Project Timelines at a Glance

Before the phase-by-phase detail, here’s how timeline scales with project size. These are typical ranges from consultation to completed installation, assuming a start in spring or early summer with no major permitting delays.

Timelines assume no conservation commission filing is required. Add 60–120 days if your property borders wetlands, a pond, or is within a resource area buffer zone — common across parts of Westwood and the South Shore.

The Six Phases of a Landscape Design Project

Why the Same Project Can Take Different Amounts of Time at Different Firms

Homeowners comparing quotes often assume timeline differences come down to how busy a company is. Sometimes that’s true, but more often the gap comes from how a firm structures its own process. A firm that combines design and installation under one team — rather than handing a finished plan off to a separate contractor to bid and schedule — removes an entire negotiation and re-scoping step from the middle of the timeline. It also means the people drawing the plan already know what their own crews can realistically build on your site, which cuts down on the kind of mid-installation redesign that adds weeks to a project after the shovels are already in the ground.

The other major factor is how a firm handles permitting. Some design firms treat conservation filings and permit applications as the homeowner’s responsibility to coordinate separately. At Land Design Associates, permitting runs through the same team managing the design and installation schedule, which means the Notice of Intent filing, the public hearing date, and the production calendar are tracked against each other from day one — instead of a homeowner discovering in month four that nobody had actually filed anything yet.

What Actually Slows a Project Down

In our experience, delays rarely come from the design or installation work itself — they come from a handful of predictable places:

• Slow feedback turnaround during the revision phase — the single most common cause of a project running long, and the one most within a homeowner’s control.
• Conservation commission or HOA review — public hearing schedules aren’t something any design firm can accelerate, so projects near wetlands or in HOA-governed neighborhoods need extra lead time built in from day one.
• Late material decisions — some paver, stone, and fixture products are special-order and carry their own 4–8 week lead times independent of anything else in the project.
• Starting in peak season — a project kicked off in April is competing for the same installation windows as everyone else who waited until spring to call; starting design work over the winter avoids this entirely.
• Underground surprises — ledge, unexpected drainage issues, or utility conflicts discovered during excavation can add time, though a thorough Phase 1 site walk catches most of these before they become installation-day problems.

Timeline Notes for Westwood Homeowners

Featured Town

Designing in Westwood, MA

Westwood’s mix of larger residential lots, established neighborhoods, and properties bordering the Hale Reservation and Neponset River watershed means conservation commission review comes up more often here than in some neighboring towns. If your project involves grading, drainage work, or construction within a resource area buffer, we build the town’s public hearing and approval timeline into the schedule from the first consultation — not after a permit application gets filed. Several Westwood neighborhoods also carry HOA or deed-restriction guidelines on fencing, structures, and street-facing landscaping, which we review during the site walk so the concept design doesn’t need a late rework.