Master Gardeners of Ottawa-Carleton are sometimes asked to visit people’s homes and offer advice on
garden design. Much as we appreciate the confidence this implies, these are not services that we offer.

Our mandate is to offer free, authoritative, unbiased advice to the gardening public. We do not do site
visits, and we try not to compete with landscaping and horticultural professionals. You can find our
knowledgeable volunteers through Facebook and at advice tables at many local farmers markets.

Fortunately, there are many highly qualified professional landscape and garden design companies in the
Ottawa area, and many free resources that can help you. As Master Gardeners, we are ethically
prevented from recommending specific individuals or companies, but we do recommend that you seek
professional assistance from the trade association, Landscape Ontario. From Landscape Ontario’s front
page, you can search for a specific type of service (e.g., Landscape Designer) near: Ottawa or your postal
code. Members of Landscape Ontario are professionally certified and are best positioned to offer you
quality advice and support for your project.

Even before you reach out to a professional for assistance, we also recommend that you consider three
key questions that can help to guide any garden design or renovation:
1. How do you want to use your space and who will be using it? (e.g., for entertaining, meditation,
to serve children, pets, people with disabilities, etc.)
2. How much money do you want to spend to implement your design / renovation vision?
3. How much time do you want to spend to build and maintain your garden vision?
Note there is usually (but not always) a trade off between time and money. Spending money now to do
good quality hardscaping (paths, raised beds, etc.) for example, may save time and effort later.

Among the many free resources available, consider:
Borrowing books on garden design from the Ottawa Public Library, and
Visiting a local garden club or horticultural society. You don’t have to join to check out the
speakers at such clubs. However, membership usually costs less than $25 per year and offers the
chance to hear from expert speakers, buy plants on sale, find out about other resources, and
meet many other experienced gardeners.

We hope you find this information helpful and wish you all the best on your gardening journey.