Landscapes4less is the motto of Douglas Larson Gardens. To put it simply, we provide higher quality landscaping, gardening and lawn maintenance services for less money. Far less. We do it by keeping our overhead costs low and focusing on high quality craftsmanship. We are a small company that takes pride in our work and our ability to have a strong market presence without having to gouge customers in order to make our financial ends meet. We never compromise when it comes to quality. Having not to return to make repairs keeps our costs lower.
Your savings can be found in our pricing structure and other key elements that have worked well for our company and for our clients.
Standard Industry Pricing
Standard product pricing in the landscape industry is 2.5-3 times wholesale cost of a product. This is in addition to labor costs, equipment and delivery costs, disposal costs and also fuel surcharges.
This means that the sale of a tree that costs a landscape company $150.00, will be marked up to between $375.00-450.00 not including delivery, labor, equipment costs and fuel.
Our Product Pricing
Although our products are installed also with delivery, labor, equipment and sometimes fuel charges, our mark-up from wholesale is far less. Our mark-up is 60% or 1.6 times wholesale cost of product. The comparison to the tree mentioned above is $240.00 or 45% less expensive. When you add this savings across the board on a full landscape project, the savings will be very significant.
I will publish a list of some of our products prices as a comparison at the end of this post.
Other Elements that Keep Costs Lower
One of the biggest money wasters from a clients perspective in landscaping is Plant Guarantees. Plant guarantees are issued as a measure to protect against death of a plant, shrub or tree. Although generally less than 10% of plants ever planted die within a year of planting, some people are still unwittingly willing to allow for an additional 45% mark-up (including labor and other charges) on a plant in order to secure a replacement in the event that it dies. A contractor must calculate not only the cost of replacement but also the labor time, equipment and fuel that it will require to make a replacement of a dead plant. Because of this, we have adopted the policy of only issuing guarantees on labor or craftsmanship in the installation of a plant, shrub or tree. This craftsmanship guarantee costs you nothing additional. All plants are inspected by the client before installation. If any of them appear weak they are discarded. If you're still uncomfortable without a guaranty, we will consider providing warrantees on trees that are planted in groups.
Sweat Equity
Another way to keep your costs down is to provide your own sweat equity into projects. We have worked with hundreds of clients, both men and women who have added their personal touch to the installation process. Sweat equity can be performed alongside or independant of the crew. Sweat equity projects can include any type of labor and are most usually exercised in tasks such as planting, mulching, wheel-barrowing soils or sand, stripping sod or even installing brick.
Every hour spent is considered a 1/2 hour of labor cost savings.
DIY'ers Pricing
Most Landscape Contractors are unwilling to work with DIY'ers because they feel that they are enabling the disslocation of their own industry to the homeowner market. We see it an entirely different way at Douglas Larson Gardens. We have found that although DIY'ers are quite capable of installing even the more advanced project types such as walls, patio's and water gardens, even they are sometimes challenged to the point that they require a little on-site mentoring. We are more than happy to assist them in any way we can. In addition, we guarantee up to 10 hours of free on-site consulting, mentoring and/or training to any DIY client that hires us to both design a project and also supply the projects materials. DIY'ers are a great source of referrals, and for that we support them all the way.
Product Price Comparisons (product only. not including labor, delivery, equipment or fuel charges)
Quantity Product Description Industry Price Our Price Savings x 10 units
1 Yard 1.5" River Rock Mulch 99.00 57.60 $ 414.00
1 Yard 3/4" Limestone Base 76.31 44.40 $ 323.10
1 Yard Pulverized Black Dirt 32.31 18.80 $ 135.00
1 Ton 12-36" Field Boulders 165.00 96.00 $ 690.00
1 Yard Hardwood Bark Mulch 50.87 29.60 $ 212.70
1 20ft Strip plastic edging 27.50 16.00 $ 115.00
80 sf Chilton Flagstone 1369.50 796.80 $5,727.00
40 sf Anchor Charleston Brick 368.50 214.40 $1,541.00
36 sf Anchor Dia wall block 689.04 400.32 $2,887.00
10-1 gal Perennial Flowers 162.25 94.40 $ 681.00
5-2 gal Flowering Shrubs 309.37 176.00 $1,333.00
3-15ft Maple Tree 1856.25 1080.00 $7,762.00
3-8ft Norway Spruce Trees 2887.50 1680.00 $12,075.00
There you have it. If your landscape project included all of these items, you would save $3,389.50-33,895.00 by hiring Douglas Larson Landscaping. That's "Affordable Excellence."
Call (612) 702-3569 Today!
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