The completed Mill Creek project in Magnolia, Texas — a multi-gable patio cover with exposed timber trusses and a white pergola behind a sunken fire pit ringed by Adirondack chairs on a raised retaining wall terrace

25 / Planting

Houston Garden Landscaping With Plants That Survive Here

General landscape installation is the planting side of a yard: cutting and edging the beds, preparing soil that is usually compacted clay, and putting in trees, shrubs, perennials, and seasonal color as one scheme rather than a plant at a time. Species are picked for the size they reach and the sun the bed actually gets, massed instead of dotted, and mulched to hold moisture through a Houston summer.

01 — Scope

What’s included in the work.

Every project has the same core scope, adapted to the specific property and program.

01
Bed Layout & Edging
Beds cut to a drawn line rather than an approximate one, with steel, stone, or spade edging that holds the shape once the mulch settles.
02
Soil Preparation
Compacted clay broken up and amended to the depth the planting needs, with beds raised where water would otherwise sit in them.
03
Plant Selection
Trees, shrubs, perennials, and grasses chosen for the light each bed receives, the room they have at mature size, and what survives a Houston August.
04
Installation & Massing
Planting set out in masses and layers so the scheme reads as a design from the street, with specimen material placed first and the rest built around it.
05
Mulch & Finish
Hardwood mulch or decomposed granite laid to depth, beds finished clean against lawn and paving, and the site cleared before we leave.
06
Irrigation & Establishment
Drip and bubblers added or adjusted so new planting is actually watered, with a schedule for the weeks that decide whether it takes.

02 — Craft

Everything you see.
Everything you don’t.

What separates a landscape that lasts from one that fails in two summers is the work you never see — grade, drainage, soil preparation, and compacted base. On Houston clay, that is most of the job.

And what you do see — the joint lines, the bed edges, the level of a terrace against the house — we hold to the same standard.

03 — Investment

Roughly what it costs.

What work of this kind costs is decided by the property: how much of it there is, what it is built from, and what the ground underneath needs before anything goes on top. Below is what actually moves that number, so you know what we will be asking about.

We confirm a clear investment range in the initial consultation and issue a detailed proposal after the design phase.

How pricing works

Priced after we walk the property.

Investment scales with square footage, materials, how much grading and drainage the site needs, and equipment access. You get a clear range at the consultation and a detailed proposal after the design phase.

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