How long a landscape project takes

Eight to sixteen weeks from first call to finished yard is the honest planning figure for a full landscape project in Folsom. Most of the surprise in that number is not in the building. It is in the weeks before anyone arrives with a machine.

Weeks 1 to 4: measure, draw, revise

A site walk, then a measured base plan showing grade, existing trees, drainage paths, utility locations, and sun angles. From that comes a concept, then a revision or two, then a final plan with a plant schedule and a materials list. Two to four weeks is normal, and the variable is almost always how quickly decisions come back rather than how quickly drawings go out.

This is the cheapest phase to spend time in. Changing a line on a drawing costs nothing. Changing a patio after the base rock is compacted costs several thousand dollars.

Weeks 3 to 8: approvals, running in parallel

• HOA architectural review. Where a front yard is visible from the street, most Folsom-area associations require it. Scaled plan, plant list, material samples. A month is a reasonable planning assumption and some associations meet less often than that.
• Building permit. Needed for retaining walls over four feet from the bottom of the footing, walls carrying a surcharge at any height, attached patio covers, and structures past the code size threshold. Engineering comes first, then plan check.
• MWELO documentation. Where the project is a new landscape of 500 square feet or more, or a rehabilitated landscape over 2,500 square feet, and requires a permit, plan check, or design review, the drawing set carries a water budget calculation and hydrozone plan.

These overlap with the tail of design, which is why the total programme is shorter than adding the phases end to end. They are also the reason a project that looks simple can take as long as one that is not.

Weeks 6 to 8: ordering and scheduling

Plant material gets ordered against the schedule, which matters more than people expect: a specified 24 inch box tree may need weeks of lead time and a substitution decided by phone on delivery day is a decision made badly. Paving material, block, and lighting fixtures get confirmed. The crew slot gets booked, and in this region the busiest windows are spring and early autumn.

The build, three to eight weeks

1. Days 1 to 4: demolition and haul. Old turf, old concrete, old irrigation. Noisy, dusty, and the phase where the yard looks worst.
2. Days 3 to 8: rough grading. Grade set to move water away from the house and toward a defined outlet. Everything after this depends on it being right.
3. Days 6 to 20: hardscape. Walls first, then patios and walkways. Base rock compacted in lifts, then the surface. The longest phase on most projects and the one with machines on site.
4. Days 16 to 24: irrigation. Mainline, valves, laterals, emitters, controller. Goes in after hardscape is set so nothing gets driven over.
5. Days 20 to 28: soil preparation and fine grade. Decompaction, amendment, and the finish contour of the beds.
6. Days 24 to 34: planting and mulch. Trees first, then shrubs, then the ground layer, then three inches of mulch across everything.
7. Final two days: lighting and handover. Fixtures aimed after dark, controller programmed to the current watering days, establishment schedule handed over in writing.

Those windows overlap, which is why a build with a wall, a patio, planting, and lighting runs six to eight weeks rather than the eleven you get by adding them up.

Season matters more than anything else

• Autumn, September to November. The best window in this climate. Planting goes into ground that is about to be watered by rain for several months, which cuts establishment watering and gets plants settled before their first Folsom July.
• Winter, December to February. Hardscape slows or stops in a wet week, and heavy soil cannot be worked properly when saturated. Planting itself is fine on dry days.
• Spring, March to May. The busiest booking window in the region. Good conditions, longer waits for a crew, and planting that will need attentive watering through its first summer.
• Summer, June to August. Concrete crews often have the most availability, and it is the worst time to plant. A common and sensible pattern is hardscape in summer, planting in October.

Planning backwards from a date

If the yard needs to be finished for something specific, count back rather than forward. Sixteen weeks before the date for a full project, twenty if a permitted wall or structure is in it. That puts the first conversation in June for an October finish, and in November for a spring one. Compressing the design phase is the usual response to a late start and it is the wrong one, because design is where the mistakes are cheap.