Learn how planning a patio now can save you money later.
Every spring, Twin Cities homeowners face the same frustration: calling landscape companies in April only to be told "We're booked solid until July." By the time their patio finally gets installed in late summer, they've missed an entire season of outdoor entertaining. Meanwhile, their neighbors who planned ahead in February are already hosting backyard barbecues on their beautiful new outdoor living spaces.
At Minnesota Landscapes, we've been designing and installing custom paver patios throughout White Bear Lake, Shoreview, Woodbury, and the Twin Cities metro since 1996. Over nearly three decades, we've learned a crucial lesson: the decisions you make in February and early March directly determine whether you'll enjoy your new patio this summer—or wait until next year.
Smart homeowners use winter months for design planning, securing optimal spring installation slots, and making strategic decisions that can save thousands of dollars while ensuring a patio they'll love for decades.
Here's what most Twin Cities homeowners don't realize about patio installation scheduling:
Minnesota's installation season runs roughly from late April through October—but it's not as simple as "any time during those six months." Here's the reality:
Late April-May: Prime installation season. Temperatures are moderate, ground conditions are ideal, and plants are just beginning to grow (making installation around existing landscaping easier). This is when everyone who planned ahead wants their project completed.
June-July: Peak demand season. Everyone who waited until spring to start planning is now competing for installation slots. Heat makes installation more challenging for crews, and your new patio sits in full sun while you wait weeks or months for your turn.
August-September: Second-best installation window. Temperatures moderate again, but now you're competing with everyone who gave up on getting summer installation and just wants completion before fall.
October: Weather becomes unpredictable. Installation can still happen but carries more risk of delays.
Patrick Erkens, Minnesota Landscapes' lead designer and project manager since 2009, sees this pattern every year: "Homeowners who book design consultations in February and finalize designs by March typically get May installation. Those who wait until April to start planning? They're lucky to get September completion. The difference between February planning and April planning isn't weeks—it's often an entire season."
Creating a patio that perfectly fits your family's lifestyle, your property's topography, and your budget doesn't happen overnight. Minnesota Landscapes' comprehensive design process includes:
Initial Consultation (1-2 hours): We discuss your vision, lifestyle needs, budget parameters, and property challenges. This complimentary virtual consultation establishes whether we're the right fit and gives you initial perspective on what's possible.
Site Analysis (1-2 weeks): Patrick Erkens or Kelly Bremer visits your property to evaluate topography, drainage, sun exposure, soil conditions, existing plants, utilities, and access. This analysis is crucial for avoiding expensive surprises during installation.
Design Development (2-4 weeks): Our designers create detailed plans showing patio layout, material selections, drainage solutions, integration with existing landscaping, lighting placement, and more. This isn't a quick sketch—it's a comprehensive blueprint for your entire outdoor living space.
Design Refinement (1-2 weeks): You review plans, request modifications, and finalize every detail. Getting this right before installation begins is what prevents expensive change orders and regret.
Project Scheduling (varies): Once design is finalized, we schedule installation based on our calendar and your preferences.
Do the math: Even with an efficient process, you're looking at 6-8 weeks minimum from initial consultation to installation start. Begin in February, and you're installing in April or May. Wait until April to start, and you're installing in June or July—if you're lucky.
Rushing this process to get faster installation creates problems:
Kelly Bremer, Minnesota Landscapes' designer and plant manager, regularly sees the cost of rushed decisions: "When clients try to compress our design process to get faster installation, they inevitably face problems. Either we discover drainage issues during installation that require change orders, or they realize six months later that the patio is poorly placed and doesn't function well for their family. Proper February planning prevents these expensive mistakes."
February planning provides material advantages many homeowners never consider:
Guaranteed Material Availability: Premium paver manufacturers occasionally run short on popular colors and styles during peak season. February orders lock in your exact material selections months before summer shortages potentially occur.
Better Pricing: Some material suppliers offer pre-season pricing advantages for early orders. These savings—even 5-10% on materials—can offset your entire design fee.
More Selection Time: Rather than rushing material selection because installation is scheduled for next month, you have time to order samples, see them in different lighting conditions, and make confident choices.
Coordinated Orders: When we're planning your patio in February, we can coordinate material orders with any other landscape elements—retaining walls, walkways, fire pits—ensuring perfect color matching across your entire outdoor space.
Too many Twin Cities homeowners hire installation contractors who arbitrarily place patios wherever seems convenient. This approach—common with lower-cost competitors—creates expensive regrets:
Sun/Shade Issues: Patios placed without proper sun analysis end up roasting in afternoon sun (forcing you to add expensive pergolas or umbrellas) or sitting in perpetual shade (making them cold and unusable until late morning).
