Design & BuildView full sizePaver terrace, block wall and turf lawn
A sloping back garden cut into two usable levels — paver terrace at the top, level turf lawn below, and a block wall doing the work between them.
3 photos
Landscape Design · Bellevue
Landscape Design & Installation in Bellevue, WA
A Bellevue garden gives you enough space that the design question stops being how to fit things in and becomes how to give a large area structure. That is a harder problem than it sounds. The most common failure on these lots is not a shortage of budget but a scheme spread evenly across the whole property — a big lawn, a border around the edge, and nothing giving the eye a reason to move. What works here is dividing the space into areas that do different things, with real planting depth between them. The practical variables are the ground, which differs sharply between the hill lots and the Mercer Slough lowland, and the association, which frequently has views on the front.
- Typical range
- $8,000–$70,000 for a full design and installation
- From our base
- 20–35 minutes from Capitol Hill via I-90
- Ground here
- Glacial till across most of the city, with genuine peat and organic soils around the Mercer Slough basin and heavier wet ground on the low land toward Factoria.
Large concrete paver planks set into an artificial turf lawn beside a dark modern house
What we get called about
Landscape Design problems specific to Bellevue.
Bellevue lots are larger than Seattle's and the access is usually far better — a driveway a machine can work from changes the cost per square foot of everything. What varies enormously here is the ground. A Somerset hill lot needs walls and slope management; a property on the low land near Mercer Slough sits on peat and organic soils that behave nothing like till and need a foundation approach to match. Two Bellevue addresses ten minutes apart can require opposite answers, which is why we look at the ground before quoting rather than pricing by postcode.
- A large garden with a big lawn and a thin border that reads as empty
- A hill lot in Somerset where usable ground has to be terraced out of a fall
- An HOA with architectural standards covering front-of-house planting and materials
- A new-build lot handed over as compacted subgrade under a skim of topsoil
- Low ground near Mercer Slough where the soil behaves nothing like till
Worth knowing in Bellevue
Design the whole property even if you build a third of it. On a lot this size the expensive mistake is three good areas built at three different times that were never planned to relate to each other — and by then the route between them has usually been paved over.
The method
How we build landscape design, wherever the job is.
The sequence does not change between neighbourhoods — what changes is the ground it is applied to. Full detail on the landscape design service page.
- 01
Walk the property and listen
What you want to use it for, who else uses it, what you hate about it now. Most of the useful information comes out of the second half of that conversation.
- 02
Read the ground
Grade, drainage, soil, existing trees and where a machine can get in. This is the half of design that never appears in a photograph and decides most of what is possible.
- 03
Lay out zones before details
Where the paved area goes, how big it really needs to be, what the route through the garden is. Getting these wrong cannot be fixed with better planting.
- 04
Specify materials and price it
Real products, real quantities, and a fixed written price with the assumptions stated so you can see what is included.
- 05
Build in the right sequence
Clearing, drainage, structural, surfaces, irrigation and lighting sleeves, then planting and finishes. The order is the difference between a build and a rework.
What it costs in Bellevue
$8,000–$70,000 for a full design and installation
Bellevue design and installation typically runs $8,000 to $70,000, sitting higher in that range than a Seattle equivalent simply because there is more ground. The offsetting factor is access: a machine reaching the work and material staged beside it lowers the cost per square metre of everything structural, so the money goes further than the total suggests.
No down payment
You pay after the project is fully completed.
Fixed price, agreed up front
The estimate you sign is the price you pay.
0% interest for up to 6 months
Spread the cost with no interest.
Warranty on hardscaping
Covers hardscape work; vegetation excluded.
Local questions
Landscape Design in Bellevue, answered.
General questions about this service are on the service page. These are the ones that only come up here.
How do you give a large Bellevue garden structure?
By dividing it into areas with different jobs rather than treating it as one space. The default on a big lot is a large lawn with a border, and the result is a garden that looks impressive from the window and gets used in one corner. What changes it is a paved area sized properly for how you entertain, a lawn or turf area with a defined shape and purpose, planting deep enough to give the boundary presence, and a genuine route connecting them. On a lot this size there is also room for the thing most gardens cannot fit — somewhere to walk to.
Will my HOA restrict the design?
Frequently the front of it, rarely the back. HOA coverage in Bellevue is far more extensive than in Seattle, and where one applies it commonly governs front-of-house appearance, hard surface materials, fence height and sometimes tree removal — so the frontage design is genuinely constrained while a screened rear garden usually is not. It is a scheduling item rather than an obstacle. We ask at the first visit and produce drawings and material specifications in a form that can go to a board without being redrawn, then plan the build behind approval.
We have just bought a new build with a bare graded lot. Where do you start?
With drainage and grade, and it is worth resisting the urge to go straight to the visible parts. Developer grading is done to shed water off the building fast, not to make a garden work, and the topsoil left behind is frequently a thin skim over subgrade that heavy plant has driven across for months. Planting into that fails. We establish where water leaves the lot, decompact and improve the ground that will carry planting, and set the levels before any surface goes down. It is the least photogenic stage and it decides the next twenty years.
Does the ground differ across Bellevue?
Significantly, and it changes the design rather than just the construction. Most of the city is glacial till, where the familiar rules apply and drainage carries the hardscape. The low ground in and around the Mercer Slough basin has peat and organic soils, which compress under load in a way till does not — that affects footings, patio bases and what planting will thrive. Somerset and the Cougar Mountain flank are hill lots where the design starts with holding grade. Two Bellevue addresses fifteen minutes apart can genuinely need opposite approaches.
Serving Bellevue and surrounding neighbourhoods
20–35 minutes from Capitol Hill via I-90.
Downtown Bellevue · Bridle Trails · Crossroads · Eastgate · Factoria · Lake Hills · Newport Hills · Somerset · West Bellevue · Enatai · Wilburton · Newport Shores
98004 · 98005 · 98006 · 98007 · 98008
Recent work
Built in Bellevue.
Design & BuildView full size
Paver PatioView full sizeChequerboard slab patio by the playhouse
Large-format slabs laid as a chequerboard, squaring off the corner of the garden the playhouse stands in.
WalkwaysView full sizeSide-yard walk behind a bamboo screen
The strip down the side of the house nobody uses, turned into a proper route with a golden bamboo screen for privacy.
Retaining WallsView full sizeStone-faced front wall, mid-build
The crew setting veneer on the front terrace of a new build. The block core does the structural work and the stone is what you end up looking at — two different jobs, done in the right order.
Book a free design consultation in Bellevue.
We come out, look at the ground, and put a fixed written price together. No deposit, and it does not change once agreed.
Other services in Bellevue
Landscape Design in nearby areas
Free estimate
Landscape Design in Bellevue — get a price.
Three minutes on the form. We reply during office hours, Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM, and we come out and look at the site before quoting anything.
Or call (425) 533-9734
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