Landscaping is first and foremost a visual art. Those involved in the art as professionals and who wish to advertise their services can do no better than utilizing a web site to display their skills. A well executed Internet layout is ideal for addressing not only the visual appeal of a gardener or landscaper's professional skills; it is also the perfect forum for discussion of the many details that go into a quality landscaping effort.

Consider the alternatives. Radio advertising is pointless, television is usually too expensive - and at best, offers sixty seconds of exposure - and direct mail is also limited both by expense and by the amount of physical space provided for a professional to prove his or her worth. A website, by contrast, can go as deeply into your skills, your knowledge and your portfolio of accomplishments as you wish.

Every architectural firm of any size or stature uses the web to showcase the castles they have built. A landscaper's website can provide the same arresting photography found in the best architectural presentations. With the unlimited space available for photographs, landscape websites can illustrate the juxtaposition of the design as it relates to the structures that the completed landscaping surrounds.

Some landscaping websites even use video clips - and that does provide an added dimension to the relationship of landscaping and the surrounding structures. However a quality photographer can provide almost the same quality imagery with a collection of stills.

Your landscaping website can discuss the philosophy of landscaped design. It should, as a promotional point, emphasize the importance of consultation with the client. On a web page, you can not only discuss this point but show four different preliminary sketches provided to a client in a previous job that illustrate the way different landscaping approaches to the same structure can radically alter its exterior presentation.

A website can then go a step further and talk about the care and feeding of a landscaped site. Many homeowners that employ professional landscapers are concerned about the amount of weekly labor that the final result will require. A landscaper's Internet site can devote a page to the popular options available for home gardens that are discussed from a maintenance perspective.

A good landscaping or gardening website ought to have an advice section on plant care. It will provide the site with more depth and it will address issues that potential customers may be confronting with their current gardens. This section is less about low-maintenance gardens and more about how-to advice and tricks of the trade.

Protecting plants in winter, anchoring young plants or trees in windy areas, how to make runoff work as irrigation for your garden - there are endless issues that can make a landscaping website a source of quality information as well. This approach to the craft is going to pay off through the image of helpful professionalism that a quality advisory section provides.

Landscapers and gardeners are fortunate with regard to the opportunities that the Internet provides for them. The goal of their work is aesthetic pleasure: the beauty of a creatively planned and well tended garden and outdoor area. Nothing maximizes the attractive features of real estate - both indoors and out - like a website that combines the right imagery with just enough well written commentary.