Services & Fees

I think the hardest part about designing a garden is seeing it before it’s there--having a vision, trusting that vision, and letting that vision morph as it comes into focus. As a writer and teacher, I’d like to think I have a fairly active imagination, and the ability to see the unseen, to translate the feeling, the evocation of your environment.

Monarch Gardens isn’t an installation company or landscaper. We are an idea generating, consulting, and coaching company--we're here to jump start or supercharge your love affair with native plants and wildlife. Here’s what we do:

• $50 per hour of on-site consultation within and around Lincoln. For spaces outside Lincoln or in Omaha the fee will be slightly higher. 
  
  

  Meet with you in your space to think about where a garden might work. We’ll use what you already have to think about garden design, like borrowed scenery, natural topography, light, soil conditions, and so much more. How can we translate what your space is to what it can be with minimal changes or additions to hardscape? Each space is different like a thumbprint.

  
  

  Discuss native plants beneficial to insects, birds, and other wildlife -- plants that are interesting structurally and texturally, plants that bloom from April to October, plants that have year round interest.
• $50 per hour for guided nursery shopping. We'll learn together, picking what you enjoy and what works for your landscape, and seeing how to navigate all those intimidating rows of plants. We'll also pick up and deliver plants for a negotiated fee.
• $100+ to create individualized plant lists, growing conditions, and suggest places to buy them, especially online (local nurseries don't always have good selections of native plants, but they should!). The price for this service varies on scale and how much horticultural information you'd prefer. This is a good option for the real DIY person.
• $50 per hour to help you lay out plants in your landscape, and to discuss non toxic gardening methods for fungus and pest control, as well as environmentally-friendly soil amendments, fertilizing, pruning, and cut back.

We'd also be interested in working with schools or neighborhoods to think about and plan local teaching gardens full of native plants. I know in my subdivision there is a large dirt island in a cul-de-sac begging to be a mini neighborhood prairie garden with walking path and benches.

Monarch gardens does not guarantee plants, or guarantee a plant's survival in your garden. Plants die, whether because of a bad winter, poor genetics, hidden oil spills in the soil, or any number of things. Gardening must be done by trowel and error (get it?). The first year or two are the hardest for new plants, and you should be patient. If all goes well, the old adage of "sleep, creep, leap" will apply--namely, the third year is when the plants come into their own. However, most gardeners will tell you it takes ten years for a garden to mature nicely, though that's mostly concerned with woody shrubs and trees.

Monarch Gardens receives no kick backs of any kind from local or online nurseries. We also do not have access to coupons or discounts other than what you'd find on your own. We're gardeners, too, just like you, waiting for end of season plant sales and free shipping offers.