Amy lives in the Chicago suburbs, very close to downtown Arlington Heights and she can travel to many Chicago suburbs. To determine if your home is eligible for an on-site session, click the Book On-Site Coaching Now! button below and enter your address. The booking system will tell you if Amy travels to your area and whether there is a travel fee before you book.
Amy also offers virtual appointments to clients all over North America! She did 50 Virtual appointments over Zoom last year, and they went great! Even clients in Chicago have been signing up for Zoom appointments to save on travel fees and get on Amy’s calendar sooner. Scroll down for details!
If the booking system tells you that Amy doesn’t travel to your area you have a few options:
- Sign up for a virtual appointment instead.
- Email Amy at amy@powersplants.com and let her know your address and what you are looking to focus on. Amy will give you a quote which includes travel time: $150/hour for all travel time in the car to your home and back. Amy will work with you on a date and time.
- Add yourself to the waiting list and let her know on the form that you are willing to wait until another client in your area signs up and Amy can try and fit you in. There would still be a travel fee but it would be much cheaper than paying all of her travel time.
NOTE: Amy has raised her rates for 2026 to $150/hour.
On-Site Coaching Sessions
- Amy’s booking software takes your address and tells you if Amy travels to your area and if there is a travel fee.
- A 1 hour session costs $150 and if there is a travel fee the booking system will tell you before you book. Travel fees are higher the further away Amy has to drive from Arlington Heights.
- The majority of the Northwest Chicago suburbs do not have a travel fee. All remaining suburbs have a travel fee.
- Billing Structure
- Hourly Rate: Services are billed at $150 per hour.
- Extended Time Billing: If our session exceeds the initial one-hour period, the additional time will be billed in 15-minute increments. Each 15-minute increment costs $30.
- Travel Fee
- The booking software will figure out if you will be charged a travel fee and how much it will cost before you book.
- Notes
- Amy does not take notes of the session. You will need to either write down notes or you can audio or video record the whole session or any part. Please be prepared when Amy arrives, she will start teaching as soon as she gets out of the car.
- Some people use the Voice Memo app on their iPhones and some use the Video camera.
- You are paying for Amy’s time so you set the priorities. In most cases we can walk around a home with a front, back and 2 side yards in an hour.
- If you are only interested in focusing on one bed, like the front of the house, you can spend the first 30 minutes with Amy talking about ideas and then Amy can go back in her car and spend 30 minutes sketching a quick design on graph paper or her white board graph paper. Basically, she can do what you need within the allotted time.
- Amy will arrive ready to walk your property and listen to what you love and what you don’t.
- She will identify the existing trees, shrubs and perennials you have and give you specific pruning instructions. Amy doesn’t bring heavy pruning tools like saws and she isn’t able to prune branches more than about 3-4″. Amy will not haul away pruned plant material.
- Often Amy finds plants that are not happy growing in the location where they are and she will make recommendations on where in your yard you could transplant them.
- Depending on the time of year Amy will show you how to transplant perennials and divide them too for free plants!
- Amy will identify any invasive plants you have and tell you how to remove them.
- Amy spends most of her time with clients talking about adding plants. She does quick sketches on her graph paper white board. She can do full bed designs but that is handled separately. She currently doesn’t do full property designs but beds that are under 400 square feet she can sketch. She has to see the area before giving a quote on the cost to do a separate design. The designs are done at home by Amy by hand and the design cost includes her time to come back to you home and review the finished design. She usually only does drawings over the winter as her spring and summer are very busy.
- Amy does not do installations. She does not have staff or partnership with landscapers. If you know of a great Chicago based landscaper please let Amy know. She is always looking for great partners.
Virtual Coaching Session
- Amy resisted doing virtual appointments but after doing 50 appointments in 2024 they are great. Amy can give a lot of knowledge over zoom and give you design ideas and plant suggestions. Clients have been thrilled from British Columbia to Georgia. You also get a video recording of the call!
- You are paying for Amy’s time so be prepared with your priorities. A one hour session is usually enough to walk a typical home with a front, back and two side yards.
- Billing Structure:
- Hourly Rate: Services are billed at $150 per hour.
- Extended Time Billing: If our session exceeds the initial one-hour period, the additional time will be billed in 15-minute increments. Each 15-minute increment costs $30.
- Amy will use Zoom for virtual appointments so make sure you have Zoom installed on your phone before the coaching session starts.
- Amy will record the entire video call and give you a link to view it! The video is only available for 60 days after the session.
- When watching the video you also have the option to download the audio transcript which you can then keep forever.
- It is a good idea a few days before the session to walk your property and do a video call like Facetime with someone and make sure you have good WiFi or cell service all around your property. If you have some dead spots where the video quality cuts out, email Amy (amy@powersplants.com) some pictures and / or short videos of that section so just in case we can’t hear each other in that part of the yard, Amy can do a share screen of the pictures and continue the call.
- If you have good pictures of the areas you want to work on, you can email them to Amy ahead of your Zoom call and then you can do the Zoom on your laptop. This only works with lots of good pictures or even a video sent ahead of time. Email Amy: amy@powersplants.com
- As you walk Amy around your property she will evaluate the plants you have, give you pruning and maintenance guidance and plant ideas for those areas based on sun and water in that location.