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No one is going to be able to tell you what to pay this designer. It is another one of these tough balancing acts that is difficult to quantify. Only you and the designer can balance it out.
I can give you some insight, having been a payrolled designer.
The first thing is how much you value this iindividual as a designer. Things to look for are whether he (or she, but I'll write he to save key strokes) is able to design to both the expectations of your clients and toward your abilities, reputation , and profits. That is going to depend on how well you are established as having a design identity or if you just need someone to kick out basic plans.
If you have a design identity, it will take a very skilled designer to pick up on exactly what that is as well as a personality that can put ego aside and follow it. Those kinds are not easy to find making them worth more to whomever can grab 'em. Generic type landscape designers are a dime a dozen. There are more of them than there are places for them to work.
Once you determine that you have someone capable of doing the type of design that you are needing, the next question is whether they will be meeting with the clients and selling the jobs or will you handle that? Drawing plans and selling jobs are two different things. If someone is a decent designer, but not good at selling the jobs, you will be losing valuable leads. Either way, you have to remember that the construction job is where the money is. Design as a separate profit making entity is not nearly as viable as a landscape contracting entity.
The value of design is its ability to sell jobs. The better the jobs that the designer is able to land for the contractor, the more valuable he is. But do not lose sight that the designer is worthless without the capability of the job being built. In other words, few people will pay good money to a landscape designer that is going to leave them with only a plan and no proposal from a reputable company to build it. The designer can not sell designs without being connected to a company that has a nice portfolio of built work. He needs you or someone like you to survive.
My suggestion is that you forego profit from design and let the designer get half of the design fee for jobs that don't sell and 100% for those that do sell. He'll have incentive to do designs that will sell. The other thing you need to do is maintain control by sitting down with him as he starts a project and stearing him in the direction you want to go in. Do the same before the plan leaves the office, so you don't get stuck having to do things you don't want to do.
The final thing is to determine how much to charge for design work so that you can satisfy your potential clients and pay the designer enough to make it worth his while. That is something only you can answer. It depends on your market, how long it takes your designer to produce the level of plan that is right for your market, and your ability to market design.
Sell design work up front on the jobs where it is truly necessary. Just write up proposals for those when it is not. Present a proposal for the construction of the design after the design is complete. It is far more effective to show a client what they can have before showing them what it costs. You can always revise downward from there, but you'll have them horny for the full job.
I don't know if any of that can be followed by anyone other than me. I don't know if it helps you, but I hope it does.
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