I wrote a bit about this on Instagram, but wanted to flesh out a few more thoughts here. If you're not an instagrammer (first, I tip my cap to you, because I long for that off grid choice), I'll repeat some of what I've already written.
1 - If you're investing in a landscape design and installation, you need a plan for maintenance. Without planning to properly care for your plants, they *will* look like crap. Probably sooner than you're anticipating.
2 - Be realistic about your maintenance plan. If you're like me and you want to save a dollar in every possible way, then you might be saying, "Well, I'll just take care of them." Weeeellllllllll, now you need to recognize how much time and education goes into that choice. While a qualified maintenance team may be able to get your yard to the place where it only needs bi-weekly care, if you're doing it on your own, you may need to plan for a few hours in the garden every week. It's weeding, pruning, treating, fertilizing, trimming, etc. And if you're me, includes a solid amount of speaking in gentle tones of encouragement to each plant because OMG just one five gallon plant cost me $28 and PLEASE CAN YOU JUST THRIVE HERE? Once you get realistic about the time and education commitment, you may decide hiring someone is a better route.
3 - Just because a company boasts "landscape maintenance" does NOT mean they will properly care for your landscape. In my experience, the vast majority of those companies are talking about mowing lawns, blowing lawns, and edging lawns. A mow & blow company is great if you'd rather not do that yourself - but they're often not the right choice for taking care of your more designed plant elements. So be judicious when you're hunting for a maintenance person/team.
4 - Finally - try to rid yourself of the idea that you're paying for something pointless. Instead, keep in mind how much you paid for your landscape to go in originally. Without the right care, you'll be paying that over, and over, and over. Plants are living things. It's not a piece of furniture you can pay for once and enjoy for the rest of it's life. It's all investment in the beauty of your home - both for your enjoyment and the overall curb appeal for your neighbors to try and live up to. ;)