Landscape Design in The Woodlands, TX: Plans You Can Build

A design-only package runs $500 to $2,500 depending on property size and scope, and it is credited against the project if you build with us. Where Boone's Landscaping installs, design is included: front yard plans run $5,000–$25,000, backyards $10,000–$50,000, complete properties $25,000–$150,000, and estate landscaping $75,000–$300,000 and up.

For a bed refresh, no. For anything involving grading, drainage, hardscape or a phased build, yes — because those decisions are expensive to reverse. The design is where you find out that the patio you wanted blocks the drainage route, or that the tree you love will lift the paving in ten years. Finding that on paper costs a revision; finding it on site costs a rebuild.

Yes, and it is a standard part of every landscape design here. We draw the design from the viewpoints you actually use — the patio door, the kitchen window, the approach from the street. Most clients change something at this stage, which is exactly the point. A drawing revision costs a few hours; moving a built terrace costs thousands.

Typically three to six weeks from the first consultation to a full specification package, depending on scope. Survey and concept take about a week, the design presentation another, and refinement plus the final drawing set the rest. Add two to six weeks on top where an HOA or ARC submission is required, because that timeline is not ours to control.

Regularly, and it shapes how we draw before a line is ever put down. The Woodlands specifically requires a DSC package and ARC sign-off ahead of construction, so we start by reading the covenants that apply to your particular village — requirements differ block to block more than most homeowners expect. The drawing set is then built to what that committee wants to see, and their turnaround time is scheduled in as a real phase of the project rather than an unplanned pause once the submission goes in.

Yes. The design-only package is $500 to $2,500 and includes scaled plans, a plant schedule with sizes and quantities, a materials specification and a grading and drainage plan. It is yours to build with whichever contractor you choose. If you decide to build with us, the fee is credited against the project.

Species that tolerate Beaumont clay, zone 9a summer heat and a wet spring — which is a narrower list than most catalogs suggest. Live oaks, yaupon holly, dwarf yaupon, Texas sage, muhly and gulf muhly grasses, salvias, and native perennials all perform reliably. The real work is matching each plant to the sun, shade and drainage of its specific bed, because the same species can thrive on one side of a house and struggle on the other.

Anything that shows how you use the space and what you like — saved photographs, a rough budget range, and any HOA documents you have. Most useful of all is honesty about maintenance: a design for someone who enjoys gardening looks very different from one designed for someone who wants their landscaping to look after itself. Getting that right at the consultation saves a revision cycle later.

Yes, and ideally before the pool is built. Planting, lighting, drainage, kitchens and fire features all involve trenching and structure that costs a fraction to install during construction compared with retrofitting into finished decking. Designing the pool and its surround together also gets the pool positioned for the view from inside the house, which is where you will look at it most often.

It is drawn before the planting. We record existing grades and where water currently goes, then design falls to a defined discharge point, adding French drains, area drains or dry creek beds where the grade alone cannot manage it. On flat Beaumont clay a landscape that ignores drainage will send runoff at the foundation, and no amount of good planting compensates for that.

A scaled master plan with every element dimensioned; a plant schedule listing species, install size and quantity; a materials specification; a grading and drainage plan with spot levels and a discharge point; lighting and irrigation layouts; and elevations from the key viewpoints. That set is enough for any competent contractor to price and build from without calling you to ask what you meant.

We are a landscaping contractor rather than a lender, so we do not carry financing in-house. What we do instead is design in phases that stand alone: a master plan drawn once, then built in stages you can budget for year by year. That way each phase looks finished on its own rather than leaving the property mid-project, and the whole landscaping still adds up to one coherent design.

Yes, and it is worth deciding that at design stage rather than later. A plan drawn as one piece can be built in stages if the order is planned: grade, drainage and any buried services first, then hardscape, then irrigation, then planting and lighting. Phasing in that order means nothing built in year one has to be lifted in year three. What does not work is designing a small area, then extending it twice, because the levels and the drainage were only ever solved for the first piece and the joins show. We mark the phase boundaries on the drawing so each one is a finished-looking stopping point rather than an obvious pause.