How do landscapers analyze sites?

­­At some point in the past, your property has been surveyed. If you have those records, make them available to your landscape designer. If not, try checking with your city's planning department. Either way, it's not a bad idea to have your landscaper re-survey the property, as aspects of it may have changed since ­the construction of your home.

At a minimum, the survey should include information on elevation, boundaries and flood zones. It should have a detailed description of the property itself and map out the edges of your property in relation to your neighbors' property.

Drawing the edges of a lot may not seem like such a big deal, but there are several issues a landscaper must consider, such as:

If you're working from old surveys, this may be where your existing information stops. But that doesn't mean a landscaper is done mapping the property. The landscaper's map should include major trees and their likely root patterns. It should trace all existing planting beds and borders, which -- if the beds are curved or asymmetrical -- can be a complicated operation involving stakes and string and applied geometry.

Your landscaper may also want to map current use patterns -- how you and your family move across your property. If the grass has worn thin from your habitual shortcuts, it might make more sense to lay a new path there than to keep the existing path. (This aspect of mapping overlaps a bit with finding the functional areas of your property, which we'll discuss later.)

Finally, remember that major landscaping projects can cause a property's elevation and flood potential to change, like when you install a swimming pool. For the sake of your insurance and records, it's a good idea to have your property re-surveyed at the completion of the landscaping project.

Now that you've got the lay of the land, how do you know what's lying under all of it? Go to the next page to learn about locating a property's utility lines.

­It shouldn't be too difficult to find the utility lines in a landscape. Just look up -- they're the black things strung between the telephone poles, right?

Not so fast. Any landscape analysis should take those lines into account -- especially when planning tree patterns and growth. But there's a lot more to consider. A garden isn't just empty­ land; it's land surrounding a home. That means it can contain all sorts of things that serve a home, such as:

For the most part, your local utility companies should be able to tell you where these lines are buried. However, if you've added underground utility lines yourself -- such as irrigation tubes or a gas line for the outdoor grill -- you're responsible for keeping track of their locations.

Your landscaper should check several standard depths:

The landscaper should also consider the land's erosion patterns. Even gardens can lose major amounts of soil -- which could mean the gas line you think is 24 inches (61 cm) down is actually only 8 inches (20 cm) away from your shovel's blade.

­In addition, any landscape plan must take into account above-ground utility points, which might include electric, gas or water meters, transformers, heat pumps or guy wires.

Finally, remember the utilities that might be adjacent to your property -- sidewalks, curbs, right-of-way areas and so on. A landscape analysis must take into account common use, as well as any state and local ordinances that apply to these features. You could face a fine -- or the wrath of your neighbors -- if a tree drops a lot of fruit onto the sidewalk. And if your hedge is blocking visibility, it might be dangerous to drivers.

After looking at what's already below the ground, a landscape analysis should proceed to what's growing in the ground. Read on.

Obviously, you wouldn't be landscaping if you didn't want to make a few changes to what's currently growing on you p­roperty. Any good landscape analysis looks at what's there, what you want or should keep and what you might have to get rid of. The landscaper should also consider the existing vegetation in terms of your short- and long-term goals for the property.

Some questions the landscaper should consider:

Finally, the analysis should include a budgetary component. Unless you're very wealthy, full landscaping is a project for years, not weeks. So the landscape analysis should consider ways to work with the existing plants as you make the gradual transition to your dream landscape. The landscaper should think about :

It's not enough to think about how you want the new landscape to look. You also need to think about how you want to use it. On the next page, we'll discuss the functional areas of landscapes.

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­A landscaper should take into account the ways you currently use your property and the ways the land's natural layout lends itself to use. Light, shade, elevation, rainfall, soil composition and wind expos­ure can all mean that one corner of the land is better suited to a certain purpose than is another corner.

Manmade features also affect the way you use the landscape. For example, you probably can't change the location of your back door, or where your driveway opens onto the street. So the landscaper should think about smart ways to create functional areas in relation to those unchangeable factors. It wouldn't make sense to put a play area for small children right next to the street or the driveway.

The landscape analysis should also address how you want to use the property. For example, depending on your budget, goals and acreage, you might want to add:

This means your landscaper should ask a lot of questions about your lifestyle. How much time do you want to spend on lawn maintenance? Do you anticipate a lot of pool parties? How close is the neighbors' house, and do you like to leave your blinds up? Do you expect to be in this house long enough that not just the children but also the grandchildren will use the swing set?

As you analyze your own environment, you might also be thinking about the planet's environment. Read on to find out how your garden can help the world.

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­As people become more alert to their impact on the planet, the sprawling, inefficient lawn covered in whizzing sprinklers may become a thing of the past. In its place, we may see more gardens with food plants and trees, irrigation tubes and xeriscaping, or "dry landscaping," the use of desert plants and land features to minimize water use.

But environmental considerations go far beyond water and space usage. A landscape analysis should consider goals such as:

Then the landscaper should look at ways those goals are interrelated, and the different ways to accomplish them with combinations of plants and structures.

The landscaper also needs to think about the current state of the land. He or she should:

Then, together, you and the landscaper can look at how to balance all your goals for the land. In some cases, you may need to prioritize. For example, would you rather have the classic lush, green, rolling lawn, or does it make more sense to plant a terraced combination of trees and flowering shrubs to economize on water and reduce the house's cooling needs?

Whatever you decide, environmental analysis will help you obtain a garden that's green in every sense of the word -- environmentally sound, economically savvy, and full of healthy plants.

To learn more, visit the links on the next page.