How Much Does Landscaping Cost? 2026 Prices by Project

"Landscaping" can mean a $90 load of mulch or a $50,000 backyard with an outdoor kitchen, which is why a single average number rarely helps anyone. Still, people ask how much does landscaping cost before they call a contractor, and it's a fair question. Angi's 2026 data puts the national average at $3,516, with most homeowners paying between $1,248 and $6,068 for a project.

The more useful answer depends on three things: which projects you pick, how much of the yard you cover, and how much of the work you hand to a crew. Labor alone is 40% to 65% of most landscaping bills, and higher on planting jobs.

Below you'll find 2026 prices for 22 common projects, costs by yard size, what design and labor run, what three different budgets actually buy on the same backyard, and a worksheet you can fill in for your own yard.

Quick answer: how much does landscaping cost?

Most landscaping projects cost $1,250 to $6,100, with a national average of about $3,500 (Angi, 2026). Priced by area, expect $4 to $12 per square foot for basic softscaping like sod, beds and shrubs, according to both HomeGuide and Angi. Full backyard renovations with patios and built features run $15,000 to $50,000, and a new home's whole yard often costs $3,000 to $16,000 for basic installation.

Hourly, a two-person landscaping crew charges $50 to $100 an hour (HomeGuide).

Landscaping cost by project

This is the price list most people are actually after. Each row is a typical installed cost (labor and materials) for a common job in 2026. Where a project has its own detailed guide, the link takes you there.

A few patterns stand out once you see them side by side:

• Plants are the cheap part. Beds, shrubs, mulch and lawn rarely push a project past a few thousand dollars.
• Built things are the expensive part. Patios, decks, walls and kitchens are priced per square foot or per linear foot, and those numbers multiply fast.
• Ranges are wide on purpose. A sprinkler system for a small front lawn and one for a half-acre lot are both "a sprinkler system."

For the bigger line items, the detailed guides break the price down further: concrete patio cost covers finishes and slab sizes, and retaining wall cost covers materials, wall height and when you need an engineer. Cost to build a deck does the same for decking, by material and size.

Landscaping cost by yard size

Square-foot pricing works for softscaping, where the job is mostly soil, sod, beds and plants. Angi's 2026 range is $4.50 to $12 per square foot, which turns into these totals:

Source: Angi, updated September 2026. A tear-out and major remodel can reach $40 per square foot.

Two caveats before you multiply your lot size by $12:

• Only count the area you're changing. A 5,000-square-foot backyard where you're adding two beds and a patio is a 600-square-foot project, not a 5,000-square-foot one.
• Hardscape breaks the per-foot math. A 300-square-foot paver patio alone is $3,000 to $5,100. Price built features separately from the planted area, then add them together.

Need quantities for the planted part? The sod calculator works out how much sod a lawn area needs, and the mulch calculator tells you how many cubic yards or bags to order for your beds.

Front yard vs backyard landscaping cost

Front yards usually cost less because they're smaller and mostly planting. Backyards are where people put patios, fire pits and kitchens.

A front yard like the one above (one curved bed of foundation planting, a stone edge, fresh mulch and a small tree) sits comfortably inside the $1,500 to $5,000 range. Add a new walkway or a lighting package and you move toward the top of it.

Landscaping a new home

New builds are their own case. Builders often hand over a yard like the one at the top of this post: thin grass, a stoop and a fence. HomeGuide puts basic new-home landscaping at $3,000 to $15,950, and notes that realtors suggest spending 5% to 15% of the home's value over time. Angi uses about 10% as a rule of thumb, so roughly $40,000 on a $400,000 house for both yards. Very few people spend that in year one, and you don't have to.

What different budgets buy on the same backyard

Averages are hard to picture. So here is the new-build backyard from the top of this post, redesigned at three budget levels. Each image is an AI concept made from that one photo, and the price ranges are our estimates built from the per-project costs above.

Refresh: roughly $4,000 to $11,000. New sod over most of the yard (about 1,800 square feet at $1 to $2), two planted beds ($800 to $3,000 each) and two small trees ($200 to $700 each). Nothing is built, which keeps it cheap and very DIY-friendly.

