Savvy shoppers know that often the best time to buy something is after “the season” is over, or before it begins. According to Tom Altgelt, a Colorado landscape designer serving the Boulder/Denver area, this is very much the case with landscape designing. “I often encounter potential clients who think they may as well wait until spring before having a garden designed. I tell them that there are actually many advantages to starting the planning process in the fall.” Specifically, a homeowner can have a landscape much quicker, and end up with a result they are happier with, while saving money.

Altgelt says, “The first good reason for starting the process in the fall is that we are much more likely to get a great contractor.” Evidently landscape contractors’ business tends to slow down in the winter, which can make it possible to negotiate a better deal or to book a contractor who wouldn’t be available in the spring. The most on-demand contractors can be difficult or impossible to hire if the design process is put off until spring.

“Next, we can get a significant jump-start on the actual landscaping, depending on the location and exposure of the project,” says Altgelt. In the Boulder/Denver area where he does much of his work, the weather is often mild enough to do much of the messy “hardscape” construction, especially if there is a southern exposure. This means that come spring, the major earth moving can be completed, the rocks can be in place, with the paving laid and retaining walls built.

If Tom needs really huge (i.e. up to 20 ton) boulders for a project, he races against time to get the boulders tagged and moved before they are snowed in. “These boulders are often up in the mountains, deep in ranch property.”

In addition, most trees and shrub plantings can be done in late fall. “They love being planted in the autumn, as winter is when they establish their roots.” With a root base established, they’ll be ready to make an entrance with foliage and blossoms in the spring. Some landscape plants will also be discounted in the autumn, and the specialty plants can be ordered in late fall for a spring arrival, to get the very best of the best plant material.

“People who start in the fall will often have a landscape that is blooming and starting to look beautiful in the spring. Those who wait until spring may end up with a big ugly construction mess, with back hoes and mud for much of the spring and possibly into the summer months.” I don’t think I’d want to see barren earth outside my window when I could be seeing a lovely garden taking shape.

And, of course, the most important consideration is the end result. Optimally, a garden will be pleasing all year round, but Altgelt says most are designed to impress us in the spring and summer. That’s because there is such a wide range of plant choices that exhibit their full splendor in the spring and summer. Designing a landscape in the autumn makes it easier to conceptualize plantings that will provide beauty year-round. For example, “a beautiful fall combination of perennials is the Sedum of Autumn Joy, which is reddish or pinkish, next to Salvia, which turns deep purple. These colors resonate with each other. Next if you add the bright golden of the black-eyed Susan, you have a stunning collage of colors.”

Designing in the autumn can also inspire greater winter beauty, so the landscape will still draw attention after the leaves fall. “The evergreens, of course, come into their glory, and there are also evergreen grasses like the Blue Avena and Festucas, which beautifully reflect the blue of our Spruces. Our deciduous ornamental grasses are also very beautiful during the winter, keeping the structure of the garden alive until spring.” Deciduous yellow twig and red twig shrubs display their colorful stems all winter long. “The winter is also a good time to envision the rock formations, how to give flowing form and shape to the land, especially by using dry stream beds to direct the run off from storms.”

Tom finds the “contemplative” fall and winter to be a good time for listening. “In any good design, that’s what it’s all about: are you a good listener and can you recognize the opportunities being offered to you? As a landscape designer, I begin by listening to my clients, their needs and wishes. Then I listen to the land and what it has to offer and what its needs are. Finally one has to become conscious of how all this can come together in ones heart as well as ones mind, and then begin to give form and shape to the garden. This way one can realize the opportunity to co-create together with ones client, with nature and finally the people who actually do the physical work. The finest of gardens can be created in this way.”

So designing a landscape in the fall can yield benefits, both the practical benefit of saving money, and a more soulful benefit of co-creating with nature. To Altgelt, this is a magical combination.

To find out more about what’s possible for your garden design, contact Tom Altgelt, award-winning Denver, CO garden designer. Visit http://www.altgelt.com to view Denver garden designs, as well as landscape and garden designs throughout Colorado and internationally.

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