About Consultaiton and Design

We strive to help you and your neighborhood grow more food. One way we do this is through consultation and design services.  A 2 hour consultation is often enough to point clients in the right direction, saving time and money in the long run.  Some people request a basic site plan, and some request (or we require) a more detailed planting plan and construction details before construction begins.

Consultation

About Consultation and how it works:
There’s a saying  “5 minutes of planning is worth 15 of doing” With landscaping or Food-growing, 5 minutes of planning is worth dozen of hours of doing.

ALL consultations start with a meeting to talk about your goals and vision, walk-through your property, look through our traveling library/slideshows, and discuss various options and opportunities. Walk and Talk Consultations are just only our ocnsultants time. If Client wants a Powerpoint/PDF slideshow with notes documenting opportunities on your site, referrals to our preferred partners, and answers to unresolved questions, and our idea of how CEL can best support your edible adventures, that usually takes 1-3 hours for basic residential property ($125-375), or more for larger properties.

DESIGNS COST $1500-3500 TYPICALLY

COSTS

■  Our consultation rate is $125 for the initial 1 hours online plus $125/hr for each hour we spend off site putting together the reports. For on site consultation, there is typically a 1 way charge for transportation passed the first 20 minutes of travel time. You get a $25 discount for signing the letter of engagement at our home website.

The initial consultation and review can take design elements only so far.  If you have a base plan created already, that helps make our time more efficient.  If you do homework that we send before we come, that is also helpful.   If you want a more detailed plan, cost will be $1500-3500+.  In the case you know you want a landscape design/plan, we will most likely bring a designer or landscape architect
■    Large Property Initial Consultation $500+ .  UP TO hour package with in depth soil, water, and sun analysis provided. Additional cost per soil test of $75 and 2 weeks to 6 weeks
○    Consultation//Design/Project Management .  $125/hr (min. 2 hr initial site visit+ follow up.
○    Estimate or Bid Generation.... Less than 20minutes= Pro-bono.   More than 20 minutes of time behind a spreadsheet....  $125/hr (billed in .25 hr increments) with Balance deducted from final bill.
○    Travel/Fuel Surcharge. 1/2 of travel time beyond 30 minutes.  Government Rate, typically  $0.67/mile (fluctuates yearly)

Thank you for taking the time to fill out our questionnaire BELOW
 

Basic Site Plan

This is a basic site layout, appropriate for an urban or small suburban residential lot without a lot of complexities and/or demand from client.  Many sites have limits (which help us desginers), and this type of plan can work. Cost is $800-1200

CAD Detailed plan

Computer Assisted Design is great for folks who have large, complicated yards, significant grade changes, and/or high level design needs, as well as yards where multiple concepts are possible. With smaller yards, concepts are usually limited, but larger lots with blank slates can go multiple ways. We try to reduce the infiniate possiilities through the consultation process, but nonetheless CAD base plants allow for hand drawn or CAD concepts to advance the direction of the design more efficiently. Typical costs for these are $1500-5000+ depending on layers, size of property, grades, and level of detail.