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Landscape Design & Installation in Seattle

Most disappointing yards are not badly built. They are built in the wrong order by people who were never in the room together — a patio poured before anyone knew where the water went, planting put in before the wall that would later be dug in behind it, lighting added last and trenched through both. Designing the whole property first costs less than any of those mistakes. We start with what you actually want the space to do, then work backwards through the things that have to be right underneath it: where the ground falls, where water collects, how sun moves across the lot through a Seattle year, and where a machine can physically reach. The drawing comes after that, not before.

Typical range
$8,000–$70,000 for a full design and installation
Best season
Design and estimating are best in January and February — by April the good crews in this city are committed for the season.
Payment
No deposit — you pay when the project is finished

Newly completed landscape with a grey paver patio, charcoal edging walls, turf lawn and freshly planted boxwood beds

What is included

What is included in our Seattle landscape design service

A yard designed as one thing, not six jobs stitched together.

  • A plan drawn for your lot

    Levels, falls, access and sun mapped before anything is designed. A layout that ignores a two-foot drop across the garden is a picture, not a plan.

  • Hardscape and planting as one job

    Surfaces, walls, beds and structures specified together so the base of one is not dug out through the roots of another six months later.

  • Planting that suits the aspect

    North-facing Seattle gardens and west-facing exposed ones want genuinely different plants. We plant for the position rather than the plant list.

  • Phasing, where the budget needs it

    A full design, built in stages you can afford, with the buried work — drainage, sleeves, conduit — done in stage one so later stages do not dig it back up.

  • Installation by the crew that priced it

    The people who walked the site build it. Nothing is handed to a subcontractor who was not part of the conversation.

Why people call us

Seattle landscape design problems we actually fix

  • A yard that was landscaped piecemeal and now reads as three unrelated ideas
  • A large garden nobody uses because there is nowhere to sit and nothing to walk to
  • Planting that died twice because it was chosen for a garden with different light
  • A new-build lot handed over as bare graded dirt
  • Front-of-house that lets the property down against the rest of the street
  • A design from someone who never checked whether a machine could reach the back garden

How we build it

Our Seattle landscape design process, in 5 stages

Newly completed landscape with a grey paver patio, charcoal edging walls, turf lawn and freshly planted boxwood beds

Seasonality. Design and estimating are best in January and February — by April the good crews in this city are committed for the season. Installation runs March to September for the hardscape stages, with planting best in autumn when roots establish through the wet months rather than fighting an August drought.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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

Landscape Design prices in Seattle

The spread is real, and it is mostly structural work rather than planting. A flat lot with good access needing surfaces, beds and lighting sits at the bottom. A sloped lot needing walls and drainage before anything visible can be built sits at the top. Design-only engagements are priced separately and credited against the build if you go ahead.

That is a market range, not a quote. Your price is fixed in writing after we have seen the site, and it does not move once agreed.

  • No down payment

    No deposit is required to start. Payment comes after the work is finished — not before.

  • Fixed price, agreed up front

    A fixed, accurate price is guaranteed before the job starts. We do not quote low and raise it mid-project.

  • 0% interest for up to 6 months

    A 0% interest payment plan is available for up to 6 months.

  • Warranty on hardscaping

    Hardscaping work carries a warranty. Vegetation is excluded.

Landscape Design we have built

28 Seattle landscape design projects of ours

In their words

What customers said about our landscape design work

Real Google reviews, unedited. We publish the ones that name the work rather than a generic five stars.

Caitlin Beaumont

April 2026

Fantastic experience - high-quality work, great communication, reliable, a pleasure to work with! Highly recommend.
Design & build

Ja La

April 2026

Alex was very helpful in helping me decide how to make changes in my backyard.
Backyard design

Nick Orchuk

October 2025

Aden Landscaping did a great job! Really easy to work with, professional, and very reasonably priced. Would highly recommend if you are looking to do a landscaping or deck
Landscaping & deck

Ievgeniia Nedogybchenko

August 2025

From start to finish, the entire process was smooth and well-organized. Our backyard at our home in Ballard has truly become our favorite place to relax and unwind
Backyard build — Ballard

Yony Cortez

July 2025

They're the best landscapers in Seattle. Hired them for my house near Queen Anne and they did exactly what I asked them to do. They did retaining walls and landscape design for me. I loved every detail. Highly recommended.
Retaining walls — Queen Anne

Blackstar Airport Car Service

June 2025

Aden Landscaping did an amazing job transforming our yard! The team was professional, on time, and paid great attention to detail. Our yard has never looked better, and the whole process was smooth from start to finish. Highly recommend!
Yard transformation

Vlada Vb

April 2025

I recently hired Aden landscaping for a complete overhaul of my yard, and I couldn’t be happier with the results. From the initial consultation to the final touches, the team was professional, knowledgeable, and incredibly detail-oriented. They took the time to understand my vision and offered creative suggestions that made everything even better than I imagined. Thank you so much for your amazing work!
Complete yard overhaul

Cristian Lungu

April 2025

I recently hired Aden for some landscaping work, and I’m very pleased with the results. The team was professional, punctual, and clearly experienced. They listened to my ideas, made great suggestions, and delivered exactly what I was looking for. The yard looks beautiful and well-maintained now. Highly recommend them for anyone looking to upgrade their outdoor space!
Landscaping

Aidar Bariev

April 2025

Alex is one of the best contractors I've worked with! He's very creative and really sweats the details, which shows in the final product. Our backyard turned out very functional and beautiful! Our house is built on a steep hill so it was hard for us to see how we would utilize the backyard space because we had two retaining walls that minimized the main area. Alex proposed a great solution that maximized the main area and we couldn't be happier.
Retaining walls on a steep lot

vladimir iltchenko

February 2025

Aden landscaping exceeded my expectations, the quality of NOT settling for the average was met. I had a vision, and we came together in making that vision tangible, hence delivering a beautiful end result. I definitely recommend Aden landscaping , and they will have me as a customer time and time again. Thank you so much !
Design & build

