Twenty-five questions, answered properly

Most projects here fall between $10,000 and $80,000. A front lawn conversion runs $8 to $18 per square foot installed. A back yard with a patio, planting, and lighting runs $20,000 to $40,000. A whole-lot design and build with walls and a shade structure runs $50,000 and up. Hardscape square footage drives the number far more than the plants do.

Because most of what separates them is buried. Base rock depth under paving, soil decompaction and amendment, drainage pipe and where it discharges, the drain rock assembly behind a wall, and plant container sizes are all invisible on handover day and all expensive. A quote that names them and one that does not describe different projects at the same address.

California caps the down payment on a home improvement contract at $1,000 or ten percent of the contract price, whichever is less. Progress payments after that are normal and tied to defined milestones in the contract. A request for half the money before anything starts sits outside that rule.

Both models are common here. Some companies fold the design cost into the installation price, which usually means the drawings belong to the project rather than to you if you do not proceed. Others charge a separate design fee and hand over the drawings either way. The written quote should say which arrangement applies.

Rarely in practice. Contractors buy from wholesale nurseries at prices retail customers do not see, and owner-supplied plants normally carry no establishment warranty from anyone. Where owner supply makes sense is a specific specimen the trade cannot source, and that belongs in writing before the order goes in.

Front yard work and shade planting are the two items that most reliably affect how a house presents, and a mature canopy on the west side measurably reduces summer cooling load. Recovery on a large back yard build is far less predictable, because a bespoke outdoor kitchen or structure appeals to a narrower set of buyers. Build the back yard for how you will use it.

Local banks and credit unions offer home improvement loans and HELOC products, and larger landscape projects are commonly funded that way rather than in cash. Compare at least two offers and get the terms in writing, the same discipline that applies to the landscape quote itself.

Eight to sixteen weeks from first call to finished yard. Design and revisions take two to four weeks, approvals overlap with that and often run a month on their own, and installation runs three to eight weeks. Work needing a building permit adds whatever the plan check queue is running.

Demolition, rough grade, hardscape, irrigation, soil preparation and fine grade, planting, mulch, then lighting and handover. Doing planting before hardscape means planting twice, which is the most common avoidable cost on a landscape project.

October and November, by a wide margin. Roots go into ground about to be watered by rain for several months, so the plant is established before it meets its first Folsom July. Spring planting works but costs more in establishment water and attention. Hardscape can be built any time of year.

Partly. Demolition and hardscape involve machines, base rock, and saw cutting, and the work zone is a genuine construction site during those phases. On most properties one route stays passable, though where the only access to the back is a side gate, expect that route to be occupied for the hardscape phase.

Ground that differs from what the quote assumed, which around here usually means rock or an old concrete footing. Changes decided mid-build, which are reasonable and always cost time. And weather, which in this climate means a wet January rather than anything in summer.

Yes, and it is common. The sequence that phases well is hardscape and irrigation mainline first, then planting, then structures and lighting. The sequence that phases badly is planting first, because every later phase drives equipment across it. Draw the whole lot, then build in stages.

Planting, irrigation, mulch, and most patios at grade do not need a building permit. Retaining walls generally do above four feet from the bottom of the footing, or at any height where they carry a surcharge. Attached patio covers, structures over the code size threshold, and gas or electrical runs to an outdoor kitchen also need permits. The City of Folsom building division confirms what a specific design requires.

Any load above the wall beyond the soil itself: a driveway, a structure, a pool, or a steep slope climbing away behind it. Where a surcharge exists, the standard permit exemption does not apply at any height, because the wall is carrying load the exemption never contemplated.

California's Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance applies to new landscapes of 500 square feet or more and rehabilitated landscapes over 2,500 square feet, where the project requires a permit, plan check, or design review. Below those thresholds, or with no permit trigger, it does not apply, which covers a great many ordinary residential yard renovations.

The Contractors State License Board issues the C-27 Landscaping Contractor classification. The minor-work exemption that allows small jobs to proceed unlicensed rose from $500 to $1,000 on January 1, 2025 under AB 2622, and it does not apply if the work requires a permit or if the person doing it employs anyone on the job. Any California licence can be looked up by name or number on the CSLB website.

That planting strip is normally in the public right of way even where the adjacent homeowner maintains it, which gives the city jurisdiction over removal and often over pruning. Before a design assumes a street tree is coming out, that question goes to the city, and the answer is worth having in writing.

In most Folsom associations, front yard changes visible from the street require architectural review. The usual submittal is a scaled plan, a plant list, and material samples, and a month is a reasonable planning assumption. Back yards generally need approval only for things visible above the fence line, such as shade structures.

Folsom assigns irrigation days by street address, and the assignment depends on the water conservation stage. Under the Stage 2 rules the city has published, odd-numbered addresses irrigate Tuesday and Saturday, even-numbered addresses Wednesday and Sunday, and nobody irrigates Monday, Thursday, or Friday. Drip is treated separately. The city water conservation page is where to confirm the current stage.

No, and it is the adjustment that most reliably makes things worse. Soil accepts water at a fixed rate, and once a sprinkler exceeds it the surplus runs off. Splitting the same total time into two or three shorter cycles with an hour between them puts the water into the root zone instead of the gutter.

Through their first two summers, yes, and regularly. Drought tolerance is a property of an established root system, not of a plant in a five gallon can. Regular drip through summer one, reduced through summer two, and by year three many natives on a Folsom planting plan need only occasional deep soaks.

Yes, if the programming, soil, and coverage are right. The better question is whether it earns its water. A lawn children or dogs use weekly does. A lawn nobody walks on is the most expensive surface on the property. Keeping the used part and converting the rest is usually the right answer.

In shade or a dog run, yes. As the main plane of a west-facing back yard, often not: it gets substantially hotter than living grass in direct summer sun and stays hot afterwards, and that is not fixable after installation.

Pressure varies enormously and is heaviest on lots backing onto open ground, particularly toward El Dorado Hills and Cameron Park. Aromatic Mediterranean shrubs and many stiff-leaved natives are usually left alone. Nothing is deer-proof in a dry year, and on a lot with real pressure the plan has to assume browsing.

Folsom first, then El Dorado Hills, Cameron Park, Orangevale, Fair Oaks, Gold River, Rancho Cordova, Citrus Heights, Roseville, Rocklin, and Loomis. Coverage thins past about forty minutes from Folsom, because a crew spending two hours a day driving finishes slower and prices higher.

No. The focus here is design and installation work, which is a different trade from weekly maintenance with different crews and different equipment. A new planting does come with an establishment watering schedule in writing, which covers the period that matters most.

Below roughly $3,000 to $4,000 most established landscape companies pass, because mobilisation and scheduling overhead does not pencil out. A single valve repair, one tree, or a small bed refresh is usually better served by a good local gardener or irrigation specialist.

Ring (916) 282-5150, or send the quote form with a few notes on the property. A local landscaping company walks the yard with you and follows up with a written price. Nothing is charged and nothing is owed.