THE GARDEN CARE SIDE OF DH GARDEN CENTRE, KITSILANO
A garden assessment by someone who reads plants for a living.
Darrell Smith runs DH Garden Centre on West 10th. Two ways to be seen: up to ninety minutes walking the garden with you, or about an hour on the phone after you send photos when you book. Either way he tells you honestly what is going on out there, and writes down what he finds. Within two to seven business days your plan arrives in your inbox.
If you are replanting or redesigning. A planting plan drawn in Darrell's own hand, showing what goes where. With it, a plant list: each plant by name and how many of each, chosen to suit the conditions your garden actually has and the budget you gave him.
If you want the garden checked over. A written record of what he found: each problem, what is behind it, and what to do about it. What needs doing this season and in what order, what can safely wait, and the pruning and feeding windows worth knowing so nothing gets cut or fed at the wrong time of year. Where a plant is past saving he says so, and anything that needs replacing is named
$450, flat. No hourly meter, nothing quietly added later.
Kitsilano, Point Grey, Dunbar, Kerrisdale, Shaughnessy and the West Side.
Pick a time and pay online. It takes about a minute, and the confirmation is instant.
He keeps a small number of gardens himself. That is the point, and it is also the limit.
"Darrell is a gem, his knowledge of ALL plants is outstanding and totally trustworthy. Well done Darrell."
- K.M. -
✓ This works the way seeing a doctor works. Darrell can examine the garden in person, or he can look at your photographs and talk it through with you on the phone. You are paying for the same thing either way: what he works out, and what he writes down afterwards.
✓ In the garden takes up to ninety minutes, with you walking along. On the phone takes about an hour. Send the photos when you book, then tell him the rest while you talk. There is no form to fill in beforehand.
✓ And like a doctor, he writes down what your garden needs. He does not put a price on it. Where you fill that list is up to you, whether that is a nursery near your house or ours on West 10th.
✓ $450 flat, plus tax, paid when you book. It covers the consultation and the hours afterwards spent drawing your plan and choosing your plants.
Three kinds of people book this. You will know which one you are.
None of them is neglecting the garden. All three are already spending money on it. What none of them has is somebody whose only job is to look at the plants and tell them the truth.
You have been comparing quotes for weeks.
They are hundreds of dollars apart for what sounds like the same work, and not one of them explains why. That is not your fault. Every person who has walked the garden so far was also hoping to win the job, so the advice and the invoice keep arriving in the same envelope. What you are missing is not another quote. It is one plan, written by somebody who is not bidding on the build work, that you can hold all of them against. He does not put prices on it, so nothing in it is there because it suits the shop. And it stays yours, whoever you hire in the end.
You have no time.
Work, travel, family, the rest of it. Somewhere along the way the garden got bigger than the weekend, and it has been sitting on the list ever since. Here is the part nobody mentions: waiting is rarely free. A pruning window missed two years running. A wet corner that was a morning's work before it became a dead hedge. A shrub that could have been cut back, and now has to be dug out and bought again. Plants do not send reminders. They just quietly get more expensive.
You already have help.
Somebody cuts the grass and clears the leaves, and honestly, that part is fine. Keep them. What nobody is doing is looking at the plants. The hedge that is thinning. The rhododendron that sat wet all spring. The Japanese maple that cost real money and is having a hard time. A maintenance crew is paid to keep a garden tidy, not to notice a tree going backwards. It is the easiest thing in the world to pay that invoice every month and still lose the best thing in the garden.
None of this makes you a bad gardener. A garden that has been growing for fifteen years is simply a bigger job than it was in year one. That is what gardens do, and it happens to everybody.
What all three need is the same thing, and it is one appointment: up to ninety minutes in the garden with somebody who reads plants for a living, or about an hour on the phone once you have sent him photos. A written plan follows. You will have paid him for the looking, not for the selling, so if the honest answer is to leave the garden alone this year and spend nothing, that is the answer you get, in writing.
Your garden will still be asking the same question next spring. It is usually cheaper to answer it now.
If you have been comparing gardeners for weeks
Vancouver is full of people who will quote your garden for free. The quotes come back hundreds of dollars apart, and nothing in them tells you who actually understands plants. Choosing on price feels wrong, choosing on a website photo feels worse, so the folder sits open and another season goes by.
