Landscapers near you

Landscaping is not one trade. A design-build firm that regrades a yard and pours a patio rarely also runs mowing routes, and the crew that keeps your lawn cut is not usually the one that installs a retaining wall. Matching the company to the work is the first practical step, because each type carries different equipment, different crews and, in some states, a different license.

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the reference American growers use to decide what is worth planting. USDA describes it as the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which perennial plants are most likely to thrive at a location, and the 2023 edition is built on the average annual extreme minimum winter temperature, displayed as 10-degree Fahrenheit zones and 5-degree Fahrenheit half zones. You can find your own zone by entering your ZIP code in the quick search on the USDA map.

The zone is a survival test, not a planting calendar. It tells you whether a shrub is likely to come through a typical winter where you live; it says nothing about summer heat, humidity, rainfall, soil or how exposed a particular bed is. A landscaper who knows the area reads the zone alongside those local realities, which is why the same species can be a safe choice on one side of a city and a replacement-every-few-years plant on the other. Ask any pro proposing a plant list which zone they are designing for, and whether the plants are comfortably inside it or right at its edge.

Outdoor water use in American homes is substantial. EPA WaterSense reports that residential outdoor water use across the United States accounts for nearly 8 billion gallons of water each day, and that the average US household uses more water outdoors than for showering and washing clothes combined. Most of the waste is not dramatic: it is a controller nobody has reprogrammed since it was installed, running at the wrong time of day into ground that cannot absorb it.

Contractor licensing for landscaping is a state matter, and it genuinely varies. California is the clearest example of a state that licenses the trade directly: the Contractors State License Board issues a C-27 Landscaping Contractor classification, defined as a contractor who constructs, maintains, repairs, installs or subcontracts the development of landscape systems and facilities for public and private gardens and other areas designed to aesthetically, architecturally, horticulturally or functionally improve the grounds within or surrounding a structure or a tract or plot of land. Elsewhere the requirement may be a general contractor license, a local business registration, a separate pesticide applicator certification for lawn treatments, or nothing at all. Check your own state's contractor board rather than assuming the rule you read about somewhere else applies.

Anything that breaks ground brings a second obligation. 811 is the number to call before digging anywhere in the country, and state law sets the notice period: Washington's Utilities and Transportation Commission, for example, tells excavators to call 811 at least two business days before digging, notes that the service is provided free to the excavator, and says state law requires underground utilities to be located before digging. Fence posts, tree pits and irrigation trenches all qualify. Confirm the ticket was filed and that the marks are on the ground before the first shovel goes in.

In much of the country, how often you may water is set by the water utility rather than by the weather, and the rules are specific enough to change a design. Austin Water assigns each residential address one day a week for automatic irrigation systems, permitted only from midnight to 10 a.m. or from 7 p.m. to midnight, with even-numbered addresses watering Thursday and odd-numbered addresses Wednesday; hose-end sprinklers and drip irrigation get two days a week in the same hours, and violations carry penalties per occurrence. The City of Tampa assigns the day by the last digit of the street address and does not permit watering between 4 a.m. and 8 p.m. on any day, with a 30-day establishment schedule for a newly installed lawn before the normal restrictions apply again.

Restrictions also tighten and relax as conditions change, so a schedule that was in force last summer may not be the one in force now. Before signing off on a plan that depends on frequent watering, look up your own utility's current stage and tell the landscaper what it says. A design built around one watering day a week looks different from one built around three: more drip and less spray, larger mulched beds, plants grouped by water need, and turf limited to the part of the yard that is actually used.

Some of the toughest, cheapest, fastest-growing plants a crew can put in are the ones your state has banned. USDA's National Invasive Species Information Center is blunt about the patchwork: there is not an accepted standard for regulating all types of invasive species in all geographic areas, and each state has different statutes and administrative rules that may dictate its role in the management of invasive species. Alongside the state lists, USDA APHIS maintains a Federal Noxious Weed List intended to prevent the introduction into the United States of nonindigenous invasive plants.

The practical consequences are local. A vine or ornamental grass sold freely in one state may be prohibited across the line, and a plant that is merely aggressive in a cold state can take over a watershed in a warm one. Because the lists are amended regularly, the invasive species center advises referring directly to the regulating agencies for current rules. Ask your landscaper to confirm that nothing on the plan is listed in your state, and treat any plant marketed as spreading quickly and needing no care as a question rather than a selling point.

Most installations follow the same order: a site visit and measurements, a plan with a plant and materials list, then demolition and grading, then anything buried such as drainage and irrigation sleeves, then hardscape, then soil preparation and planting, and finally mulch, sod and a watering schedule handed to you in writing. Work that arrives out of that order tends to be redone, which is why a company that wants to plant before the grading is settled is worth questioning.

LokalMatch is where the first step happens. You describe the yard and the work once: the size of the lot, what you want changed, how the ground drains, your watering restrictions and your timeline. Landscapers serving your area receive that request, and the ones interested get in touch with you directly. Pros pay for the requests they receive; homeowners do not pay to use the service. LokalMatch does not perform any landscaping itself and does not set prices, and it does not vet, rank or recommend any company, so comparing quotes, checking licenses and insurance, and reading the contract remain yours to do.