Landscapes Designed for Montana Living.

Honestly, it depends on your yard more than on your plant list. The things that move the number most are how much dirt has to be moved, whether a machine can get into the space or everything goes through a gate by hand, irrigation, and how big you want the trees to start. A few beds and some sod is a very different project from a bare lot behind a new build.

That is why we come out and look rather than guessing over the phone. You get an itemized estimate, so if the number is higher than you hoped, you can see exactly which pieces to trim instead of starting over.

Both are normal. If you want to see it drawn before you commit, one of our in house designers will walk the property and put together a plan specific to your site. If you already have drawings from your architect or builder, send them over and we will price and build those. And if you just want the strip along the driveway sorted out, that does not need a formal design at all.

Tell us where you are and we will point you at the shortest route, rather than selling you a step you do not need.

More than people expect, and a lot less than a big garden centre will happily sell you. We lean hard on plants that are native or well adapted to this valley: the ones that have already made their peace with our winters, our wind, our alkaline soil, and a summer that can go weeks without rain.

The other half of it is placement. A south facing wall and the north side of the same house are effectively two different climates, and a plant that thrives in one will sulk in the other. Everything we put on a plan is something we have watched come through winters here, on real properties around town.

Yes, and it is some of our favourite work. A lot of Bozeman yards carry more turf than anybody actually uses, and every square foot of it wants water, mowing and fertilizer for the rest of its life. Trading the parts you never walk on for native grasses, perennials and shrubs cuts the water bill, cuts the mowing, and looks like it belongs here instead of looking like a golf course that wandered into Montana.

It does not have to be all or nothing, either. Keeping the patch of lawn where the kids or the dog actually play and converting the rest is the most common version, and usually the right one.

Constantly. Taking a bare lot behind a finished house and turning it into a yard is a big share of what we do: grading, topsoil, sod or seed, beds, trees and irrigation. We work with builders and directly with homeowners.

One tip worth more than it sounds: talk to us before the driveway and the hardscape go in. Grading and irrigation are dramatically cheaper to get right the first time than to retrofit around work that is already finished.

We install it, and we design it around what is actually being planted rather than dropping a generic grid over the whole yard. Lawn and beds go on separate zones, because they want completely different amounts of water and putting them together guarantees one of them is unhappy. Native plantings often want very little once they are established, and the system should reflect that.

Everything is built so it blows out cleanly in the fall, and we can handle the spring startup and the winterizing for you every year.

We can, and plenty of clients have us do both. Alongside mowing we offer full garden services: bed care, spring and fall cleanups, pruning and cutbacks. There is a real advantage to the crew looking after a yard being the crew that planted it, because they already know what is supposed to be there and what turned up on its own.

Earlier than feels necessary. Installing is weather bound in Montana, the season is short, and the calendar fills from the front. The people who get the dates they want are usually the ones who got their estimate done over the winter or in early spring.

If you are reading this in January, that is good timing, not late. Getting an estimate does not commit you to anything, it just holds a spot open.

We do, and a lot of full yard projects include some. Patios, boulder and retaining walls, fire pits, rock staircases and stonework are a big part of our year. There is more on our hardscape page, and if your project needs both, it is one estimate and one crew rather than two contractors to coordinate.