Planning guides
Plan With Confidence, Before You Call Anyone.
What we'd tell a friend about planning a landscape here: the rules, the seasons, the costs and the questions to ask. Written by our design team, with sources.
Planning Guides
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Planning guide · Hiring
Choosing a Landscape Design-Build Firm in Idaho
Registration and how to look a contractor up, insurance, the homeowner disclosure, lien waivers, contracts and payment schedules, warranties, titles and the questions to ask.
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Planning guide · How to hire
Design-Build or Bidding a Plan?
How design-build and design-bid-build work for a residential landscape, where the costs and risks sit, how design fees work, when bidding makes sense and what to ask either way.
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Planning guide · Hillside lots
Building on a Foothills Lot
Slope rules, walls, drainage, soils, wildfire, sun, wind and deer: what a Boise Foothills or Eagle hillside asks of a landscape, and how it moves the investment.
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Planning guide · HOA approval
Getting a Landscape Past Your HOA
CC&Rs and architectural committees, what to submit, timelines, common rules and what happens if you build without approval, with the Idaho law that applies.
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Planning guide · New homes
Landscaping a New Home: A Timeline
When to start, what the builder leaves you, HOA deadlines, final grading and drainage, calling 811, irrigation hookups, the seasons and building in phases.
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Planning guide · Water-wise design
Water-Wise Landscapes for the High Desert
Canal water and the irrigation season, hydrozones, drip, smart controllers, lawn where it earns its place, adapted plants and alkaline soil: how to design a Treasure Valley yard that uses water well.
What it costs
Ranges You Can Plan With.
Whole-project ranges for 2026, from the same model as the planner. Never line items: your real number is set in design.
- What Design-Build Costs in the Treasure ValleyThe investment guide and the planner
- What a Complete Backyard CostsRanges by size, slope and finish, and how to make a budget go further
- What a Hillside Landscape CostsTerraced rooms and hillside backyards, walls and engineering included
- What It Costs to Landscape a New HomeA new home's backyard or whole lot, from soil work to planting
- What an Outdoor Kitchen CostsPriced with the terrace, fire, shade and utilities around it
- What an Outdoor Living Space CostsFire terraces to shaded outdoor rooms, and what moves the range
- How We Build Our RangesScopes, factors, rounding and dates
The Planning Guide, by Email
How design-build works, what moves the investment, and the questions to ask any designer, in one email.
Keep Planning
Design consultation
Let's Design Your Yard.
A free design consultation, a clear process, and a designer who tells you honestly what's possible within your range.
Rather talk? Call or text (208) 907-9475 Mon–Fri 8am–5pm
What are you imagining?