From First Sketch to Final Walkthrough: What Denver Landscaping With One Designer Actually Means

How Phase One Landscapes Structures the Design-Build Process

Our team includes 5 to 6 in-house designers who also serve as project managers. That’s not two roles assigned to the same person as an afterthought, it’s how we built the position. When you come in for a consultation, the designer you meet is the person who will write your construction agreement, coordinate your permits, manage our subcontractors, and be on site when unexpected conditions come up.

We currently field approximately 9 construction crews, all coordinated under one construction manager who’s been with Phase One Landscapes for over 31 years. Our senior designer has been here for more than 20 years. That kind of tenure is unusual in this industry, and it means the people managing your project have deep knowledge about what works in Denver’s specific conditions, from soil behavior in Greenwood Village to irrigation demands in Highlands Ranch.

“We’re with you the entire process because we’re a full in-house operation.” That’s not a tagline. It’s a description of how our operation actually runs.

We hold membership in the Association of Landscape Contractors of Colorado (ALCC), and the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), and we’ve been awarded for 17 of our clients’ landscaping projects in Denver. We mention those credentials not as a pitch but as context: this is a firm built for the long term, not one organized around the next project.

Step 1: The Initial Consultation and Site Survey

The first meeting happens at your property, not in a showroom. Your designer walks the site with you, looks at how the space is currently used, and starts building the site knowledge that will inform every decision that follows.

Key Questions

• How do you actually use the outdoor space now?
• Where does the afternoon sun hit?
• How does your family entertain?
• Are there kids, pets, or privacy concerns that shape what the design needs to accomplish?
• Do you have water pressure variations across different zones?

This conversation is where your designer starts to understand not just the yard but the way you live. That context stays with them through the build. Because we typically target roughly two to three months from a signed construction agreement to breaking ground, starting this conversation early gives the design phase the time it needs to be done correctly.

Step 2: Concept Design and Revisions

Your designer translates the site survey and your priorities into a concept plan. You’ll see suggested patio materials, outdoor kitchen components, wall placements, turf areas, and planting beds presented as a master plan with enough detail to make real decisions.

Because the same person leads this conversation from the beginning, there’s no translation loss between what you described and what gets drawn. When you say you want the dining area to feel sheltered without losing the mountain views, your designer remembers the specific corner of the yard where that’s possible. That continuity doesn’t exist when a separate contractor picks up a set of plans months later.

Every material and plant selection in this phase reflects Denver’s high-altitude, semi-arid climate: intense UV exposure, freeze-thaw stress on hardscape, clay soils that affect drainage and plant establishment, and water conservation as a real design constraint. Our landscape design process builds those factors in from the first sketch, not as afterthoughts during construction.

After the preliminary review meeting, revisions happen. Materials get swapped to hit budget targets. Phasing options get discussed. We often say, now that we have something to point at, we can decide what we actually want to do. That iterative step is built into the process, not treated as an inconvenience.

Step 3: Budget Analysis and Honest Cost Conversation

The single biggest challenge we see before a project starts is homeowners not having a clear picture of what custom landscape construction actually costs. Material and labor prices have risen significantly over the past decade and more, and many homeowners are working from expectations that no longer reflect the market.

Typical Investment Ranges

• Our minimum project size is around $20,000.
• A typical first-project scope, the kind that transforms a backyard into a functional outdoor living space, tends to fall between $80,000 and $120,000.
• Larger estate environments scale to $1,000,000 and beyond.

You get a detailed budget analysis before construction begins, with enough specificity to make informed decisions about what to include, phase, or adjust.

We price at fair market value. We aren’t the cheapest option in Denver, and we aren’t the most expensive. As we tell clients directly: “We aren’t trying to gouge anyone. We’re just trying to offer a really good product and hopefully they see that what they’re getting is worth every penny.” That’s the honest framing, and we stick to it.

If a budget gap exists between what you want and what you can spend right now, phasing is a real option. Your designer can structure a plan that delivers the full vision in stages, so the first phase doesn’t compromise what comes later.

Step 4: Permitting, Subcontractor Coordination, and Pre-Construction Planning

When your project moves into pre-construction, your designer is already carrying the full history of every decision made to this point. You don’t need to re-explain the drainage solution or the material substitution from the revision phase. That context stays in-house.

We handle permitting. We coordinate all subcontractors; specialists for electrical, pools, or other trades who come onto your project work under our oversight, not alongside you as a second point of contact. As an outdoor living contractor managing the full scope, we’re the single party responsible for keeping the schedule and the plan aligned.

You’ll not be chasing down permit approvals or trying to schedule trades around each other. Our design-build landscape construction model handles that coordination internally, so the pre-construction phase moves forward without pulling you into logistics that aren’t your job.

Step 5: Construction and On-Site Oversight

Every site has conditions that don’t show up in the survey. A utility line in an unexpected location. Soil that behaves differently once excavation starts. Drainage patterns that shift the design slightly. When those things happen on a project where your designer is also the project manager, the response is faster and better informed.

Your designer can make real-time decisions that preserve design intent without stopping work to loop in someone who isn’t familiar with the plan. Change orders, when they’re needed, are documented clearly. You’ll understand what changed, why it changed, and what it costs. We handle that process fairly, and sometimes we absorb costs when doing so is the right thing. “There’s a humanity with what we do. If it’s the right thing to do, we’ll eat the cost.” That’s how we have operated since 1994.

This approach is only possible because our team is genuinely in-house. Our construction crews aren’t vendors we hired for your project, they’re part of the same operation your designer works within, coordinated by a construction manager who has spent over three decades building that operation.