Drainage Disasters: Patios placed without topographic analysis direct water toward foundations, create standing water that breeds mosquitoes, or experience premature failure from poor drainage.
Access Problems: Patios installed without considering traffic flow from house to patio, from patio to yard, or from one outdoor zone to another create awkward movement patterns.
View Failures: Patios oriented poorly relative to pleasant views (sunsets, gardens, water features) miss opportunities that can't be fixed later.
Size Issues: Patios designed without understanding how you'll actually use them end up too small for your furniture and guests, or wastefully large for your actual needs.
Minnesota Landscapes' design-first approach, developed over nearly three decades serving White Bear Lake, Edina, Eden Prairie, and throughout the Twin Cities, addresses all these issues before a single paver is placed:
Lifestyle Analysis: We don't just ask "how big should your patio be?" We understand how you'll use it: large gatherings or intimate dinners? Cooking and entertaining or quiet morning coffee? Kids playing or adult conversation? Active lifestyle or relaxation focus?
Site-Specific Design: We analyze your property's unique conditions—topography, drainage patterns, sun exposure throughout the day and season, wind patterns, existing plants and trees, views worth featuring, eyesores to screen.
Integration Planning: Your patio isn't an isolated element. Our designs integrate tree removal (removing trees blocking ideal patio placement), landscape planting (strategic shrubs and perennials that complement and soften hardscaping), exterior lighting (illuminating your new space for evening enjoyment), drainage solutions (preventing water problems before they occur), and future expansion (planning for later additions like fire pits, pergolas, or outdoor kitchens).
Material Selection Guidance: We help you navigate paver choices—colors that complement your home and existing hardscape, textures that provide traction without being uncomfortable, sizes and patterns that fit your aesthetic and budget, and durability appropriate for Minnesota's harsh climate.
Budget Optimization: Our February design process allows time to explore options, adjust scope to fit budget, identify where to invest for maximum impact, and understand where economies can be achieved without compromising quality.
Patrick Erkens has designed hundreds of patios throughout the Twin Cities: "The difference between design-first and installation-first contractors is obvious. Our clients end up with patios that perfectly fit their families and properties—proper size, ideal placement, appropriate materials. Installation-first contractors create patios that technically function but don't actually work well for how people live."
Beyond scheduling advantages, February patio planning creates opportunities for strategic decisions that significantly reduce costs while improving results:
Many ideal patio locations are currently occupied by trees—overgrown evergreens, declining ash trees, or specimens that simply don't fit your vision. Coordinating tree removal with patio installation provides major advantages:
Better Pricing: Bundling tree removal with patio design often reduces overall costs compared to hiring separate contractors.
Optimal Timing: February tree removal (as covered in our recent blog) provides frozen ground access, better scheduling, and ideal preparation for spring patio installation.
Integrated Planning: Our designers understand how removing specific trees changes sun exposure, drainage patterns, and views—information crucial for optimal patio placement.
Single Project Management: One company handling both tree removal and patio installation means coordinated scheduling, unified accountability, and seamless execution.
No Site Damage: Trees removed in late winter don't damage your new patio during removal—because the patio isn't installed yet.
Smart February patio planning includes landscape elements that transform good patios into stunning outdoor living spaces:
Strategic Planting Plans: Kelly Bremer designs plantings that soften hardscape edges, provide privacy screening, add seasonal color, create natural boundaries, and integrate patio into overall landscape—all coordinated with patio placement and materials.
Lighting Design: Our exterior lighting specialists plan illumination during the design phase, running conduit during patio base preparation (much cheaper than retrofitting later), creating ambiance for evening entertaining, highlighting landscape features, and improving safety and security.
Drainage Solutions: Comprehensive drainage planning during February design prevents expensive problems: proper patio slope and grading, underground drainage systems, French drains where needed, downspout management, and erosion control.
February planning gives you time to make material decisions confidently:
Sample Evaluation: Order samples, see them next to your house in various lighting, compare options without installation deadlines looming, and get family consensus before committing.
Cost Comparison: Understand price differences between options, identify where premium materials add value, and determine where standard selections work fine.
Long-Term Thinking: Consider maintenance requirements, Minnesota climate durability, color stability over decades, and texture comfort for bare feet.
If your property requires permits or HOA approval:
Time for Approvals: February planning allows months for permit processing and HOA architectural review rather than rushing approvals and delaying installation.
Complete Documentation: Our detailed designs provide everything needed for permit applications and HOA submissions.
Addressing Concerns: Time to respond to questions, make required modifications, or appeal decisions without jeopardizing your installation schedule.
