Awbrey Butte · terraced slope
Plate II — Two boulder courses set with an excavator turned an 11-foot drop into two usable terraces. Eleven days on site.
Issue No. 14 — High Desert Gardens
Yards built for pumice, frost, and a short season.
We design and build residential landscapes in Bend — paver patios, boulder walls, drip irrigation and plantings that survive a 6a winter. One drawing set, one crew, one contract.
Plate I — Awbrey Butte rear yard, photographed the September evening we handed over the keys.
- 412
- Bend-area properties designed & built since 2009
- 60%
- Of Bend's water goes outdoors — we design against that
- 2 yr
- Hardscape workmanship warranty, 1 yr plant establishment
- 4.8★
- Across 137 Google reviews and our Houzz profile
From the drafting table
The lot is rock. That is the whole design problem.
By Marta Ruiz-Keene, LCP · Principal Designer
Most Bend yards start the same way: eight inches of construction fill over pumice, cinders, and a basalt shelf that shows up exactly where you wanted the patio. The builder graded it flat, seeded nothing, and left. Then the HOA letter arrives with a date on it.
What we do first is not draw. We dig test holes, find the shelf, shoot grades toward the property line, and read your July water bill. Only then does a plan mean anything. Rock excavation and imported topsoil are line items on nearly every proposal we write — better to price them in April than discover them in July.
The second constraint is the calendar. Last frost lands somewhere between May 15 and early June; first frost can arrive in late September. That leaves roughly 100 to 130 workable days. A full-yard build in Discovery West or NorthWest Crossing needs to be on the board by February to be planted before the fall window closes.
The third is water. New city code bans irrigated turf in new planter strips, and rates changed July 1, 2025. Every plan we draw gets a drip-and-MP-rotator layout with a smart controller — not because it's fashionable, but because we've watched clients cut summer usage by a third.
— Marta has drawn Bend landscapes for sixteen years.
Contents
Six things we draw and build.
Design is billed as a retainer ($1,800–$4,500 depending on lot size and grade change) and credited in full toward your build. No coupons, no "any size job."
01
Landscape design
Site analysis, grading and drainage plan, planting plan, construction documents, and 3D views paired to the same camera angle as the build. HOA and ARC submittals included for Discovery West, Tetherow and Broken Top.
02Paver patios & walkways
Compacted 3/4-minus base to full subgrade depth, bedding sand, cut edges, polymeric joints. Built to sit still through freeze-thaw instead of heaving by the third March.
03Native & drought-tolerant planting
Rabbitbrush, blue avena, kinnikinnick, serviceberry, penstemon — a plant palette chosen for pumice soil and Zone 6a nights, set in early fall or April–May when roots actually take.
04Irrigation systems
Drip and MP-rotator zoning, master valve, backflow assembly, WiFi controller programmed by zone and exposure. Fall blowout and spring startup scheduled before you have to think about it.
05Outdoor kitchens & fire features
Gas fire tables, basalt-clad fire pits, counters and grills plumbed and framed so the space still works on a 38-degree September evening — which is the point of building it here.
06Landscape lighting
Low-voltage path, grazing and uplight on outcroppings and specimen pines. Transformer sized with 20% headroom so the system can grow with the next phase.
Full scope, pricing bands and proof — read the services file.
Start with a walk-throughPortfolio · Plates II–IV
Three yards, start to finish.
NorthWest Crossing · water-wise front
Plate III — Turf removed, rock mulch and drip in. The homeowner's July bill dropped 34% the following summer.
Discovery West · outdoor kitchen
Plate IV — New build, dirt lot in March, HOA sign-off by the first week of June. Kitchen, fire table and 640 sq ft of pavers.
“Every plant the last guy put in died over winter. I stopped trusting anyone with a plant list.”
— Homeowner, River's Edge · what she said on the first walk-through
So we hand you the list.
Every plan leaves with a printed plant schedule: botanical name, size at install, mature spread, water zone, and the month it was planted. If something in the 1-year window doesn't take, we replace it and note why in your file.
Nothing gets specified that we haven't watched come through a Bend winter on another property.
Method
How a project moves, February to October.
One team from the first stake to the final walk-through. You sign one contract, not four.
The site walk
Ninety minutes on your property. We look at grade, soil, sun, drainage and existing irrigation, and we ask your budget range out loud. No drawings yet.
Free · booked within 7–10 daysConcept & retainer
Retainer signed, then a concept plan and rough cost bands. We revise twice as standard, in person, with the plan on the table.
Weeks 1–3Construction documents
Grading, drainage, hardscape layout, irrigation zoning, lighting and planting plan. HOA/ARC packet submitted and any City of Bend permits pulled.
Weeks 3–5Build, phased if needed
Locates called, rock excavated, base compacted, hardscape set, irrigation charged and tested zone by zone, then planting. Phasing across two seasons is normal and priced up front.
April–October windowWalk-through & handoff
Controller programmed with you standing there, plant schedule and warranty binder handed over, blowout date already on the calendar.
Final day on siteFirst-year check-ins
We come back in spring for startup and again in fall for the blowout, adjust run times, and replace anything that didn't establish.
Months 6 and 12
Plate V — Emitters set at the root ball, not the mulch line. Photographed at a Tumalo install.
Water, specifically
Half of your July bill runs down the sidewalk.
Bend sends roughly 60% of its water outdoors in summer. Most of the waste we find is not exotic — it's spray heads throwing onto concrete, one zone watering shade and sun together, and a controller nobody has touched since the builder set it.
Here is what we change, and what it costs to change it.
- ZoningSun, shade, turf and beds split onto separate valves — usually 6–9 zones on a quarter-acre lot.
- DripBeds converted from spray to drip with pressure-compensating emitters sized per plant.
- ControlWiFi controller with a local weather feed, programmed by zone at handoff and re-tuned in June.
- BackflowAssembly installed to City of Bend meter policy and tested before the system is charged.
- WinterOctober blowout at 50 PSI, zone by zone. Freeze-split mainlines are the repair we hate writing.
Almanac
What we're doing, month by month.
Jan – Mar
Design season. Site walks in the snow, plan sets drawn, HOA packets submitted, build calendar filled for the year.
Apr – Jun
Excavation, base prep, hardscape, irrigation. Planting starts after mid-May once the frost risk drops off.
Jul – Sep
Builds continue; controllers re-tuned in the heat. Early fall is the best planting window we get all year.
Oct – Dec
Final plantings, lighting installs, and blowouts from October 1. Snow on a properly built patio proves the base.
Correspondence
“The builder handed us a dirt lot and the HOA gave us until June 1. Sagebrush had the plan approved in three weeks and finished with nine days to spare.”
“Our back slope was lava rock with nowhere flat to put a table. Two boulder terraces later we eat outside four nights a week.”
“They tore out 2,100 square feet of thirsty lawn and my July water bill came in a third lower. The grasses look better than the turf ever did.”
Next issue starts with your lot
Book the site walk. Bring the water bill.
Ninety minutes on your property in Bend — grade, soil, sun, drainage, budget. No charge, no drawings until you want them. We book 7–10 days out and the 2026 build calendar fills by March.
Plate VI — The concept plan, marked up on the tailgate during a second walk.
Get a fast quote
Tell us what's going on and we'll get right back to you.
Prefer to talk? Call (541) 555-0129