Sagebrush Landscape DesignDesign & Build · Bend, OR (541) 555-0129
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Portfolio — Deschutes County

Built work, with the numbers attached

Six projects we designed and built between 2019 and 2025 — square footages, budget bands, plant counts, and what we would change. No renderings passed off as finished yards.

LCB #9418 Builds Apr–Oct Bend · Tumalo · Sisters
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Paver patio at dusk with a lit gas fire feature, ornamental grasses and the Cascade skyline behind a Bend backyard

Awbrey Butte, September 2024. Photographed at 7:40pm — the hour the yard was actually designed for.

84
Design-build projects completed since 2011
31,400
Square feet of paver hardscape set
96%
Design retainers that converted to a build contract
2 yr
Hardscape workmanship warranty, 1 yr on plant establishment

How to read these. Every project below lists the neighborhood, the build window, the contracted scope and a budget band. Bands are what the homeowner actually signed, not a national average.

Why bands, not prices. Rock excavation swings a Bend budget more than paver choice does. A westside lot with basalt shelf at 14 inches costs differently than pumice at four feet — so we publish ranges and name the variable.

Photo policy. Before shots are framed from the same standing point as the after. Nothing here is a rendering, a stock image, or a job we subcontracted our name onto.

The HOA deadline yard

Discovery West · Build May–July 2023

Raw dirt and rock lot behind a new construction home with survey stakes and marking paint

Day one: builder-left grade, cinder fill, and 62 days on the ARC clock.

  • Lot7,100 sq ft, 4,050 sq ft of it landscaped
  • ScopeGrading and drainage plan, 480 sq ft paver patio, drip and MP-rotator irrigation, 118 plants, low-voltage lighting, ARC submittal packet
  • Budget band$48,000 – $57,000
  • TimelineDesign 3 weeks · Build 19 working days

The homeowners closed in March with an HOA architectural review deadline and a builder-graded pad that shed water toward the back slider. We rebuilt the finish grade first, cut a swale along the north fence, then set hardscape.

The variable that moved the money

Cinder fill compacted well, so base prep ran under estimate. The savings went into 14 additional shrubs to hit the HOA's planting coverage percentage on the first review rather than the second.

Grading & drainagePaver patioIrrigationARC submittal

Lava rock into three flat rooms

Awbrey Butte · Build June–September 2024

Excavator setting a basalt boulder into a terraced retaining wall on a sloped Bend lot

Nine basalt boulders, largest at 4,200 lb, set with a 5-ton excavator over two days.

  • Grade11 ft of fall across 60 ft, basalt shelf at 9–20 in.
  • ScopeBoulder outcropping walls, 38 lineal ft segmental retaining wall, three terraces, 720 sq ft patio, 22 steps and risers, 26 lighting fixtures
  • Budget band$139,000 – $162,000
  • TimelineDesign 6 weeks · Build 11 weeks

"We can't put a table anywhere flat" is the westside sentence we hear most. The answer was terracing, not flattening: a dining terrace at the house, a fire terrace six risers down, and a gravel overlook at the property line where the Cascade view opens.

The variable that moved the money

Hoe-ram time. We budgeted 16 hours of rock breaking and used 27. The allowance line for excavation absorbed it — which is exactly why we write excavation as an allowance on any lot above 3,900 ft on the butte.

Boulder wallsSRWStepsLandscape lighting

A July water bill cut by more than half

River's Edge · Build April–May 2022, metered through 2025

Established water-wise planting bed with rock mulch, blue avena grass and rabbitbrush in full sun

Year three of establishment. Drip runs 22 minutes, twice weekly, June through August.

  • Removed2,900 sq ft of spray-irrigated turf
  • ScopePlanting plan with 41 species, rock mulch, full drip conversion, WiFi controller, backflow assembly replacement, 900 sq ft of retained lawn on MP rotators
  • Budget band$31,000 – $38,000
  • ResultJuly usage down from 41,000 to 17,600 gallons

Roughly 60% of Bend's treated water goes to outdoor irrigation, and this yard was a good example of why: overhead spray on a windy corner lot, half of it landing on the sidewalk. We kept a lawn panel for the dogs and converted everything else to drip.

What actually survived

Zone 6a with frosts into early June rules out a lot. The backbone here is rabbitbrush, blue avena grass, Karl Foerster, Munstead lavender, kinnikinnick and three vine maples in the shaded northeast corner. Two plant losses in four winters, both replaced under the establishment warranty.

Water-wise plantingDrip conversionSmart controllerBackflow

An outdoor kitchen usable in late September

Tetherow · Build July–October 2021

Built outdoor living patio with stone seating

Counter at 36 in., bar ledge at 42 in., two 4,000-lumen fixtures under the pergola beam.

  • Scope620 sq ft covered patio, block-and-veneer kitchen with 36 in. grill, side burner and refrigerator, 48 in. gas fire table, 14 ft pergola, 19 fixtures of low-voltage lighting
  • Budget band$96,000 – $118,000
  • CoordinationLicensed gas fitter and electrician under separate permit
  • TimelineDesign 5 weeks · Build 9 weeks

The brief was one sentence: we want to be out here in September. Bend's frost-free season runs roughly 100–130 days, and evenings drop fast after Labor Day — so the design solved for wind and radiant heat, not just square footage.