This page will not add another quote to the pile. It offers the step that should come before any of them: up to ninety minutes with someone whose whole working life is plants, and a hand drawn plan with a plant list you can hold every future quote against, whoever you end up hiring.
Some people call this garden coaching. The plan is the difference. Advice evaporates by the weekend. A plan with your name on it is still on the fridge in March.
Why this costs money when everyone else quotes free
A free quote is a sales visit. Someone walks your garden pricing the work they hope to sell you.
An assessment is the opposite. You are paying for the visit and for what Darrell knows, so the only thing he owes you is the truth about your garden. If the honest answer is that the hedge can wait two years and you should spend nothing on it, that is the answer you get. He can afford to say it because you have already paid him for the looking, not for the selling.
"Not only the best garden centre in Vancouver, but probably the best business in Vancouver! These people are FANTASTIC. DH went above and beyond in such heartfelt service, like we never see anymore. Restored my trust! And my sister's. An absolute joy to work with."
- R & L, False Creek -
What you get for $450
The consultation. In the garden it is up to ninety minutes with Darrell, with you walking along, and he reads the whole thing: soil, drainage, light, what is thriving, what is quietly failing, what was planted somewhere it can never be happy. On the phone it is about an hour, after you send photos when you book, and he works from what the photographs show and what you tell him. Either way he takes notes throughout, and before you finish you will already have heard the biggest things he found, straight from him.
The plan. Within two to seven business days of the consultation it arrives in your inbox, built from his notes. What is in it depends on what your garden needs.
What he found.
Plant by plant, what is going on and what is behind it. A diagnosis rather than a list of jobs, so you understand the garden and not just the bill.
What to do, and when.
What needs doing this season and in what order, what can safely wait, and the pruning windows worth knowing so nothing gets cut at the wrong time of year. In plain English, laid out so you can do the work yourself if you want to.
And if you are replanting.
A hand drawn plan showing what goes where, plus a plant list: each plant by name and how many of each, chosen to fit your garden's conditions and the budget you give him. He does not price the list, so nothing on it is there because it suits the shop. The drawing arrives as a scan.
A shade garden, so every plant on the list was chosen for the light this garden actually gets, not the light somebody wished it had.
What it is not
It is not a construction quote and not a sales visit. The drawing is a working plan in Darrell's hand, not a set of construction blueprints. If your garden needs build work, that gets scoped and quoted separately, and nothing lands on any bill without you agreeing to it first. Nothing here obliges you to book anything afterwards. And if your garden needs a trade we are not, the plan names the kind of trade you actually need.
One
Book online. Pick a time that suits you and pay the $450. The confirmation is instant and the time is yours. The booking page asks for your street first, so you find out whether you are in the area before you pay, not after.
Two
The visit. Walk the garden with him. Ask everything. The people who get the most out of it come with a list.
Three
The plan. Drawn or consultation advice in your inbox within 2 to 7 business day. Forward it to whoever else has a say in the garden, and take your time with it. Nobody is going to chase you.
If you would rather it simply be handled
Most people who book an assessment are really deciding something bigger: who is going to look after this garden all year.
DH keeps a small number of West Side gardens on a standing arrangement, built around garden days rather than quick stops. Proper time, on a rhythm your garden actually needs, with the same person walking your beds every visit and remembering what he saw last time. Problems get mentioned to you while they are still small, and you hear it from him, not from a hedge that died over the winter.
The difference between the three is simple: how much of the year your garden has his eyes on it.
The Season Plan
For gardens that mostly need the growing season held. Darrell is there through spring, summer and fall for the pruning windows, the feeding, the weeding, the keeping up. Over winter the garden rests and the visits pause. Right for smaller gardens, and for planting that can look after itself in the cold.
from $1,150 a month, March through November
The Garden Year
For gardens with real planting in them: mature shrubs, hedges, trees that took years to get where they are. The rhythm carries on through winter, which is when structural pruning happens and drainage gets fixed before the wet months test it. Nothing out there goes unwatched for a season. If you are not sure which plan fits, ask about this one first.
from $1,650 a month, all year
The Head Gardener
For large gardens, and for owners who want the garden kept ready rather than caught up. Darrell is in the garden most weeks, so small things get dealt with while they are still small. Each of these takes a serious share of his working month, which is why there are only ever three. If a place is open, it is worth a conversation.
from $3,250 a month, three gardens only
The from prices are where most gardens start. A larger garden simply needs more garden days in the year, so after the assessment you get one exact monthly number for your garden, in writing. From then on it works the way the assessment did: one flat number, no hourly meter, nothing quietly added later.