Here's the real financial impact of February planning for a typical 400-square-foot patio project:
The February planning advantage isn't just timing—it's typically $2,000-4,000 in savings through better pricing, fewer change orders, and optimal material selection.
The smartest February planning goes beyond just the patio itself. Minnesota Landscapes' comprehensive approach to exterior design creates cohesive outdoor living spaces:
Walkways and Access: Connecting patios to house, yard, and other zones with properly designed walkways that match materials, provide safe footing, create logical traffic flow, and complement overall design.
Fire Features: Planning for fire pits or fireplaces during initial design rather than awkwardly retrofitting later ensures proper placement, appropriate clearances, integrated seating areas, and utility access.
Outdoor Kitchens: If cooking and entertaining is important, planning kitchen elements during initial design optimizes layout, utility placement, counter height and working zones, and weather protection.
Privacy Screens: Strategic planting, fencing, or structures that provide privacy without creating a boxed-in feeling, planned with proper spacing and long-term growth in mind.
Seating Walls: Built-in seating using materials that match your patio, creating natural gathering spaces and eliminating furniture needs.
Water Features: Fountains, ponds, or streams that add ambiance, planned with proper drainage and filtration from the beginning.
Consider a recent Minnesota Landscapes project in Woodbury:
The Situation: Homeowners wanted a patio for summer entertaining but didn't contact us until late April. By then, our May and June schedules were fully booked.
The Options:
The Smart Choice: They decided to wait for proper September installation with comprehensive design—and used the extra time to think carefully about their needs, expand the project to include lighting and strategic plantings, and save additional funds for premium materials.
The Result: A stunning patio they love, installed perfectly, with no regrets or compromises. But they openly admit they wish they'd started in February to enjoy it all summer.
Even homeowners who start planning in February sometimes make mistakes that undermine their advantage:
Mistake #1: Shopping Quotes Instead of Choosing the Right Partner
Focusing solely on price rather than design quality, craftsmanship standards, and long-term relationship often means choosing the cheapest contractor—who delivers cheap results.
Mistake #2: Skipping Professional Design
Trying to save design fees by working with installation-only contractors inevitably costs more through poor placement, drainage problems, change orders, and regrets.
Mistake #3: Focusing Only on the Patio
Not considering how patio integrates with tree removal, landscape plantings, lighting, and future expansion creates disconnected results and expensive retrofitting.
Mistake #4: Unrealistic Budget Expectations
Quality patio installation from professional design-build companies costs more than installation-only contractors—because you're paying for design expertise, project management, craftsman quality, and long-term value. Homeowners who refuse to invest appropriately usually end up disappointed with contractor results or paying more overall when problems inevitably occur.
Mistake #5: Not Committing Once Design Is Complete
Completing February design but delaying installation commitment allows your optimal May slot to fill with other clients, defeating your entire timing advantage.
What sets Minnesota Landscapes apart from both installation-only contractors and separate designer/installer combinations?
Single-Source Accountability: One company handles everything from initial consultation through years of future maintenance—no finger-pointing between designer and installer.
Coordinated Expertise: Our designers understand installation realities, our installers execute designs precisely as planned, our ISA Certified Arborists coordinate tree removal with patio planning, and our lighting specialists integrate systems during base preparation.
Nearly Three Decades of Regional Experience: Since 1996, we've learned what works specifically in Minnesota's challenging climate—proper base depth, drainage requirements, material durability, and plant selections that complement hardscaping.
Complete Project Management: We handle permits, HOA approvals, material ordering, subcontractor coordination, inspection scheduling, and quality control—you get one point of contact throughout.
Long-Term Relationship Focus: We're not trying to sell you the biggest project possible right now. We want to be your outdoor living partner for decades—starting with a patio that's properly designed and executed, then expanding over the years as your needs and budget allow.
If you want to enjoy a new patio this summer rather than next summer, now is the time to start planning. Minnesota Landscapes offers complimentary virtual design consultations—a no-pressure conversation about your vision, your property, and how we might help you create the outdoor living space you've been dreaming about.
During your consultation, we'll:
There's no obligation—just honest conversation about whether Minnesota Landscapes is the right partner for your project.
Call 651-457-0000 or visit www.minnesotalandscapes.com to schedule your complimentary consultation.
Don't wait until April and join the spring rush. Smart Twin Cities homeowners are booking their consultations now for May installation.
Serving White Bear Lake, Shoreview, Woodbury, Apple Valley, Eden Prairie, Edina, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Mendota Heights, Eagan, Cottage Grove, Afton, Rosemount, Dellwood, and surrounding communities with design-first landscape solutions since 1996.