Mid-range: roughly $8,000 to $21,000. A 16x20 paver patio, a path to a gravel fire pit area, beds along both fences, a smaller lawn and a few path lights. This is the version priced line by line in the worksheet below.

Full renovation: roughly $20,000 to $50,000. A 500-square-foot paver patio, a prebuilt outdoor kitchen ($7,000 to $16,000), a pergola kit, a patio fire pit with seating ($2,200 to $6,800), lighting and full planting. That lines up with Angi's $15,000 to $50,000 for a full backyard renovation.

Seeing the three side by side changes the conversation. Plenty of people discover they'd be happy with the middle version, or that they want the patio from the third one and the planting from the first. You can run the same comparison on a photo of your own yard with AI landscape design: upload it, pick a style, and look at a few versions before you decide what to get quoted.

Landscape design fees

Design is optional on a small planting job and close to essential on anything with hardscape, grading or drainage. What you pay depends on who draws it:

Hourly rates from Angi (2026); plan price from HomeGuide. AI tool pricing is OutdoorBrite's Starter to Pro plans.

To be clear about the last row: an AI tool like OutdoorBrite shows you what the yard could look like and, on the Plus plan, gives you a plant list picked for your region. It doesn't measure your yard, produce construction drawings or price the job. It's most useful before you pay for a plan or call for quotes, so you know which version you're asking about. Our landscape design cost guide compares designers, online services and AI tools in more detail.

Labor vs materials: where the money goes

Labor is the biggest single line on most landscaping bills. Angi puts it at 40% to 65% of the total, and HomeGuide says it can be around 80% on basic services like sod and planting, where the materials themselves are cheap.

Here's what the raw materials cost before anyone installs them:

Sources: Angi (2026) for sod, topsoil, gravel, pavers and plants; HomeGuide for mulch.

Hourly rates for the people doing the work:

• Landscaping crew: $50 to $100 per hour for two people (HomeGuide), or $50 to $65 per hour on Thumbtack's national data
• Landscape designer: $50 to $150 per hour (Angi)
• Landscape architect: $70 to $100 per hour (Angi)

The split tells you where DIY pays off. Laying sod or planting a bed yourself can cut most of the bill, because you're only buying cheap materials. On a patio or retaining wall, DIY saves money too, but the cost of a mistake is much higher. Hardscaping needs a compacted base, drainage and level work that's hard to fix later.

Other costs that show up on quotes

• Permits: Angi puts landscaping permits at $500 to $2,750, mostly for structural work like tall retaining walls, pools or large tree removal. Planting rarely needs one.
• Land prep: clearing, stump removal and grading. Leveling a small area runs $500 to $1,000, and regrading a whole backyard $1,000 to $5,000 (HomeGuide).
• Soil: poor soil may need topsoil or compost before anything is planted.
• Access: if a skid steer can't reach the backyard, everything moves by wheelbarrow, and labor goes up.
• Maintenance: HomeGuide puts ongoing landscape maintenance at $100 to $200 a month. Bigger planted areas cost more to keep up.

Landscaping budget worksheet

A per-square-foot number can't tell you what your yard will cost. A list of line items can. Write down every piece of the project, price each one with the ranges above, then add a cushion for surprises.

Here's the worksheet filled in for the mid-range backyard shown earlier, about 1,200 square feet of work:

Unit prices from HomeGuide and Angi (2026) and LawnStarter's per-fixture lighting rate. The 10% contingency is our rule of thumb, not a source figure.

To fill one in for your own yard:

1. List every area you want to change and measure it. A phone app or a tape measure is fine at this stage.
2. Pick the materials for each area: sod or gravel, concrete or pavers, a kit pergola or custom.
3. Price each line low and high using the tables above or the detailed guides.
4. Add 10% to 15% for the things you'll find once the ground is open.
5. Compare the total with what you'd like to spend. If it's too high, cut or phase line items rather than shrinking every line a little.

Our FAQ on how to estimate landscaping costs walks through the same method in a shorter format.