Viktorija Jasinskaite-Yusupov

October 2024

Please see before and after pictures. Looking at them not much I can add. It is a day and night difference on how my backyard looks. The team was professional, knows their job, and easy to communicate. They answered every question I had, gave me good recommendations and were very patient with me. I am looking forward to the future projects with this team.
Backyard transformation

Elaine Lew

August 2024

I normally don’t write reviews. However, after I had my front and backyards landscaped by Aden, several of neighbors came by and complemented the work and style of the project, they wanted to know who did it. As for me, I like the design aspect of it, nicely done. I think Aden landscaping can deliver the quality standard that meets your expectation.
Front & back landscaping

sophia appia

January 2023

We wanted to do a yard overhaul and were used to doing projects by ourselves.
Yard overhaul

Guneet Singh Kohli

November 2022

Alex and his team did high quality landscaping work for us. They are always ready to go the extra distance for their customers which we really appreciated. We would recommend them for any landscaping projects - big or small.
Landscaping

david fost

February 2013

we were referred to Aden Landscaping by our friends and we were highly satisfied. From the get go Eric and Alex were a pleasure to work with. Very professional, punctual and reliable. They gave us a great estimate which perfectly fit into our budget. They were on the job site everyday with a great attitude. We are really happy with the end result and will definitely recommend them to our friends and family.
Landscaping

Before you call

Common questions about landscape design in Seattle

Something not answered here? Call (425) 331-9811 and ask — we would rather talk it through than have you guess.

What does the design process actually produce?

A layout you can build from and price against: zones and levels set out, surfaces and materials specified, planting areas defined with the species that suit each aspect, and the buried work — drainage runs, irrigation sleeves, lighting conduit — positioned before anything covers them. It is a working document rather than an artist's impression. Where a rendering helps you picture a specific area we will produce one, but the parts that decide whether you like the finished garden are the dimensions and the levels, not the illustration.

Can I do the design now and build it in stages?

Yes, and for a lot of budgets it is the sensible route. The critical rule is that everything buried goes in during the first stage — drainage, irrigation sleeves under any hard surface, conduit for lighting — because retrofitting them means excavating through work you have already paid for. Beyond that, staging usually follows structure first: clearing, grade and walls in year one, surfaces in year two, planting and lighting in year three. We plan it that way from the start rather than pretending a phased build is the same as a full one.

How much of a Seattle garden should be lawn?

Less than most people start out assuming, and the reason is climate rather than fashion. A lawn in this city is shaded for much of the day on a typical lot, wet from October to April, and worn through wherever people actually walk. Under roughly 400 square feet it rarely thrives and always looks tired. The gardens that work here tend to hold a smaller, well-drained lawn or turf area with a genuine purpose, more paved surface than people expect, and planting deep enough that the boundary does something. That is a recommendation, not a rule — if you want a big lawn we will build one that drains.

Do you plant, or only build the hard landscaping?

Both, and the planting is specified rather than decorated. Plants get chosen for the aspect, the soil and the exposure of the specific spot — a west-facing West Seattle bed and a shaded north-facing Capitol Hill side return want almost nothing in common. Worth knowing where the warranty sits: hardscape work is covered, vegetation is excluded, because plants depend on watering and conditions after we leave. We will tell you what each planting needs to survive its first two summers, and we would rather specify something that lives than something that photographs well in June.

We just bought a new build with a bare graded lot. Where do you start?

With drainage and grade, almost always, 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 the garden work, and the topsoil left behind is frequently a thin skim over compacted subgrade that a machine has driven on for months. Planting into that fails. We check where water leaves the lot, decompact and improve the ground that will carry planting, and set the levels before a single surface goes down. It is the least photogenic stage and the one that decides the next twenty years.

Landscape lighting washing a retaining wall above a lit patio at dusk

Book a free design consultation.

We come out, look at the site properly, and put a fixed written price together. No deposit, and nothing changes once the price is agreed.

Usually done alongside

Services that go with landscape design

Hand-fitted natural flagstone patio in a fenced back garden

Paver Patios

A patio you can actually use nine months of the year.

  • Pavers
  • Poured concrete
  • Flagstone

$20–$50 per square foot installed

Two-tier block retaining wall with stone steps and new planting on a sloped side yard

Retaining Walls & Rockeries

Turn an unusable bank into flat, usable ground.

  • Interlocking block
  • Poured concrete
  • Natural rock & rockeries

$5–$45 per square foot of wall face

Retaining wall washed with warm landscape lighting at night above a lit patio and dining set

Landscape Lighting

Use and see the garden through eight months of dark evenings.

  • Path & step lighting
  • Uplighting & accent
  • Wall washing

$2,500–$9,000 for a typical residential system

Pop-up sprinkler head watering a lawn, shown beside a landscape bed lit at night

Irrigation & Sprinklers

Planting that survives August without you standing there with a hose.

  • Sprinkler installation
  • Drip irrigation
  • Zoning & controllers

$3,000–$9,000 for a typical residential system

Stone-faced raised planting beds filled with fresh soil beside a paved path

Garden Walls & Raised Beds

Planting at a height you can reach, in soil that stays put.

  • Raised planting beds
  • Terraced bed walls
  • Timber, block & stone

$55–$130 per linear foot

All 17 services →

Free estimate

Get a free Seattle landscape design estimate

Three minutes on the form. We reply during office hours — Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM.

Or call (425) 331-9811

Takes under a minute. No deposit is required to book work — you pay when the project is finished. Prefer to talk? Call (425) 331-9811

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