Landscaping considerations when renovating

If you are renovating and messing with the outside of your house, it stands to reason you'll need to do some landscaping. Here's what I knew:

- Get a quote from a trusted landscaper before the project starts to include in your budget. Be sure to ask for any of these that apply to your project:

- - Cost to move any plants you want to save to a safe location on your property

-- Cost to move those plants back and add new landscaping when done

-- Cost to cut down or trim any trees in the way of new building

Here's a few things I didn't know:

- Be sure to ask your landscaper what he is going to do with any plants you cannot save. If he plans on dumping them, give your neighbors a chance to dig up and take any they want. It saves plants, makes neighbors happy, and saves on dumping fees.

- Be sure your construction won't affect your ability to water the plants. If it does, you may not want to spent to move plants to "save" as those have high watering requirements.

- Ask your landscaper about timing. In my area (Northeast / MidAtlantic Region) the rule seems to be that you should move plants on cool Fall days or early Spring.

- Ask your contractor about what types of machines the project requires and what access they need. I discovered the day before work started that that several bushes were getting run over by the excavator and our apple tree had to be cut basically in half for the foundation work.

- Don't forget to add sprinkler repair to your budget.