Hiring a pro who won’t pollute and even harm your household is harder than you think.

Dear Avant Gardener, I applied for the Waterwise grant and was approved! My "grant" money is around $5,000. Now I'm on the search for someone to do the work. I put in my landscape plan kurapia, silver carpet, and sheep fescue for the ground cover. For my 575 square foot backyard, I also chose Texas sage, chives, peppermint, geranium, lemon verbena, African daisy, milkweed\butterfly flowers. For the front and side yard, I chose snow in summer, California fescue, and giant rye with mulch pathways and some stepping stones. I also have to put in a rain barrel; is that hard to do? Do I need to convert existing "swirly" sprinklers to drip? — Flower-Loving Artist, Thousand Oaks, CA

Bravo! You are on your way to a more ecological — and joyful — yard. Sadly, finding a local landscape pro to create a beautiful garden is difficult — and one who will accept a small installation project even more so. 

Most landscape contractors produce ugly and uninviting gardens — with sterile lawns, overblown hardscaping, mismatched exotic plants, and sparse arrangements in big beds of mulch or stone. Moreover, common horticultural practices harm humans, wildlife and the environment — from tilling the soil to recommending exotic plants to overusing mulch and fertilizer to destroying leaves and plant material to mowing lawns and blowing leaves to routinely applying herbicides and pesticides.

Outsource implementation, not responsibility.

People with unlimited means who want healthful and beautiful yards can hire pioneers in American ecological landscaping like Larry Weaner and Thomas Rainer to oversee everything from design through installation and maintenance. But until ecological practices are more widespread, most people will have to learn about more ecological practices to ensure those they hire employ them.

Unfortunately, your $5,000 budget is too small to hire a landscape architect, garden designer, or landscape contractor. The California Landscape Contractor Association calls a “small residential installation” anything less than $20,000. Below is a sample $5,000 installation; for their money, the owner got lots of mulch and few plants. Blech!

Allocating your budget

My recommendation is that you design the plantings, hire a local lawn service to remove your lawn with a sod remover, and spend as much of your budget as possible on drought-tolerant native plants. Densely covering your 1,000+ square feet of yard will require hundreds of plugs and small plants. As for the rest of your Waterwise grant responsibilities, order a rain barrel and install it yourself. And modify rather than replace your sprinklers; for how read about using the Watering Index.

If you like, the lawn service can also help install the plants and paths. This cost may be offset by a wholesale discount on plants and materials. However, resist the service’s advice about amending and tilling the soil; you want to pick plants suited to your existing soil. To find a lawn service, look for the names on trucks around your neighborhood and then interview a few. (Note: Local lawn services often lack an online presence.)

Natural aesthetics

Planning a garden is a challenging project, even for an artist like yourself. It requires envisioning color and form in five dimensions — with seasons and years added to the usual three. Starting with a limited list of easy-to-find local plants helps. Picking plants that evolved together in your area improves chances of survival and of making a beautiful, cohesive garden. Your current list of mostly forbs and grasses include many that are not California natives. My recommendation is to go back to the drawing board and pick an entirely California native plant palette — and consider adding shrubs and small trees for form if you don’t have them already.

Start with the Waterwise plant guide for your county, the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Water Wise Native Plant Guide and/or the interactive Calscape Garden Planner. To see live plants, visit the Water-Wise Home Demonstration at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and the extensive native plant nursery Matilija (where your lawn service can buy wholesale).

— The Avant Gardener

Why, How, Wow!

Why?

Even landscapers familiar with ecological practices often default to easy or popular but unhealthy practices. I was visiting my friend Jeff recently when his longtime landscaper arrived to discuss replacing a large area of turf with meadow. The landscaper had experience installing native gardens, although he had not previously recommended them to Jeff. When I asked how he intended to kill the turf, he said Roundup. Having read 3 Steps to Make a Meadow, Jeff knew you can also seed into closely mowed turf and requested this natural alternative.

How

When working on any home improvement project, the aim is to maximize the resulting subjective experience while minimizing the cost. You’ll probably start with something in mind, without much idea of cost. As you ask around and get a better idea of costs — and do push to get them — you may decide some things are not worth what they cost, even if you can afford them.

Be open to alternatives. For example, I initially wanted cobblestone paths in Rhode Island, but after pricing them out I settled on turf paths. That decision changed the nature of my design, which became less linear, and I am very happy with the result.

To help you get started, here are rough estimates of what various aspects of home landscaping cost. If you don’t have the minimums below, reframe your needs and/or consider DIY, including propagating your own plants.

Wow!

When assessing professional portfolios, look for lush native plantings, conscious use of turf for paths and play, and restrained hardscaping (e.g., one or two materials, preferably local). For a great example, see landscape and garden designer Sarita Jaccard’s portfolio. Jaccard, a Certified California Native Plant Landscaper, was recently profiled in Architectural Digest.

Related Resources

• Want a summary of ecological practices to discuss with contractors? See The Basics of Nature-Based LandCare, available in English and Spanish.

• Looking for sustainable landscape contractors nearby? Check Ecological Landscape Alliance, Homegrown National Park, and Organic Land Care. Or search for “residential” and “sustainable” at the American Society of Landscape Architects or your state landscape contractor association.

• Interested in installing a rain barrel? Email Info@RainBarrelsIntl.com to see if your city qualifies for a rebate. Southern Californians can place orders for local delivery or pickup at Rain Barrels Intl.

• Need financial help to transform your yard? Try Googling “[YOUR TOWN] turf replacement.”