What if a designer proposes a Hinoki Cypress, but it looks awful when it gets 10’ tall? Or when a Lilac that looks like it is taking over a space at 8’ tall? Don’t we know these plants will grow to these sizes? If the designer thinks the space needs a 4’ plant, aren’t there plants that mature at 4’?
I also realize there are clients that are very opinionated and want what they want. I myself have had clients that didn’t care about tomorrow and just want it to look good for now. How do we handle these situations? First we need to learn more about the client. Maybe they are moving soon or are older and simply don’t want to wait. Educating our clients is all we can do in these situations.
If we are honest with ourselves, most times our clients are taking our recommendations and the results are ours to own. If we want people to respect our profession, we need to respect the client. We need to deliver what is right and not always what is asked for. Our clients are simply asking for what they are seeing. I challenge you to drive down your street. How far did you have to travel to find a really well thought out landscape?
Let’s all raise the standards of design.
I agree Brad. Our mentality in the US is bigger, better, faster, now. It is indeed our position to educate our clients and we will walk away from projects where clients ask us to do things which are not long term solutions. Other will opt for cash in hand now vs a long term reputation as a great garden contractor. They hired us to be the professionals. Otherwise it would be like a cardio thoracic surgeon recommending a bypass and the patient...yeah, thats a nice idea but I think we should remove my colon. Seems far fetched as a comparison, however, if we are truly going to raise our position as a profession we need to learn to say no at the appropriate times, which is more often that you think.
ReplyDelete