each step, your choices shape what comes next: the paths, decks, patios, planting beds, and features placed where they belong, in the right proportion. We explore every what-if until the direction feels right — and then the final drawing begins.
When we meet for Final Plan Delivery, the drawing is before you — every garden feature and plant placed for a purpose, preventing Garden Woes and building ecosystem partnerships. The drawing is your Roadmap, the plan your garden is ready for. The path to stewarding Earth starts here. Season by season, through Build It and Nurture It, the conversation continues — until your yard becomes the refuge you always knew it could be.
No commitment — just clarity.
“You’re going to get more than you think.”
“You really heard what we were trying to explain — and what you created exceeded our expectations. We were thinking smaller. You were thinking big picture. It started as a blank canvas. You saw it in three dimensions before we could. The elevation changes, the transitions between levels — I never would have thought about any of that. Now that it’s done? Fantastic. I would recommend Kate to my best friend. You’re going to get more than you think.”
Glenn & Linda | Silverdale, WA | GardenVisionScape
Our clients are people like you — they tried to solve this on their own first. Here's how the story usually goes.
The Replanting Cycle — Buying and replanting, season after season
You find a plant you love, bring it home, and tend to it carefully. When it doesn’t take, you try again, because you’re not someone who gives up on their garden. But without knowing your soil, drainage, and site conditions, even the most determined homeowner is working against the odds.
The Chemical Fix — Herbicides, pesticides, and home brews
The weeds and pests don’t stop — so neither do you.
Sure, that can quiet things down for a season, but it addresses symptoms rather than causes. And those treatments quietly damage the soil ecosystem you’ll need when you’re ready to grow something beautiful.
The Quick Hire — Hire a contractor to get it done
You hand it off — a landscaper comes in, installs plants, lays mulch, and it’s a relief, at least for a while. But without a design rooted in your site’s conditions and your vision, the result tends to be generic rather than yours. The same problems resurface, and the garden still doesn’t feel quite right.
🙒 GardenVisionScape 🙔
The complete, done-with-you landscape design —
from one conversation to co-created design plan, delivered as a professional architectural drawing.
What’s Included
- Garden Tour Conversation — included (your Plan It foundation),
- Pre-design prep worksheets & property research
- Site survey, measurements and site analysis
- Preliminary design concepts — multiple layout options for your review
- Preliminary Review conversations — your vision and choices shape the final plan
- Final architectural landscape drawing (24″ × 36″)
- Detailed plant list, keyed to your design
- Build It Guide & Nurture It Guide
- Contractor referral on request
Add-ons available
Your garden is an investment in your home and your life — and a GardenVisionScape plan is designed to deliver on both.
Plants chosen for your microclimate. A design built to last.
A garden that finally looks and feels the way you always knew it could.
Design projects start around $3,000 — written proposal includes exact number. The fee splits into three milestones tied to your progress: project start, preliminary design review, final drawing delivery. No payment is due until you’ve approved the proposal.
Begin Your Design
“Written proposal first — exact investment outlined before you commit.”
Good design takes time — and Kate protects that by accepting 3–4 landscape design projects per quarter. Openings fill quickly, year-round. That garden you’ve been picturing — it’s ready to go on paper.
Meet your guide.
I came from high-tech. Good career, wrong fit. Designing gardens with art and science, perfect fit.
Kate Easton — landscape designer, Certified Professional Horticulturist, ecoPRO, and founder of Garden Vision LLC — with more than 30 years reading what a garden needs and more than 350+ landscape design clients.
MS, Agriculture, Washington State University (graduate study: sustainable horticulture) and Landscape Architecture studies mean every design decision is rooted in science and design principles, not instinct.
Your Garden Wishes deserve a design that’s co-created with you, grounded in your site, and yours to grow. The GardenVisionScape was built for homeowners who want more than a template and a downloaded plant list.
Begin with one conversation. I’d love to hear your garden story.
You may be a fit for this if…
- You’ve replanted, rearranged, and tried again — and your yard still doesn’t feel like yours. The layout looks disconnected, the plants never quite look right, and something’s always off even when you can’t name it. You’re not giving up on the garden; you’re ready to stop guessing and find someone who can explain the why.
- You care about what your yard is doing for the Earth — not just how it looks. You want your landscaping choices to mean something: less waste, more habitat, a design that partners with nature instead of fighting it. You’re looking for someone to think this through with you, not just hand you a plant list.
- You’ve done what you can on your own – you’re ready to bring in a professional. You want someone trained to see what you can’t: the site conditions, the plant relationships, the design principles that make everything come together. You’re ready to invest in doing this properly, and you’re ready to invest in it.
