Paved With Gold

The Salows had moved to their house in a subdivision named Coventry Springs near Vienna in December 2003 and knew that the deck, soggy grass and rows of baby Leyland cypress to someday screen the neighbors' view wouldn't hack it. They set about getting a methodical makeover, researching an anticipated return on investment in increased property value, and then sought a design-build firm. They found five, solicited three bids and went with Carlson, even though it wasn't the low bid, because "we felt we would be getting a better design," said Mark Salow, vice president of a wealth management company.

One of the casualties of current design trends may be the deck, which in so many cases stands in the way of connecting people to the outdoors, perched in isolation from the earth. At the Salow house, where two neighboring houses overlook the rear yard, the deck was making the lack of privacy worse by putting its occupants on a pedestal, said Donoghue. In addition, the deck's rails formed an abrupt, arbitrary ending to a space that should have capitalized on the entire length of the home.

The solution is a patio that runs most of the length of the house, is set below the finished floor elevation of the building and is bounded by a bowed seat wall of stone with thick coping on top. The Leyland cypresses have been moved to a new bed in the side yard, and the patio is screened with strategically placed, large, upright hornbeams and bayberry, a big evergreen shrub. The sunken nature of the patio increases the couple's privacy, but "we couldn't screen everything," said Donoghue, "so we didn't even try."

Amenities include patio furniture, a gas-fired patio heater the couple added and a built-in grill that Donoghue configured so that the cook is facing the guests on the patio. Mark Salow takes breakfast out here when the weather is clement, and uses the grill three times a week in summer. On a recent mild winter's evening, he cooked some salmon steaks.

The cost of this elegance? Approximately $50,000, which covered improvements to other parts of the lot, including new beds and plants, drainage and large steppingstones through the front garden.

The couple saw not just the cost, but its worth, said Reed-Salow, who is the chief financial officer of a technology company. "There was a point we could have scaled back in plantings. We thought there was value in the price," she said.

Designers find sticker shock with some prospects, but for the most part, said Donoghue, "the majority of my clients know what they are getting into. They are calling us for a reason, because we don't advertise; it's pretty much all word of mouth."

Prokopchak, whose company is called Walnut Hill Landscape Co., said he does find people shocked at a bid, until he explains he is giving them a master plan that they can build in phases. He also breaks down a project into its component costs, "and it's easier for them to digest." He undertook the Dengler project for his former employer, Town Creek Landscaping and Construction.

There are costs not readily apparent both in designing and constructing a landscape properly, including time spent by the designer sourcing 15-foot trees or building adequate drains and footings for walls.

The installation of oversize trees also raises the cost. At another of Donoghue's projects, around a stone Georgian-style mansion in Langley, she installed large shrubs and trees, including nine English boxwood at least five feet around and big maples, to make the setting look mature even though the house and landscape were only finished in the fall.

Christina Howard, 42, said she and her husband, Jerry, 50, had moved from a house where they spent 15 years waiting for the trees to grow, and were determined to have larger plants from the start at their new home in Langley Forest. "We never got to enjoy the shade; this is already attractive," she said.

Even in far more modest projects, homeowners are ordering bigger plant materials. A decade ago, a tree with a trunk two inches in diameter was the norm; now it's three to four inches. These are older, taller, more densely branched trees, and typically twice as expensive to buy.

Prokopchak said there is one other common trait in younger consumers today: an aversion to the do-it-yourself approach that was once the hallmark of home ownership in the United States.

From his vantage point in Orwigsburg, Pa., Frank Heffner has seen the growth in home landscaping from the contractor's side: He rents and sells grading, digging, trenching and hauling equipment. When he and his partners started Ark Enterprises in 2001, they thought they would be catering to commercial contractors but have seen tremendous growth from landscape contractors. About half are now buying rather than renting equipment, a sign that they are getting steady work. "Our sales have probably increased 300 percent in the last two years," Heffner said.

With more business have come more designers, some of whom, like Ferranto, design and oversee construction but don't build, while others, like Donoghue, supply the whole package. A decade ago, Ferranto said, "you could count them on your hand working in D.C., but no more."

"The business just seems endless for all of us," said Donoghue. "Everybody is busy."