How much does landscaping cost?

The sum of your bid’s lines for your lot, access and soil. HyreYard publishes no national average. Ask bidders to break the price into hardscape, plants, soil and irrigation, and add them here.

Why not a cost per square foot?

A planting bed and a retaining wall do not scale the same way. Keep hardscape, plants, soil and irrigation as separate lines so you can see what each bid includes.

What goes in the hardscape line?

Patios, walks, walls and steps, with the base under them. The paver and retaining wall calculators check those bids before you add them here.

Why is soil its own line?

Importing soil, amending it and hauling spoil are volume jobs, priced by the cubic yard. They are not inside a plant price unless the bid says so.

How much contingency should I hold?

Your own figure; the field starts at 0 because no published rule fits every yard. Hold it yourself, outside the contract, and raise it for unknown soil, slopes or utilities.

Does this include design fees and permits?

Only if you add them to a line. Put a design fee or a wall permit into hardscape, or raise the contingency.

No. It adds figures you typed. Use it to see whether two bids priced the same lines.

HyreYard tools

Landscaping budget estimator

Type the hardscape, plants, soil and irrigation lines from your bids, and the contingency you want to hold. Compare two bids line by line.

50% of irrigation water can be wasted EPA WaterSense: “as much as 50 percent of this water is wasted due to overwatering caused by inefficiencies in irrigation methods and systems.” The design you pay for once sets that running cost every year.

A landscaping budget = hardscape + plants + soil and grading + irrigation, plus a contingency you hold. $30,500 of bid lines with a 10% contingency is $33,550. HyreYard publishes no national price: ask each bidder to fill the same four lines so you can compare them.

Build your budget

Arithmetic on your figures. Nothing is stored or emailed.

— Budget on your figures

— Hardscape

— Plants, soil and irrigation

What this assumed —

A budget from your bids, not a quote.

Worked example

One project, run through the estimator

A patio, beds and irrigation

$18,000 hardscape, $6,000 plants, $2,500 soil and grading, $4,000 irrigation from a bid, with a 10% contingency you choose to hold. Lines add to $30,500; with contingency, $33,550. The figures are examples; type your own.

Two bids side by side

Run each bid through the same four lines. If one bid has no soil line and the other has $2,500, ask the first what it assumed about the soil.

What belongs inside each line

The estimator adds four numbers. This is what should sit behind each one on a bid.

Line	What should be inside it	If it is missing
Hardscape	Patios, walks, walls and steps, with the dig, compacted base, bedding and edge restraint stated in inches. ICPI’s minimum base under a patio is 4 in.	A surface price with no base behind it cannot be compared with one that has it.
Plants	A list: species, container size, quantity and any warranty.	“Shrubs” as an allowance is settled later as a bill.
Soil and grading	Cubic yards imported, what is amended and with what, and spoil haul-away.	On a scraped builder lot, soil can turn up later as an extra.
Irrigation	Zones by plant water need, the controller, and a rain or soil-moisture shut-off.	One zone for lawn and beds waters one of them wrong.
Drainage	Where water goes now and after the work.	Fixing drainage under finished paving means lifting the paving.
Access and disposal	How machines reach the work and where spoil and green waste go.	Tight access can turn machine work into hand work on the day.
Establishment	Who waters new plants, how often, and what happens if they die.	Replacements at your cost.
Contingency	A percentage you hold and spend.	A contingency inside the contract belongs to the contractor.

HyreYard’s checklist, not a price list or a contract review.

The design also sets what you pay every year

The install is paid once. Water, mowing and replacements are paid every year, and the design decides them.

The scale. US Environmental Protection Agency, WaterSense: residential outdoor use is “nearly 8 billion gallons of water each day, mainly for landscape irrigation”. The average American household uses more water outdoors than it uses for showering and washing clothes combined.

Much of it is wasted. “as much as 50 percent of this water is wasted due to overwatering caused by inefficiencies in irrigation methods and systems.”

So ask at design time. How much of the yard will be watered, on how many zones, and on what controller? A smaller watered area lowers the bill every summer.

The lawn water cost calculator prices a watered area at your own utility rate.

The hardiness map changed in 2023

A plant list drawn from an older zone habit may be working from a map that has changed.

What changed. USDA Agricultural Research Service released a new Plant Hardiness Zone Map on 15 November 2023, built from 13,412 weather stations over 1991 to 2020, up from 7,983. “About half of the country shifted to the next warmer half zone, and the other half of the country remained in the same half zone.”