- You want to understand your garden, not just hand it off. You’d love to grow more confident as a steward — to know why things are struggling, what to do when the seasons shift, and how to make good decisions without starting from scratch every spring. Having an expert in your corner through that learning matters as much to you as the final result.
And it’s probably not the right fit if…
- A tidy lawn and a few foundation shrubs feel perfectly right to you — and that’s fair.
- The Garden for Life Roadmap is built for homeowners ready to rethink what a yard can be, and if that’s not calling to you right now, this isn’t your moment. We’ll be here if the vision ever shifts.
- You believe what one homeowner does in their backyard doesn’t make a real difference for the environment. That’s a reasonable view — and Garden Vision’s whole approach is rooted in the idea that it does. That philosophy runs through every conversation we have, and if it doesn’t resonate, another guide may be a better fit for the work you have in mind.
- You need this done fast — plants in, finished by the weekend, move on. The process takes what it takes, and the time is part of what makes it work. A garden center or a landscaping crew will serve you better than we can if speed is the priority right now.
- You’d rather hand this over entirely and not be involved in the decisions. Our process is genuinely collaborative — your vision, your site knowledge, and your priorities shape every step of it. If deep involvement isn’t how you prefer to work, a design-build firm may be better suited to your vision.
If you’re still reading — your garden is probably ready for this. And so are you.
Written proposal first — exact investment outlined before you commit.
From your very first Garden Tour Conversation, you’ll hear me say “that’s your choice” — a lot. That’s not a phrase. It’s how the design process works from start to finish.
Before any drawing begins, your vision is documented in the proposal — your Garden Woes, your wishes, your priorities, in writing. At the Preliminary Design Review, I don’t present one plan and ask you to react to it. I bring multiple layout options, and you bring your ideas, your questions, your instincts. We explore together until the direction feels right.
I’m designing your garden, not mine.
That design — the one you’ve been picturing through every frustrating season — is real. And it’s ready for paper.
You’ve already done the hard part: you kept reaching. Past the failed plants, the treatments that wore off, the contractor work that never quite felt like yours. The missing piece isn’t more effort.
It’s knowing what your garden needs.
The Garden for Life Roadmap meets you where you are.
One conversation uncovers what your yard has needed all along. A GardenVisionScape puts it on paper — yours to keep, yours to build from.
And Garden Vision Academy travels with you through every season of the journey, so you’re never figuring it out alone.
Let’s put that garden on paper.
No commitment — just clarity.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I implement the design myself, or do I need a contractor?
Your GardenVisionScape is yours to build — on your terms, on your timeline. Most clients implement their design in stages: some pieces they handle themselves, others they hand to a contractor. Your GardenVisionScape is a scaled architectural drawing with every plant, feature, and measurement mapped out. The drawing is usable whether you’re doing the work yourself or handing it to someone else. Need a contractor referral? We’ve got names.
What happens after the design is delivered — do you help with planting?
Delivery day marks a transition — from design into the life cycle of the garden. Garden Vision focuses on design, not installation. We’ll refer you to trusted colleagues who specialize in bringing designs to life. And if you’re rolling up your sleeves yourself, Garden Vision Academy walks you through the Build It and Nurture It phases — so you’re not figuring it out alone. You’ve got support either way. Gardens change as lives do — and every new cycle starts the same way: a conversation about what your land is ready for next. We’ll be here as your guide.
What does it cost to implement a GardenVisionScape once the design is done?
Implementation cost is a number you help shape — not one handed to you.
As a rule of thumb, homeowners commonly invest 10–20% of their property’s value in a full landscape — a useful ballpark, not a ceiling, and one our clients’ projects tend to bear out. What moves the number: design complexity, hardscape vs. greenscape, materials, and how much you take on yourself. Every one of those is a decision you control.
Garden Vision Academy’s Build It resources walk you through those trade-offs before the first bid comes in — so you arrive at contractor estimates informed, not guessing.
What’s your payment process?
Milestone-based — tied to what you’ve seen and approved. The GardenVisionScape design fee splits into three payments tied to your project milestones: project start, preliminary design review, and delivery of the final drawing. The full fee schedule is part of your written proposal — outlined in detail before you commit to anything.
Do you work outside Kitsap Peninsula?
Yes — a little beyond it, too.
Our primary service area is the Kitsap Peninsula, which extends beyond county lines. A handful of clients just outside that boundary have worked with us too, with a modest mileage fee added. The Garden Tour Conversation happens at your property — that’s where the useful work is.
If you’re entirely outside the service area, Garden Vision Academy is a great fit. The Resource Library, Office Hours, and Community Conversation Room are available anywhere.
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