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Dumpster fire? Roller coaster? Best year ever? 2021 has been ALL of these things. The past couple of years have been quite a ride, honestly. In the landscape design industry, project demand is through the roof, materials have been hard to come by, heat and drought damage plants, and a pandemic rages on. Through it […]

2021 Red Fern Highlights

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Fine gardening in action

WHAT EXACTLY IS FINE GARDENING? Fine Gardening is our maintenance service, where we come to your property and make sure your gardens look gorgeous. It’s how you get good-looking planting beds while you’re at work or at home. This service is for our busy clients who don’t have the time to dedicate to their garden […]

Our services | Fine Gardening

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landscape-design-process-red-fern

In the final phase of our signature design process, we get to the stuff that you can touch, keep, and see. After all the preliminary background work, and all the conceptual design, and the final design work is finished, it’s time to get our clients some lovely and useful materials that they can use to install […]

The Red Fern Landscape Design Process: Phase 4

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landscape-design-master-plan-red-fern

The next step in our design process is the “real” design.  Combining the background practical information from phase 1 with the aesthetic, stylistic direction we got from phase 2, we rely on solid design fundamentals to site actual things in physical places.  We’re not dealing with concepts any longer- we’re making the plan that will be […]

The Red Fern Landscape Design Process: Phase 3

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landscape-design-inspiration-planning-red-fern

Next up in our tour of the Red Fern Landscape Design signature process is Phase 2: the Conceptual Design.  Once we are done with all the basic core discovery work from Phase 1 and we have the background we need to make good decisions, we move towards the design concepts for your landscaping. In our conceptual […]

THE RED FERN LANDSCAPE DESIGN PROCESS: PHASE 2

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red-fern-landscape-design

Maybe your landscape is a blank, new-construction slate, complete with a tiny, useless deck, some not-so-interesting sod and a couple of spindly trees.  Or maybe (like me) you inherited someone else’s shrubs around the house, a patio and deck that need lots of work, and a walkway that makes no sense.  If you’re hoping for […]

The Red Fern Landscape Design Process: PHASE 1

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red-fern-landscape-design-landscaping-des-moines

I finished my master’s degree 19 years ago, and have practiced as a landscape designer in various capacities ever since- that’s well over a third of my life in this field. I’ve run this business, worked for other companies, moonlighted while I taught school full-time, and fit in projects while I kept two babies alive. […]

What a Landscape Designer Loves to Hear from Clients

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landscape-design-contractor-red-fern-landscaping-waukee

One of the best parts of my job is seeing the designs we come up with become real life outdoor spaces in my clients’ homes. but the thing is…I don’t do that work! I have to rely on quality landscape contractors to install the projects that my clients and I work so hard to create. […]

What makes a quality landscape contractor?

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tree-maintenance-pruning-red-fern-landscape-design-adel

As the Shade Tree Short Course starts up this week, I’m thinking about questions my clients might have about trees and tree work, and I often get asked how to choose a “tree guy”.  But first let me say I wish there were more women in this industry! Caring for the trees on your property […]

Three questions to ask before hiring tree work

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