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Choosing a professional

Choosing a Landscaping Company

The barrier to entry in this trade is a truck and a trailer, and the range of competence is correspondingly wide. These are the checks that separate a maintenance crew from a company that can build something which is still standing in five years.

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Start here if you only read one paragraph. The failures in landscaping are slow. A base built too thin, a wall with no drainage behind it and a plant chosen outside its zone all look perfect on the day the crew leaves, and they fail two or three seasons later when nobody connects the two. That is why every check below is about what is written down beforehand and what the work looked like three years on — not about what the finished job looks like in a photograph.

What to look for in a local landscaping company

The barrier to entry here is a truck and a trailer, and the range of competence is correspondingly wide. These checks separate a maintenance crew from a local landscaping company that can build something that lasts.

The ten checks

  1. Licensing where required. Requirements vary widely — contractor licensing thresholds, irrigation licences and pesticide applicator licences are each separate in many states.
  2. Pesticide applicator licence. Anyone applying weed or pest control commercially generally needs a state licence. Ask for it specifically if chemical applications are part of the plan.
  3. Insurance. General liability and workers’ compensation. Tree work and machinery near a house make this non-optional.
  4. Certified arborist for tree work. Structural pruning and removals near buildings are a distinct discipline with its own certification. Ask before anyone climbs.
  5. A written scope. Species and sizes, quantities, base specification for paving, and what is being removed as well as installed.
  6. Drainage addressed. Either stated as adequate with a reason, or scoped and priced. Silence on water in a wet yard is a warning.
  7. Plant warranty. Whether plants are guaranteed, for how long, and what conditions — usually including watering — you must meet.
  8. Base specification in writing. For any paving or wall: aggregate depth, compaction and edge restraint. This is where corners get cut invisibly.
  9. Maintenance expectations. What the design needs annually, and whether you or they will be doing it. A design that outruns the maintenance fails slowly.
  10. Local references. Work in your area from two or three seasons ago, not last month. Landscaping looks good on the day it is installed.

The licence question, and why it often has no answer

Most hiring advice opens with “check they are licensed”, and in landscaping that instruction fails in a large part of the country, because many states license no landscaper as such. The same state may separately and strictly license anyone applying pesticides commercially, and in some places anyone installing irrigation, while the person building your retaining wall needs nothing at all. A national “licensed” badge in this category is frequently verifying something that does not exist.

So establish which regime applies to you first. Our 50-state table on landscaping licensing by state is exactly that, sourced and dated. Then:

  • Where a contractor licence exists, search the issuing board directly for the business name and check that it is current and in the right classification. Do not accept a number on a card.
  • Where a pesticide applicator licence applies, ask for the number and the category before anything is applied, and check it with the state agency. The detail is on lawn chemicals, licensing and labels.
  • Where no licence exists at all, the weight shifts entirely onto three things: insurance confirmed with the carrier, a written scope with the buried work specified, and references from two or three seasons ago that you actually call.

The written scope is the real protection

A licence is a fact about a company. A written scope is a fact about your project, and it is the only one of the two that can be enforced against the work. On anything paved or built, the lines below are the difference between two bids that look identical:

  • Base depth in inches, and what it is based on. ICPI publishes 4 inches as the minimum for a patio on well-drained soils and 6 inches for a residential driveway, and adds that “In colder climates, continually wet or weak soils will require that bases be at least 2 to 4 in. (50 to 100 mm) thicker.”
  • Subgrade compaction, as a method and a target — 98% of standard Proctor density, ASTM D698 for pedestrian work.
  • Bedding material: ASTM C33 or CSA A23.1 FA1 concrete sand, not screenings or stone dust.
  • Edge restraint, and how it is fixed.
  • Fall, as a percentage and a direction. ICPI’s minimum is 1.5%, running away from the house.
  • Plant schedule with species and sizes, not quantities alone.
  • Drainage: scoped and priced, or stated as adequate with a reason.
  • What is being removed as well as installed, and who disposes of it.

The complete version is on the base specification and reading a landscaping estimate.

What a comparable set of bids looks like

The row labels below are the useful part — most of them describe work that is buried by the time you see the finished yard.

LineCompany ACompany BCompany C
Base specificationStated depth + compactionNot statedStated depth + compaction
DrainageScoped and pricedNot mentionedAssessed, none needed
Plant listSpecies and sizesQuantities onlySpecies and sizes
Plant warranty1 seasonNone1 year with watering terms
Applicator licenceHeldSubcontractedHeld
Disposal includedYesExtraYes
Maintenance planOptional, pricedRequired 12 monthsOptional, priced

Example layout only. The three companies are fictional and the entries invented to illustrate the format; no real landscaper is rated above.

Where we are on verification, stated plainly

There are no company profiles or ratings on this site yet, because we could not yet support one. The framework below is what we are building — contractor and applicator licence records first, marketing last.

CheckStatus
Licence status checked against state licensing boards Performed today
Company identity and operating history from public records Performed today
Pesticide applicator licences confirmed with state agencies Not yet — shown as not done rather than implied
Insurance certificates confirmed with the carrier Not yet — shown as not done rather than implied
Homeowner reviews collected under a published policy Not yet — shown as not done rather than implied

Ticked rows are the checks we run today. Everything else is open, and a listing on somebody else’s directory closes none of them.