The agency’s caveat. The developers cautioned against treating the changes as a reliable indicator of global climate change, because they also reflect more sophisticated mapping methods, many more weather stations, and the inherently variable nature of extreme minimum temperatures.

What the map shows. The map plots the average annual extreme minimum winter temperature: a single cold night in an average year. It says nothing about summer heat, humidity, rainfall, soil, or how long your winter lasts.

What to ask. Which zone the design used, and how each plant handles your summers and your soil, not only your coldest night.

Check the soil before the plant list

Look it up. Web Soil Survey, from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, shows the mapped soil at your address, its drainage class and its hydrologic soil group, free.

Why it changes the budget. Poorly drained or compacted soil can mean amendment, grading or drainage lines, and plants chosen for wet ground.

Dig a test hole. A foot deep, filled twice with water. If the second fill is still there hours later, raise it with the designer.

Before you trust a landscaping budget

Look up your soil on Web Soil Survey
Drainage class and hydrologic soil group, free.
Check your zone on the current map
The USDA map released 15 November 2023.
Find your water rate
It is on your bill, and it prices the running cost.
Ask for the plant list by species, size and quantity
An allowance is not a price.
Ask how irrigation is zoned
Lawn and beds on separate zones, with a shut-off.
Ask for the hardscape base depth in inches
ICPI’s patio minimum is 4 in on well-drained soil.
Ask who waters new planting while it establishes
And what happens if plants die in that time.

Words on a landscaping quote

Hardscape: Paving, walls, steps and other built surfaces.
Softscape: Plants, soil, mulch and lawn.
Allowance: A placeholder sum, not a price. It is settled later against what is bought.
Hydrozoning: Grouping plants by water need so each irrigation zone matches its plants.
Establishment period: The first season or two when new plants need extra water.
Contingency: Money you set aside for surprises, held by you.

What this estimator cannot see

Prices. HyreYard holds no landscaping prices, so every line starts at 0.

Your lot. Access, slope, soil, trees and utilities decide what the lines should hold.

Less can be the answer. A smaller watered area and fewer, better-placed plants can cost less to install and to run. HyreYard does not landscape yards. Figures checked 5 September 2026.

Questions this calculator answers

How much does landscaping cost?: The sum of your bid’s lines for your lot, access and soil. HyreYard publishes no national average. Ask bidders to break the price into hardscape, plants, soil and irrigation, and add them here.
Why not a cost per square foot?: A planting bed and a retaining wall do not scale the same way. Keep hardscape, plants, soil and irrigation as separate lines so you can see what each bid includes.
What goes in the hardscape line?: Patios, walks, walls and steps, with the base under them. The paver and retaining wall calculators check those bids before you add them here.
Why is soil its own line?: Importing soil, amending it and hauling spoil are volume jobs, priced by the cubic yard. They are not inside a plant price unless the bid says so.
How much contingency should I hold?: Your own figure; the field starts at 0 because no published rule fits every yard. Hold it yourself, outside the contract, and raise it for unknown soil, slopes or utilities.
Does this include design fees and permits?: Only if you add them to a line. Put a design fee or a wall permit into hardscape, or raise the contingency.
Is this a quote?: No. It adds figures you typed. Use it to see whether two bids priced the same lines.

Sources and methodology

Figures dated September 5, 2026. Last reviewed September 18, 2026.

WaterSense labeled controllers (US Environmental Protection Agency, retrieved September 5, 2026). Outdoor water use and the share wasted through overwatering.
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (2023) (USDA Agricultural Research Service, retrieved September 5, 2026). The 2023 revision and the agency’s own caveat.
Web Soil Survey (USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, retrieved September 5, 2026). Mapped soil and drainage class for your lot.
ICPI Tech Spec 2, Construction of Interlocking Concrete Pavements (Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute, retrieved September 5, 2026). Minimum base under a patio.
How to avoid a home improvement scam (Federal Trade Commission, retrieved August 26, 2026). Get written, itemized estimates.

What landscaping costs What moves a landscaping price, and what to ask.
Reading a landscaping estimate How to read a landscaping quote.
Paver calculator Pavers and base before you type a patio line.
Retaining wall calculator Check a wall bid before it goes in hardscape.
Lawn water cost calculator What the watered area will cost each year.
Lawn care cost study Our sourced look at what lawn care costs.

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