Consulting

DAISY HILL GARDEN CONSULTING

***Thank you for your interest in consulting! We are currently booking into the summer and fall*****

Why Hire a Garden Consultant?

Have you thought about planting a garden, but aren’t sure where to begin? Do you want to grow food that is incredibly delicious and healthy? Would you like to harvest fresh herbs for cooking meals? Tried growing food or flowers but it didn’t work? Looking for advice on beating pests, choosing varieties of plants to grow, irrigation or fencing? Need help with your where and what to plant? Perhaps you would just like to enjoy your yard a bit more in the summer sun?

I can help!

I am an experienced grower with over 20 years of organic gardening experience. And I LOVE to talk-plan-think-dream plants and gardening. After designing and building brand new gardens in my own 3 different homes (with 3 different site issues), I have dealt with a myriad of fun challenges including slope, siting, drainage, water solutions, accessibility, shade, fencing and pests.

How does Daisy Hill Consulting Work?

The first step is a short email/call about your garden (or soon-to-be garden). This communication will help us figure out if I can help you with what you are looking for. There is no fee for this initial step, and you may or may not decide to go forward with a formal consult, either way, I am happy to help.

Here are some questions I usually ask: Do you have a garden now? What has been working, what hasn't? What are your short/long term goals for the space? What are your top concerns? It is helpful, but not necessary, to have some of your site photos so I can begin prep-work if we decide to move forward.

Garden Consult

If we decide to more forward, here is what to expect: A typical first consult consists of two main parts:

Home garden visit (see further explanation of this below) .
Follow-up email with recommendations and resources to help you decide on next steps.

Initial Home Garden/Site Visit:

As we walk your property** together, we will discuss and plan your dream garden.
- Garden vision: What type of garden do you already have/want? Are your goals food production, fresh herbs for cooking, getting your kids to eat vegetables, increasing the bee population, beautifying your yard? Would you like to grow in containers, raised beds, in the ground? How often do you see yourself tending your plants?
- Site evaluation includes sunlight, water, soil, fencing and drainage considerations for your garden placement.
- Advice and recommendations for identifying existing plants, planting choices and organic management techniques.
- Based on your gardening ambitions, I will help you come up with a strategy to help meet your gardening goals.

**Depending on the time of year, and/or your comfort with outdoor visits during the pandemic, we may choose to do this via video call (zoom, facetime, etc.) If we decide to meet in person, please be assured that I will wear a mask and follow social distance protocols.

Follow up "Report"

After our visit (real or virtual), I will outline the discussion we had, ideas of how to reach your goals as well as additional resources on how to get there. I will typically add pictures and diagrams to illustrate ideas as well. (I am a visual learner, and this helps me so much!) I can spend as little or as much time on this follow-up piece as you would like.

Fee:

$75/hour for visits, meetings and time spent on follow-up reports.

Additional visits/meetings:

Some clients find that they have more they would like to do after the initial consult. We can continue to work through plans via email and calls or meet in person- it all depends on what you need!

Possible topics for discussion (either in first meeting, or in additional meetings):

Garden design: layout, access, flow, aesthetics
Choosing vegetable varieties that you’ll love to eat, from seed and seedlings
Lessons on how to plant seeds, transplant seedlings or mature nursery plants into your garden
Helping you decide if drip irrigation is for you
Fertilization/compost advice
General pest control using organic techniques and/or more targeted organic pest/disease control
Plant spacing (to reduce disease and increase yields)
Winter growing/season extension (hoop houses/low tunnels, cold frames, greenhouses)
Vertical gardening/trellising
Rain barrels
Native and invasive plant identification
Micro-climate considerations

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