HyreYard will not describe any landscaping company as trusted, vetted, approved, certified or recommended while that is not established. If you find one of those words applied to a company anywhere on this site, it is a defect — tell us. The full position is on how we vet professionals.

Questions to ask on the visit

  • Which parts of this do you perform in-house, and which are subcontracted?
  • Who holds the licence and the insurance for the subcontracted parts?
  • Can you put the base depth, the compaction and the edge restraint in writing?
  • Where is the water going once this is built, and is any drainage work included?
  • What is the plant schedule — species and sizes, not just quantities?
  • Who is responsible for establishment watering, and what does that do to the warranty?
  • Is a permit needed, who pulls it, and who pays the fee?
  • Who calls 811 before anyone digs, and when?
  • What is the warranty on settlement and on plants specifically, for how long, and what voids it?
  • Can I have two references from work you did three seasons ago in this area?

Sources

  • ICPI Tech Spec 2 — Construction of Interlocking Concrete Pavements — Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute. Read as the PDF republished by an ICPI member distributor. ICPI has since merged into the Concrete Masonry & Hardscapes Association and icpi.org redirects to masonryandhardscapes.org, so the member mirror is the copy we were able to retrieve on 5 September 2026. Checked September 5, 2026.
  • ANSI A300 and Z133 standards — Tree Care Industry Association. tcia.org returned 403 to automated retrieval on 5 September 2026. The titles, scope and secretariat are recorded as consistently published by TCIA; no clause text is quoted here, because we did not read the standards themselves.

Related

Questions

How do I check whether a landscaping company is licensed?
Start by finding out whether your state licenses the work at all, because in a large part of the country it does not license landscaping as a trade. Our 50-state table on landscaping licensing by state sets out which regime applies where. Where a licence does exist, go to the issuing board’s own search rather than accepting a number on a business card or a claim on a website — the board is the only source that knows whether it is currently in force. Where no licence exists, the checks that carry the weight are insurance confirmed with the carrier, a written scope, and local references from two or three seasons ago.
What insurance should a landscaping company carry?
General liability and, where they have employees, workers’ compensation. Ask for a certificate issued directly by the insurer rather than a photocopy or a PDF forwarded by the contractor, and check the dates. This matters more in landscaping than in most trades because of three specific activities: tree work at height, machinery operating beside a house, and excavation near buried utilities. If an uninsured climber falls on your property, the exposure lands on you rather than on them, and no amount of good workmanship elsewhere compensates for it.
Do I need a certified arborist for tree work?
Structural pruning and removals near buildings are a distinct discipline from general landscaping and it is worth asking who is doing the work rather than who sold it. The consensus standards exist and are worth naming: ANSI A300 — the industry consensus standards for tree care operations, and ANSI Z133 — the safety requirements for arboricultural operations, applying to employers and employees engaged in tree work. Tree Care Industry Association is the secretariat for both. We record their titles and scope and quote no clause text. tcia.org returned 403 to automated retrieval on 5 September 2026. The titles, scope and secretariat are recorded as consistently published by TCIA; no clause text is quoted here, because we did not read the standards themselves. What you can do without reading either standard is decline anyone who proposes topping a tree — reducing height by cutting through the crown is damage rather than risk reduction, and it produces weakly attached regrowth.
How many quotes should I get?
Three is the conventional answer and it is only useful if all three are quoting the same project — which, without a plan or a written scope, they usually are not. The cheapest of three unmatched bids is simply the one that scoped least. You can fix this for free by writing the scope yourself and sending the identical document to each company; the lines are on reading a landscaping estimate. On a whole-yard project, a design does the same job more thoroughly.
What is the biggest warning sign?
Silence about water. On a site with a drainage problem, a proposal that neither prices drainage nor states that the existing drainage is adequate and why has either not looked or has decided not to mention it. Both are disqualifying, because water is the cause behind most repeated plant loss and most hardscape movement. After that: a refusal to put the base specification in writing, pressure to decide today, a demand for a large cash deposit, and a company that will not give you references from two or three seasons ago rather than last month.
Should I worry that they want a deposit?
A deposit for materials on a project of any size is normal practice. What is worth slowing down for is the proportion, the timing and what it buys. A deposit covering most of the project before anything has been delivered, a demand for cash, or a payment schedule with no link to milestones are all reasons to pause. Ask what the deposit is for specifically and have it written on the contract, not agreed on a doorstep.
Why do you tell me to ask for references from two seasons ago?
Because landscaping looks its best on the day it is installed and the failures in this trade are slow. A base built too thin looks perfect for two winters. A plant in the wrong zone survives one mild year. A wall with no drainage behind it holds until the first properly wet spring. A reference from last month tells you the crew turned up and tidied afterwards, which is worth knowing and is not the question. A reference from three seasons ago tells you whether the work was actually built.
Does HyreYard recommend any companies?
No, and we hold a standing promise not to. HyreYard will not describe any landscaping company as trusted, vetted, approved, certified or recommended while that is not something we have established — and how we vet professionals lists exactly which checks we perform today and which we openly do not. We publish no profiles, ratings or rankings, and nobody buys a position here, because there is no ranking to buy into.

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