Perhaps nothing can bring more natural beauty to your home, and more satisfaction to you, than a beautiful landscape living in harmony within its natural environment. Think about it. The kaleidoscope of colors, the invigorating scents, the connection with nature itself. As a full-service garden center, Decker’s Nursery is ready to assist you in turning your landscape visions into reality.
How We Approach Landscapes & Plantings
Being in business for more than 12 years means we have completed hundreds of landscaping projects at our customers homes. In that time we’ve established what we believe to be an optimal process for helping you with your landscape and planting needs. If you’re looking for a complete restoration, or just looking to enhance your existing gardens, our unique approach allows us to bring your vision to life in a manner that’s enjoyable, economical and most importantly, educational.
This approach is generally more holistic and natural than you may find with other landscaping companies. We take our lessons from nature and we incorporate the most important concept that nature has taught us: diversity provides beauty, interest, balance and always a healthier landscape.
It's important to note that we are not a conventional “Design & Build” landscape company. We are not licensed landscape "architects" and we do not provide landscape “designs” in the traditional sense. Rather, we are horticultural experts that specialize in planting and plant health care. We take great pride in helping to educate and inform our customers throughout the planting process and our ideal landscape projects are focused on “softscaping”. This means we work solely with the live horticultural elements of your landscape like trees, shrubs, perennials and flower beds.
To that end, we’re unable to help with grading or installing sod and while we often use natural stone as accents, we don’t provide “hardscaping” services. For customers that require that level of assistance, we recommend working with a good mason or pool company and we're always happy to provide our input along the way if you desire.
It All Starts with a Conversation
Once we receive your inquiry, a team member will follow up with you to initiate a conversation and conduct our initial consultation. During this conversation we will ask you a few questions about your project, learn a bit more about your goals and, overall, just make sure that we're a good fit. This is a great time for you to share as much information as possible with us. At the conclusion of this consultation, we should have a good feel for your project and if we believe we can provide value to to the project, we will let you know and move forward. If, for some reason, we don't believe we'll be able to help make your project a complete success we'll let you know why and we'll provide you with any information that we can to set you up for success in whichever direction you head from here.
Now Comes The Fun Part
Once we're sure we'll be able to provide value to your project the next thing we'll ask to do is schedule a time to have you visit us at the nursery. During your visit to the nursery, you'll be able to speak with our expert staff. They'll expand upon your initial consultation, likely ask you many additional questions and offer you the opportunity to ask any questions you have as well. This is the perfect time to share any photos or videos of the area that you're looking to improve and we highly recommend coming prepared to do so as it provides helpful context for our team.
We realize this may seem slightly unconventional as you might assume we would want to meet at your home. The truth is, we've found that this is actually an integral part of our process and our customers find it very helpful. This time together allows our team to better understand your likes and dislikes, share their recommendations based on the information you've provided them and also gives you the opportunity to see what these plants and trees look like in person. Additionally, and this is vital, it allows us to have a candid conversation with you about the care of your plantings once they're at your home.
Care & Maintenance Education
During your visit with us, and at the beginning of any future planting projects, we'll always start the discussions with information and questions around how your new plants are going to be cared for. We'll discuss what level of maintenance is needed to keep the plants performing optimally and we'll require a 100% commitment on your part before we proceed further. We believe it's vital to make sure your plants are going to be cared for according to our standards. This is unique and it's how Decker's Nursery is continuing to change the way people view plants and planting.
It doesn't happen often but we have had customers tell us they didn't realize how much effort and care was needed after a planting is completed. Please do not take this lightly. If you don't believe you'll be able to care for your plants after they've been planted we'd prefer to provide better, more suitable alternatives for you. We ask that you think of the plants you are purchasing as an investment, or even better, similar to bringing home a new pet. These are living breathing organisms and should be treated with care.
One Last Check - Then We Plant
Once we've helped you pick out your new plants, confirmed you understand the importance of care and maintenance and discussed what the planting process will entail, the rest is just organizing a time to get your new products delivered and planted at your home.
If we find that we have any lingering questions on the location of the planting before it is scheduled, we will often find a small window of time to stop by your property and confirm that everything we've discussed is accurate. We'll confirm the size of the space we're improving and make sure the quantity of plants that you've purchase is sufficient. We'll also do a quick check to make sure there are no obstacles that might cause trouble for our team so they know what to expect when they arrive. We don't need you to be home for this process but we will communicate with you if this is something that we plan to do.
From here, one of our team members will reach out to you directly to schedule a day that works for your planting. We always do our best to get your purchases planted as soon as we can but, as you might imagine, weather and other circumstances could delay this process slightly. We'll do our best to communicate with you throughout this time to minimize any concerns or uncertainty.
Budgeting for your Landscape & Planting Project
Decker's Nursery respects all budgets - they're a reality for every project. One of the worst things we can do is ignore your budget and remove all of the pleasure that is supposed to come as a result of this process. We mention this because the other lesson we've learned from nature is to treat your planting projects as something that can take place over the course of several years. We're quite comfortable working with our customers over the longer term and a number of customers prefer to tackle small projects year-after-year and now have gorgeous landscapes that they're proud of. Small, consistent improvements over time really add up and it's rewarding to watch this process produce results. Without fail, these are the projects that customers appreciate the most.
Patience is a virtue
Remember, landscapes are dynamic. They mature and they should always improve with time. Learning patience isn't an intended outcome of a planting project but it is a by-product. Our guidance and educational approach will help you recognize the value of your investment and we’ll show you why allowing your new plants to evolve will create a more natural appearance over time. If you take one lesson from us today, let it be this: First Year Sleep, Second Year Creep, Third Year Leap. Your plantings should be envisioned as they'll appear in the 3rd year after planting, not like the picture in that magazine that has matured for 10 years.
Extended Plant Health Care
If you're considering having us assist with landscape & planting work at your home we do also offer extended Plant Health Care services that provide an added level of care by our team of seasoned professionals. Many of our customers find these services invaluable as they become accustomed to gardening and we're so confident about this service that we'll extend the guarantee on your plants for as long as we're providing the care. In theory, you can procure a lifetime guarantee for your new plantings.
Would you find it helpful to have a knowledgeable caretaker monitor and inspect your plants on a regular basis, to make sure they're getting acclimated? We invite you to learn more about that service here.