Which garden landscaper to choose? Added value?

think about what makes your life more positive,
a higher bank balance?
a garden that gives you long-lasting joy with less gardening work?
a garden that was cheap and you see it every day?

Some people also enjoy gardening ;). For example, I wouldn’t have a landscaper do the planting, I want to do that myself. Of course, I would have the L-shaped stones and basic slope stabilization done by someone, but the rest I would do myself little by little.

For me clearly the cheap one. For you the expensive one with a concept. But that's because I only need someone for the rough work who implements my ideas. I think about every little plant and stone. You want a functioning outdoor area. You need someone who plans the plants and stones for you and implements everything. The expensive one tried in advance to create a concept that fits you. If the money gets too tight, divide the whole thing into 2 or 3 packages and have it done gradually. With us, the latter is common practice. Demand [winterharte und trockenheitstolerante Pflanzen].

A gardener soon? This commitment would surely also be an important criterion.

Small provider ... tinkers around repeatedly for 3 months.
Large provider 1 week 5 men and done.
These are the experiences here.

I think a garden looks immediately beautiful at the beginning when the plants and trees are large. And the costs are probably about the same with the expensive and cheap provider.

If you have some knowledge yourself and can occasionally supervise, you can certainly go for the cheap one.
We had such a case recently with us. The cheap one did all the neighboring houses; only his work was paid for. The clients took care of materials, organization, etc. The work was actually done quickly and well, and very cheaply.
I, on the other hand, work with a larger landscaping company. So far, I haven’t had to take care of anything, the work starts this week – I will pay almost double. Whether it will pay off in the end or if the cheaper landscaper would have done just as well will be revealed in the end.

Apparently I live in a real poor people's area here. So far, no one here has had their garden completed by a landscaper. Everyone always only has driveway, terrace, spray protection, (slope) reinforcement. Vegetation all done by themselves except for a few rolls of turf.

I, for example, would not have plants done by the landscaper, I want to do that myself. Sure, I would also have L stones and basic slope reinforcement done, but the rest then piece by piece myself.

I don't have the problem that I absolutely want to do the plants myself, but the slope reinforcement including angle stones financially forces me to do it. ;)

Small provider ... fiddles around repeatedly for 3 months.
Large provider 1 week 5 men and done.
That's the experience here.

We have a small one. He has been fiddling around here for 1 month so far.

However, I cannot infer from my anecdotal experiential knowledge from neighborhood observations that the work speed scales with the number of employees. The larger landscaping companies with 5 employees on site have rather distinguished themselves by their breaks.

1 FTE is sitting in the mini excavator waiting for the next
1 FTE is sitting in the wheel loader waiting for the next
1 FTE is giving instructions and waiting for the next
1 FTE is currently on a breakfast break
1 FTE is currently not finding his shovel

Thanks for all your assessments.

We have now decided on the larger and slightly more expensive one. He will do our driveway in two weeks so that we can move in with dry feet by the end of June. He also independently arranged an on-site appointment with our architect. So that has already worked as planned. We were also able to talk to some people who had their garden done by them. He also said that the big advantage was the time. If something needs to be done faster, they have 5-7 people on the construction site.

Actually, we have no problem doing some things in the garden ourselves; we already have projects planned regarding privacy screens and additional planting, but the rest should largely be settled for us. We don’t want to wait 1-2 years until the kids can fully use the entire garden.

We are moving in at the end of June. The garden landscaping starts on 01.07. So that fits...