How to save on landscaping costs

Landscaping is easier to trim than most home projects because it splits cleanly into pieces. The biggest savings come from choices, not haggling:

• Phase it. Do grading, drainage and hardscape first, because they're disruptive. Plant beds can follow next season, when the budget has recovered.
• DIY the planting. Labor is up to 80% of softscaping, so planting your own beds and spreading your own mulch saves the most per hour of effort.
• Buy young plants. A 1-gallon shrub costs a fraction of a 7-gallon one and fills in within a few seasons. Angi lists it among its money-saving tips.
• Swap materials. Pea gravel instead of pavers for a sitting area, a concrete patio instead of stamped, a kit pergola instead of a custom one.
• Keep what works. Healthy shrubs, a sound slab or reusable pavers can stay. Removing them costs money too.
• Decide before you get quotes. Changing the design mid-job is how budgets get blown. Settle the layout and materials first, then ask three contractors to price the same plan.

For more ideas on doing a lot with a small budget, see our post on a backyard makeover on a budget.

Key takeaways

• Budget $1,250 to $6,100 for a typical project and $15,000 to $50,000 for a full backyard renovation. The national average is about $3,500.
• Price softscape by area, hardscape by item. $4 to $12 per square foot covers beds and lawn; patios, decks and walls get their own lines.
• Labor is most of the bill on planting jobs, which makes beds, sod and mulch the best places to do it yourself.
• Write a line-item budget before calling anyone. It turns a vague "how much does landscaping cost" into a number you can compare quotes against.
• Know which version you want before you get quoted. Comparing a refresh, a mid-range project and a full renovation on a photo of your own yard makes that decision much faster.

FAQ

How much does it cost to landscape a backyard? A backyard refresh with new sod, a couple of planted beds and a few trees usually costs $4,000 to $11,000. Adding a patio, fire pit and lighting brings it to roughly $8,000 to $21,000. A full renovation with an outdoor kitchen or pergola runs $15,000 to $50,000, according to Angi.

What is the most expensive part of landscaping? Hardscaping is almost always the most expensive part. Patios, decks, retaining walls and outdoor kitchens are priced per square foot or per linear foot, so they grow quickly with size. Big-ticket items like an outdoor kitchen ($7,000 to $35,000) or an in-ground pool can cost more than all the planting combined.

How much should I budget for landscaping? Start from the projects, not a percentage. List each area, price it with typical ranges, and add 10% to 15% for surprises. As a long-term guide, Angi suggests about 10% of a new home's value for both yards, and HomeGuide cites 5% to 15%, but most people spread that over several years.

How much does landscaping cost per square foot? Basic landscaping costs $4 to $12 per square foot, according to HomeGuide and Angi. That covers softscaping like sod, beds and shrubs. A full tear-out and remodel can reach $40 per square foot, and hardscape features should be priced separately.

How much does front yard landscaping cost? Front yard landscaping typically costs $1,500 to $5,000, according to Angi. A single foundation bed with shrubs, mulch and edging falls in the lower half. A new walkway, lighting or a full lawn replacement pushes it toward the top.

How much do landscapers charge per hour? A two-person landscaping crew charges $50 to $100 per hour, according to HomeGuide, or $25 to $50 per worker. Landscape designers charge $50 to $150 per hour. Many contractors quote larger jobs as a fixed project price instead of hourly.

Is it cheaper to do landscaping yourself? Yes, especially for planting. Labor makes up 40% to 65% of most landscaping costs and up to 80% of basic softscaping, so laying sod, planting beds and spreading mulch yourself saves the most. Grading, drainage, retaining walls and anything needing a permit are usually worth hiring out.

Why do landscaping quotes vary so much? Quotes differ because contractors price different scopes, materials and site prep. One may include grading, a gravel base and haul-away while another leaves them out. Give every contractor the same written list of areas and materials, ideally with a picture of the result you want, so the quotes are comparable.

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Sources: Angi: how much does landscaping cost, HomeGuide: landscaping costs, HomeGuide: backyard renovation cost, HomeGuide: paver patio cost, HomeGuide: cost to build a deck, HomeGuide: fence installation cost, HomeGuide: pergola cost, HomeGuide: fire pit cost, HomeGuide: outdoor kitchen cost, LawnStarter: landscape lighting cost, Thumbtack: landscaping prices, all checked October 20, 2026