Catherine Oranchak/Landscape Architect

Catherine Oranchak is a landscape architect, not a landscaping crew, and the distinction shapes everything about hiring her: what you are buying from her Arlington practice is drawings. Her Houzz profile prices design work between $10,000 and $100,000 and says outright that construction is not included. She describes a practice of more than 30 years, is listed on Houzz as a LEED accredited professional, and carries a Massachusetts women-business-enterprise certification. The profile covers landscape design, garden design, landscape plans, site planning and design consultation, with six posted projects, and lists licence numbers for Massachusetts (#968) and New York (#001510-1) — those numbers are Houzz's listing rather than anything checked against a state board. What clients said, they said in May 2017, and both said it warmly. One wrote that she met every deadline and budget concern, and that they were delighted with what she produced. The other, who bought a house with neglected gardens in 2009, described getting a detailed plan with drawings quickly and finding it perfect — writing as they went into their tenth summer in that garden. Two accounts, both five stars, both nine years old now. That is the honest shape of her written record: warm, specific, and dated. Her Arlington BBB listing is not accredited and its reviews tab shows none, and her Procore page sits unclaimed with nothing published on it beyond a category and a phone number. She is the right call if what you want is a real design document — planting plans, site layout, drawings a builder can work from — rather than someone to swing a shovel. Before engaging her, get the fee structure in writing given that $10,000 floor, pin down where design ends and construction bidding begins, and ask for a recent project you can go walk.