Contractor Profile: Clearwater Landscape Design – Online Planning and Design

The mission statement for Clearwater Landscape Design is simple – to provide an interactive landscape design service for clients throughout North America. For a one-man operation, this sounds utterly impossible. But it’s not. So, how can this one person supply services to customers on an entire continent? The answer is as simple as the mission statement – the Internet.

Dan Eskelson, owner and self-proclaimed "chief designer, laborer, executive, accountant, mechanic, foreman, webmaster and pencil sharpener," of Clearwater Landscape Design has become an Internet guru of sorts since starting his company’s web site at www.clearwaterlandscapes.com in December 1998. The Internet side of his business has grown in its two-year existence and is relatively new to the Priest River, Idaho-based company, which was established in 1992.

Through Clearwater Landscape Design, Eskelson provides both online and hard copy landscape planning, including plan drawings, conceptual photo images and plant reports. His primary customer base and target is the do-it-yourself homeowner with any size project, be it a low maintenance garden design or larger design that includes hardscapes, water features and plant material. However, these clients also include homeowners looking for design plans that they can then pass on to a contractor for bidding and installation. Eskelson approximates his client base at close to 50 clients for these residential designs each year. He has provided services to clients in 11 states with the majority of them residing in California and the Midwest. With the limited overhead of running his computer and office – compared to a landscaping company’s overhead of equipment, plants, soil, etc. – he is able to make a modest living with that number of clients.

Eskelson sees the opportunities for online landscaping as unlimited. "The general public is increasingly aware of the need for quality landscape design work – even the do-it-yourself group. My workload has increased immensely. I am now referring tropical design requests to another designer in Florida," he explains.

Clients interested in Eskelson’s services can submit an electronic form found on the Clearwater Landscape Design web site. Here customers fill out a detailed questionnaire about their preferences for their landscape design. Some of the information requested in the form includes hardscape elements (patio, hot tub, pool, shed), garden area uses (lawn games, play areas, pumphouse), purpose of plants (shade, privacy, windbreak) and mood of the garden (relaxing, private, social). Photos of a customer’s home and a basic site plan should also be e-mailed or sent via regular mail (or "snail mail" as he calls it) to Eskelson for a visual reference. Then he goes to work on the design.

Using professional landscaping software, Eskelson transforms the preferences and visual elements into a workable design for the customer. He views each client and job as uniquely interesting and challenging. "In general, the small, fenced suburban yards are the most difficult to design. Also very challenging is dealing with the requirements of homeowner’s associations and architectural review boards," he says.

In addition to features included in the landscaping program, Eskelson adds his own colorful real-life plant images to make the final product more realistic. "I spend a lot of time in the winter working on my plant database, so it’s not all circles and squares," he explains. After much interaction with the customer throughout the entire project, the completed design is sent to the customer in the form of plan drawings, photo images and detailed plant care reports.

Plan drawings show an overhead view of the exact placement of existing and proposed structures, beds, borders, hardscapes and plant material. Plan drawings are first available to the customer for review in a private folder on Clearwater Landscape Design’s web site, and hard copies are sent to the customer when they are satisfied with the results. These plan drawings provide a scaled planting plan that can be used by do-it-yourselfers and outside contractors. They provide the customer with a standard reference for comparative bidding.

Photo images of the proposed design provide a visualization of how the landscape will look at maturity or at any growth stage chosen by the customer. These images are created by placing the proposed design elements in preexisting photos of customers’ properties. Eskelson’s use of real-life plant images makes it easy for the customer to visualize the final outcome of the design.

To assist customers in caring for their new landscape, detailed plant care reports are also provided. These reports include descriptions, photographs and maintenance recommendations for each plant selected.

"With the completed design in hand," says Eskelson, "the customer will know exactly which trees, shrubs, perennials and hardscape elements to put where – no more guessing at the nursery and money wasted on the wrong plants."

Eskelson said that charges for his completed design work range from $500 to more than $1,000, depending on the budget of a project and how much the client wants to plan himself. The "level" of his service – or amount of design work – depends on these factors.

Clearwater Landscape Design’s Origins

In addition to designs, Eskelson has also done several installations as owner of Clearwater Landscape Design, including residential and commercial clients in Bonner County, Idaho and Pend Oreille County, Washington. However, because of the growth of his online presence, the upcoming season is the first season that he expects to not do any installations – "Unless someone twists my arm," he admits.

His knowledge of installation work and the green industry in general stems from his work in the industry since 1969. His early training as a gardener was in part-time work for large estate owners in the hills around Santa Barbara, Calif. He then spent some time travelling and learning all about the industry through his work. "For several years I traveled in many western states installing large commercial landscapes at HUD housing projects – from dry, windy Wyoming to the ‘rain forest’ of the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington state," he explains.

Dan also spent several years as a golf course superintendent, during which he developed a non-chemical solution to fungus disease on bentgrass putting greens. Eskelson described this process that is consistent with his focus of organic gardening and landscaping. "The development of the alternative solution centered around a holistic approach to plant health; I learned to treat the causes of disease rather than the symptoms. In addition to modifying cultural techniques, which decreased the severity and incidence of disease, I used a compost extract in solution to treat further outbreaks."

After spending many years at hard labor, including work in California during the 1970s that was typically hectic and year-round, Dan has welcomed the change to running a business and having a desk job. "I was a landscaper for more than 30 years and I found that I was getting to know my chiropractor too well," he says. However, the switch to an office job is anything but a walk in the park. "I’m finding that after eight hours here at the office, I’m just as tired as I was when I was out landscaping all day. The only difference is my back is not as sore," he says.

Marketing Landscape Design Services Online

Given the complexity and vastness of the Internet, marketing is a necessity for Eskelson to continue to bring in new business. "Online marketing is an increasingly complex art and science. Perhaps 15 percent of my time is consumed with marketing efforts," he explains.

One of the best ways to reach potential customers online is to make it easy for them to find one’s business in as many places as possible. That means using search engines, directories, reciprocal links, content partnerships, e-mail newsletters and other Internet-based tools to get the company’s name and web site out to the general public in mass quantities. The trick is to learn these tools and stay on top of the changing technology. Eskelson describes his experience using these tools, "I use web site promotion techniques learned from both online and traditional sources and a complex web positioning tool called Web Position Gold to check my site’s ranking in the various search engines."

Although landscaping is very site specific with regional characteristics and considerations, the Internet, e-mail and landscaping software programs make it easier for Eskelson to design sites from miles away. Of course, knowing all about the various climates and conditions in areas serviced by his company is a requirement. This involves two important factors, experience in those areas – which Eskelson has plenty of – and research – which becomes increasingly easier with all of the resources available online. "The amount of knowledge available is staggering. University databases – Ohio State University is one of the best – provide much necessary information, as well as packaged software products," he says.

Combine the marketing, knowledge and research with Clearwater Landscape Design’s excellent customer service, which Eskelson believes to be the most important factor in running his business, and the tools are in place for the company to carve its own niche in the industry. There is even the opportunity for growth.

"The decision will have to be made soon whether to be content with the ‘one-horse operation’ or expand in some manner. I will continue to resist producing ‘cookie-cutter’ designs, which can be mass-produced for a wide range of applications. I get bored very easily and need the challenge of new, unique projects," says Eskelson. "Though my business seems to be growing well and ‘on the cutting edge,’ I remain humble in the realization that things change rapidly, especially these days on the Internet. Who knows what tomorrow will bring."

For more information about Clearwater Landscape Design, please visit the company’s web site at www.clearwaterlandscapes.com. To reach Dan Eskelson directly, please send e-mail to dan@clearwaterlandscapes.com.

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