The variable that moved the money

The gas run. The meter sat 74 ft from the kitchen on the far side of a finished driveway, which meant boring rather than trenching. That single line was 6% of the contract.

Outdoor kitchenGas fire featurePergolaLighting

They showed us the base prep photos before the pavers went down. Nobody else did that.

Homeowner, Discovery West · Build completed July 2023

Why we photograph what gets buried

Every hardscape job gets a documented subgrade: excavation depth, compacted 3/4-minus base thickness, plate-compactor passes, and bedding sand screed. Those photos go in the closeout packet with the as-built irrigation map and the controller programming.

Ten years on, when a zone fails or a patio needs a cut for a new gas line, the file tells the next person exactly what is under there.

Detail plates

Fragments from twelve builds, 2019–2025

Crew running a plate compactor over crushed gravel base before pavers are set

Base prep, NorthWest Crossing

6 in. of compacted 3/4-minus over geotextile, four passes, checked with a grade laser at 1/8 in. per foot of fall.

Sagebrush planting and garden work

Emitter detail, Tumalo

Two 1-gph emitters per shrub at install, moved outward to the drip line in year two so roots chase water instead of sitting in it.

Snow covering a paver patio and low basalt seat wall in winter light

February, Brookswood

Fourth winter on this patio. Freeze-thaw is the real test in Bend, and it is the reason we detail edge restraint and drainage before anyone talks about paver color.

Planter strip signed off before occupancy

NorthWest Crossing · Build September 2025

Newly planted street-side planter strip with a young tree, rock mulch and drip line between sidewalk and curb

No irrigated turf in the strip — city code, and honestly the better-looking answer.

  • Scope112 lineal ft of planter strip, two approved street trees, drip zone off the house controller, rock mulch, front-yard planting
  • Budget band$14,000 – $19,000
  • TurnaroundCalled Monday, planted Thursday, inspection photos uploaded Friday
  • ReferenceCity of Bend Design Standards Part II, Ch. 12

Planter strip landscaping is a building-permit condition that has to clear before the certificate of occupancy. Buyers find this out late, usually with a moving truck already booked.

How we keep it a four-day job

We keep the approved street-tree species list and the pre-approved ROW template on file, so there is no design cycle — we plant to the template, photograph it the way the city wants it, and hand the file to the general contractor.

ROW complianceStreet treesDrip zone

Defensible space that still looks designed

Tumalo, 2.4-acre WUI parcel · Build 2020, phase two 2023

Gravel and low-growing planting zone around the foundation of a rural Central Oregon home with juniper beyond

Zone 0: five feet of non-combustible surface, no bark, nothing that carries flame to the siding.

  • ScopePhased Firewise planting zones 0–2, 1,100 sq ft flagstone terrace, 640 lineal ft of drip, juniper thinning coordination, 34 fixtures of path lighting
  • Budget bandPhase one $62,000 – $71,000 · Phase two $28,000 – $34,000
  • PhasingThree years between phases, one design plan throughout

Rural parcels get sold a false choice: bare gravel or fire risk. The plan here zoned the property instead — non-combustible within five feet of the structure, irrigated low-growing plantings out to thirty, and thinned native ground beyond that.

Why phasing worked

The full plan was drawn once in 2020 with irrigation sleeving stubbed for the phase-two terrace. When they were ready three years later we did not cut a single line of finished hardscape to get water where it needed to go.

Firewise zonesFlagstonePhased buildPath lighting

What every project on this page shares

One contract

The designer who drew it stays on the job through final walk. No handoff to a separate build company, no second contract to sign.

Allowances, named

Rock excavation, imported topsoil and plant material are written as allowances with a stated quantity, so overruns are visible instead of discovered.

A closeout file

As-built irrigation map, controller schedule, plant list with sources, base-prep photos and warranty dates — delivered as a PDF at final walk.

A build window

Installs run April through October. We schedule design in winter so the plan is permit-ready and priced before the ground opens up.

"Our July bill went from $312 to $141 and the front yard looks better than the lawn ever did."

"Eleven weeks on a slope like ours and they hit the date they gave us in the proposal within three days."

"They wrote the rock excavation as an allowance and explained why. When it ran over, there was no argument — just the number."

Next build season

Walk your lot with us

Ninety minutes on site: conditions, goals, and a budget range before anyone draws anything. Design retainers run $1,800–$4,500 and credit fully toward the build.

Call (541) 555-0142 Request a consultation

LCB #9418 · $20,000 bond · $1M general liability · Serving Bend, Tumalo, Sisters, Redmond and Sunriver.

Hand-marked landscape site plan spread across a truck tailgate with a tape measure and marking paint
Sagebrush Landscape Design

Landscape design and build for Bend and the surrounding high desert. Oregon LCB #9184 · bonded & insured · design-build since 2009.

Service area

  • Bend & Westside
  • Tumalo & Sisters
  • Redmond & Terrebonne
  • Sunriver & La Pine

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© Sagebrush Landscape Design, Bend, Oregon. Oregon LCB #9184. Set in Fraunces & Instrument Sans.
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