Front yard · Parkway · Slope
Front yard and parkway planting, in place of the lawn
We take up the lawn in front of the house and in the strip by the curb, and plant both for the heat your street gets.
Book online and we'll call you back the same business day.
Plenty of front lawns in Los Angeles are brown by August, and the parkway is often the first to give up. Planting can take their place. It needs drip while the roots take, then much less water. We plan the front yard and the parkway together, so one planting runs from the curb up to the porch steps.
Where this work goes on your lot
- The parkway. Low planting or decomposed granite where the grass was, with flat pads by the curb for car doors and a dry edge along the sidewalk.
- The front yard. The lawn taken up and planted with salvia, ceanothus, yarrow and grasses, with a path through it if you want one.
- A bank by the street. Deep-rooted plants on drip to hold the soil where the yard drops to the sidewalk.
You'll usually spot it from the sidewalk first:
- A lawn that goes brown by midsummer, even with the sprinklers running longer
- Spray landing on the sidewalk and the driveway more than on the grass
- A parkway worn to bare dirt where people step out of parked cars
- Water running down the gutter a few minutes after the sprinklers start
- A front lawn you only cross to reach the mailbox, mowed every week anyway
What we'd put in each spot
For the parkway we price planting or decomposed granite. For the front yard, your quote can show turf and planting for the same spot, each with its own price, and name the one we would choose there. If the front faces west and gets the full afternoon sun, we will usually point you to planting. The other side of that choice is on our artificial turf page.
One crew lead runs your whole job.
Whoever walks the lot with you at the free visit runs the build and the final walkthrough, and you get their direct number that day. A question about the slope or the side gate goes to the person who measured it.
Book online and we'll call you back the same business day.
- Free yard visit, booked within 3 business daysPaver and turf samples come with us.
- One quote with a price for each part of the yard
- Turf and planting priced side by side
- One crew lead, with a direct number
From the yard visit to the walkthrough
- The yard visit. We come within 3 business days. You show us the lawn and the parkway, and we measure both and look at how the old sprinklers are laid out.
- Your quote. By email within 1 business day of the visit, with the parkway and the front yard priced separately.
- Your start date. We confirm it in writing.
- The work. The old grass comes up with its roots and the soil is turned. Drip runs to every new plant, and bark mulch or decomposed granite covers the ground between them.
- Walkthrough. We go over the new front with you, bed by bed. What we build is covered for 1 year and what we plant for 12 weeks, with a check visit in that time.
What the price depends on
- How much lawn there is, in the front yard and in the parkway
- Planting or decomposed granite in the parkway, and planting or turf in the front yard
- How many plants, and the size they go in at
- Whether the old sprinkler lines can feed the drip, or new lines are needed
- Concrete or thick roots that have to come out with the grass
- Pads, a path or a border along the walk
What the front yard gets
- The old lawn taken up and replaced
- Plants picked for the heat your part of LA gets, each one on drip
- Decomposed granite, mulch or pads where people walk
- The parkway and the front yard planned as one planting
Questions about replacing the lawn
Will it look bare at first?
For a few months, yes. Young plants go in small, and you will see mulch between them through the first summer. Salvias and grasses usually fill out faster than shrubs such as ceanothus.
What goes on the ground between the plants?
Usually bark mulch. It keeps the soil cooler and slows the drying, and it breaks down into the soil over time. Where people walk or step out of a car, decomposed granite or flat pads hold up better.
When should the planting go in?
Fall through early spring, if you can choose. Cool weather lets the roots settle before the first hot spell. Summer planting works too, but young plants need closer watching in the heat.
What happens if a new plant dies?
Plants we put in are covered for 12 weeks. If one fails in that time, call us and we'll come out and replace it.
The jobs we design and build.
Book one visit for the whole yard.
It's free, and you'll hear what we'd do in every part of it.
Book online and we'll call you back the same business day.