Every arrangement starts with the assessment on this page. It is how both sides find out whether this is a fit, and the plan it produces becomes the first page of your garden's file.
DARRELL PHOTO PLACEHOLDER
Darrell Smith
DH Garden Centre/DH Landscape Solution, 3742 West 10th Avenue, Kitsilano
I grew up in a garden. It was where I went when the house was complicated, and it is the reason I do this for a living.
I have been working in gardens since I was seventeen. There is no certificate on the wall. What there is instead is a long memory of what survives in Vancouver and what does not, and a shop full of the things that do.
"I was one of those customers that would wait for up to one hour to talk to Darrell. Now he has his own beautiful little Garden Centre, and I highly recommend anybody to go to him. You learn so much, he will share so much of his knowledge and help you get the best garden of your dreams. A few of us still go from North Vancouver to Kitsilano."
- Debbie, North Vancouver -
None of the people quoted on this page has bought a garden assessment. They wrote about the shop and about Darrell in their own words, and each of them gave written permission to reprint it here. When somebody who has booked one is willing to say so, it will go here too.
The shop is open seven days, eleven to six thirty. If you want to know who would be walking your garden before you spend a dollar, come in and bring a question about it. Some things I can answer standing at the counter. Some I would only be guessing at until I have seen the garden, and I will tell you which one you have got.
VIDEO EMBED PLACEHOLDER
Where this works
Kitsilano, Point Grey, Dunbar, Kerrisdale, Shaughnessy and the West Side.
The gardens are kept close together on purpose. Less of the day spent driving means more of it spent in gardens, and it is part of how the standing arrangements stay at the price they are. The booking page asks for your street first, so you know before you pay.
Outside these neighbourhoods? If you would like Darrell to come out anyway, email dhgardencentre@gmail.com with your address. We will check the drive and come back to you honestly, one way or the other.
A few honest answers
Why do you charge when others quote free?
Because a free quote is a sales visit and this is not one. You are paying for Darrell's full attention and for answers that do not depend on selling you anything.
Do I need to be there?
For the assessment, yes. The visit is for you, and the questions you ask are half the value. For standing visits afterwards, no. Most people are not home, and every visit ends with a short note and two photos so you know what happened while you were out.
I already have a gardener.
Keep them if they are good. Most gardens on a standing arrangement here still have someone else on the grass. The assessment tells you what nobody is currently watching, which is usually the plants themselves.
My garden is large. Is it still $450?
For a standard West Side lot, yes, always. If yours is a double lot or an estate garden, the walk and the drawing take longer, so tell me the address first and I will give you one flat number before you pay. What never changes is the shape of the deal: one number, agreed before anything starts, and no hourly meter.
What if nothing much is wrong?
Then the plan says so, tells you what to leave alone, and you have paid $450 to stop wondering. Some of the best money spent on a garden is the repair job that never had to happen.
Will it always be Darrell?
Right now, yes. If that ever changes, you will have met the person before they ever walk your garden alone.
Book the assessment
Every garden decision you have been putting off needs the same first thing: someone who has actually stood in the garden. Photos flatten slopes, hide wet ground, and make every hedge look fine. A proper walk out there answers questions you did not know you had.
"A friendly and honest family-run business. Darrell is very knowledgeable and helpful in all things plants. We highly recommend Darrell for all of your garden needs."
- P. & J., longtime customers, Vancouver -
Pick a time below. You pay when you book, the time is yours, and the plan is yours to keep whatever you decide afterwards.
Would rather talk to a person first? Leave your details and Darrell will ring you.
Calendly embed PLACEHOLDER
So he can tell you straight away whether you are on a street he can get to properly. Never shared, and nobody turns up unannounced.
In your own words. Two lines is plenty.
DH Landscape Solution is the garden care side of DH Garden Centre. The shop is at 3742 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver BC V6R 2G3, open seven days, 11:00 to 6:30. (778) 386-3334. If you ever want to see where the plants and soil come from, come in. | Privacy | Terms
