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OUTDOOR OASIS
by Donna Cedar-Southworth
The hot trend in landscape design is creating outdoor
"living rooms," but Plant-A-Plant Landscaping Company President and CEO
Lisbeth Prins, whose full-service landscape design/build firm has been
transforming outdoor areas into award-winning living spaces for 23
years, prefers to expand upon the concept: "It needs to be an area
in which the family can be comfortable because it's not just for
entertaining--it's an everyday place for each family member to enjoy--so
in a sense, it's a 'family room.' A garden should be lived in and
should be visually stimulating. Moreover, if a client's goal is to
have additional space for entertaining large, more formal parties or an
intimate garden, we custom-design areas to suit their particular needs.
Just as every family is different, so are their design requirements.
Plant-A-Plant not only incorporates hardscape features
such as pavers, flagstone and brick into their outdoor living spaces,
they also operate their own nursery where they grow 75 percent of the
shrubs and perennials used in their designs. This practice, along
with their dramatic water creations, dry stream beds and lighting and
irrigation systems, has contributed to their earning 23 Keep Virginia
Beautiful Landscape Excellence Awards, the National Landscape
Association Design Award for Residential Landscape and the Landscape
Contractors Award for Residential Landscaping.
With three landscape designers, 24 employees and several
contractors she's used for 19 years, Lisbeth encourages her company to
reach beyond the ordinary. "Everyone has different requirements
for what makes them most comfortable. My designers and I are very
good listeners--we find out about our clients and their wants by talking
with them, reviewing our portfolio and getting a feel for how they want
to use their outside space. Having worked o so many projects,
we're exceptionally good at envisioning how the space will look when
it's completed--incorporating focal points and elements that take our
designs beyond the extraordinary to the truly spectacular."
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March 2005 edition
the BIG PICTURE
by Alice Ross
Loudoun-based design/build firm Plant-A-Plant
Landscaping Company offers a wide range of quality services to meet
their customers' requests. Plant-A-Plant's designers strive to
incorporate the clients' wishes into a garden that meets their
lifestyle, home and site requirements and ensuring that outdoor living
spaces complement indoor rooms. Over the past 23 years,
Plant-A-Plant has integrated everyday design elements into formal,
theme, secret, woodland, water and under deck gardens. Their
extensive repertoire includes pondless water features and propane-fired
fire pots (both low-maintenance and family-friendly), along with stone
bridges and custom arbor/tunnels. Plant-A-Plant grows
approximately 75 percent of their own perennials and shrubs, which are
designated as "Virginia's Finest" by the Virginia Department of
Agriculture. According to Lisbeth Prins, President and CEO, "Our
company reaches beyond the ordinary.... We do what we say we are going
to do, we do it right the first time, and by listening to our customers,
we create gardens that make their family feel like there is 'no place
like home!'"
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March 2004 edition
Beyond the Ordinary
by Donna Cedar-Southworth
Clients of Plant-a-Plant Landscaping Company come
back to President and CEO Lisbeth Prins and say they are amazed because
"there's always something happening" in their gardens regardless of the
season. They also tell Lisbeth they are pleased because she
actually "listened" to what they had requested. "We perform a site
analysis to look at drainage, topography, views to enhance, areas to
screen for wind, etc." she says. "Those are some of the things we
look at prior to the design process, so we create a design that
works--it's one thing to draw up a beautiful design, but whether it
really works on the site is another story altogether."
Creating outdoor living spaces is no mere trend for
Lisbeth. After 22 years in business, she's still serving many of
her original customers and expanding her venture all the while.
She earned degrees in botany, concentrating in plant cloning, and
landscape design from George Washington University. After working
at the Botanic Gardens and two nurseries, she formed her own company.
With three landscape designers, 24 employees and
several contractors she's used for 18 years, Lisbeth says her company
"reaches beyond the ordinary....We do what we say we're going to do, we do
it right the first time, and we design gardens and outdoor living spaces
to create pleasing views from inside the home as well as outside."
Plant-a-Plant grows 75 percent of its shrubs and
perennials in its own nurseries and greenhouses in Aldie.
Additionally, they maintain display gardens on site so customers can see
how plants will actually look. Jobs range from $6,000 to several
hundred thousand dollars, but part of each contract stipulates that
clients agree they have an understanding of the maintenance involved
after the job is done. "We want clients to understand that after
we leave, there is something live to take care of." If they wish,
they can hire the company's maintenance team. These principles
reflects Lisbeth's love of plants and her commitment to see them thrive
and flourish, long after her company has finished a job.
Recipients of 23 Keep Virginia Beautiful Landscape
Excellent Awards, the National Landscape Association Design Award for
Residential Landscape and the Landscape Contactors Award for Residential
Landscaping, Plant-a-Plant employees pride themselves in "listening to
their clients, " and through individualized landscaping, turning
someone's house into their home. |
