I feel a pro will offer you many options and concepts with you in mind - remember this is what they do every day.

A professional. They have more experience and can offer many ideas for your needs. They will envision many options for you to choose from.

Design is so often under-valued.
The quality of the design would be the nast significant factor in defining the space and your use of it for years to come. So, 'yes', if a major project is considered engaged with a design professions.
A design professional could mean a landscape architect (or a regular architect that offers landscape design services) and could also be a landscaping company that offers design services.
Good luck!

It depends actually. It depends on what you want the backyard to be. As a designer my opinion is obviously biased, but you don't actually need a deaign professional if you dont care that much about the design (and many people don't). Many people will be satisfied with the level of design that the contractor will add into his work in the process of including all of the stuff you've outlined. Personally, I would care more than that.

Agreed, if you are just looking for a functional space then the pool company's landscaper would be sufficient.

Hi all,
Thanks for the comments. With the help of my pool builder and doing a ton of research, we have a plan. It's all laid out and makes the most of our space. Permits are pulled and we begin digging next Tuesday.
We're having trouble picking out colors. We've decided on Basalite's Artisan Slate in Positano for the pavers. We now need to pick the color of the pool coping which is going to be concrete and the stone for the hot tub, fire pit and BBQ. Any ideas on something that will go with the Positano pavers?

The large hill is finished. We've added 9 trees and 55 shrubs. The trees are October Glorys, Crape Mirdles and Fruitless Pears with 50 yards of mulch, Plumbago and some other plants my wife picked out. Lighting and irrigation are in.

Can we see a photo? Sounds great!

The sun I'm now blocking with October Glorys. A before and a bad picture of the after

Cool...going to be additional ground cover so mulch not constantly blowing in the pool?

You can hire a professional to do the plan it's worth the initial cost. Make clear your goals for the space and how much time you're willing to spend on landscape maintenance. Ask them what in their experience makes a landscape successful. Take pictures of gardens and scapes you love to help with the conversation. If you have an opinion about xeriscaping for the climate or using native plants talk to them. If you don't think they're listening move on to a different designer before they draw up a plan and want you to pay for it.

What you've done so far is wonderful. Love it.

Agree with denellwilson points. With 34 years -landscape design build with degree in landscape architecture, I would highly recommend working with an architect or landscape designer based on experience talking with disappointed homeowners and working to make something out of a botched design by a pool contractor or landscape contractor with no design experience or one that contracts out the design work without your input.

We did one very nice yard in our first FL home, even though it was beautiful it wasn't what we wanted. No room for a dining table, large BBQ area or mingling for party guests, and we had a yard large enough to accommodate it all.

With the new house we hired a designer that did the local restaurant and shopping area near our home. For $3500 we are getting a complete design.

It will include the whole yard, every inch of it. The pool and spa, the BBQ, fire-pit, furniture, the TV, the movie projector and the movie screen, the plants, everything down to the design of tiling and all materials to be used!

One good thing is that he is calling out every aspect of the design, which will allow us to get accurate bids comparing "apples to apples". Just being able to get and compare bids for landscapers will more then pay for his fees.

Our designer is laying out each and every plant, all native, low maintenance, hardy and perfect for our climate. He advices not letting the landscaper SWITCH OUT any of the plants. He was adamant about this. His feeling was, and we agree because it happened to us, was that they will switch the plants to high maintenance plants. Then you have to hire them to maintain the yard.

Since he isn't selling us anything, he's actually designing with our best interests at heart, versus designing for highest profit possible. We learned from our mistakes the first time around. A landscape architect is worth their weight in gold, and you know the price of gold these days.

You are spot on Arley! Well put.

In our case, I discussed my project with my Landscaper who is a friend of mine, the sales guy from the nursery lives here in town and came by twice with his .02 and finally a little input from an interior decorator that we use on projects at work. Being that I'm a general contractor helped out a lot and with the input from all of these contacts and reading this forum, I'm pretty happy with what we have planned for the first and second phases of our backyard project. Thanks for everybody for your input.

Hi LB,
Yes the hillside was a lot of work. The hill is all sandstone and every hole was dug out with a jackhammer. My friend left his bobcat here for 3 weeks to help get it done. We jacked out truck loads of rock to make sure the trees and shrubs had plenty of growing room. The picture shown above is about 1/4 of the hillside, so it really doesn't represent the scope of work very well.

Wow, is all I can say!!!!

scope is an understatement. You've been terra forming and planting a forested ecosystem!