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I will ask you a direct question. Please don't take it as an attack.
You mentioned that if you had sons or a partner, you might do things differently. That makes me think that for some reason you think you can not hire help, or that you can not retain help, or that you can not manage help.
That is a common thing in landscaping. In fact, I believe it is the biggest thing that limits growth of landscape companies. I also believe that that the majority of landscape companies have two to three workers and are limited to that by the maximum ability of the owner to manage his help. The other thing that I believe is that these owners who can not make it "over the hump" can not come to terms with the fact that they can not manage more than 2 or three guys. Instead they blame the work force, or keep buying equipment and offer more services, yet always shake down to the 2-3 man work force. I know this is a long aside, but it is something you have to confront within yourself in order to know if you can be successful at the business model you are talking about.
Here is the question:
Do you want to follow this business model because you do not believe you can manage your own help to get the work done?
If that is the case, you have to understand that managing someone else's help through that someone else is not necessarily easier. You are going to have to sign off on the work these guys do and release their money. You also have to be collecting that money from the client to make those payments. If you think that you can hire a sub, hand him the plan and collect a pieceof the money, you'll be disappointed and most likely in a lot of trouble.
Lower bidding contractors have a common theme. They make a bid to get a job. Then they spend the rest of their efforts in making that low price work by trying to buy the least expensive plants that meet the discription, use the least amount of mulch or topsoil, etc,.. On the other end, you are trying to make the best landscape you can to build your reputation and you are putting it in the hands of others.
There is a reason why landscape architects, and other who project manage, work in higher end markets. It is not just because they are snobs, it is because it is the only market that accepts this. That works on both ends as well. The client has the dough to pay someone to be their agent and manage the project for them in an area where they know little about (very key). From the subcontractor's point of view, this works when he is able to get high end jobs that are very profitable to him. He has to have the incentive to put up with all of the BS from the landscape architect (or PM) so that it is something worth while ($$).
Now, if you don't want the client to know that you are not doing the work, it tells me that you are not working as the client's agent. That is a mistake on your part because that is where the value of paying you extra is for the client. If you can do that it will work. If you want to run a landscape contracting business using other companies to do the work, it won't.
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