Landscape design
Plan the yard once, build it once
Yards get expensive when they are bought in pieces. A patio goes in one year, a lawn the next, then a bed has to be moved because the drainage was never thought about. Design is what stops that, and it is the cheapest stage of any project.
We start on site, not on paper. Where the sun sits in the afternoon, where water runs in a storm, which windows you look out of, how you get from the back door to the grill. Then the levels, beds, borders, lawn area and stone get set out as one scheme, and the same crew builds what was drawn.
Ready to plan the whole thing properly? Call Palms Living Oasis and we will come out.
What does a landscape design actually give you?
A decision, made once, about everything. How big the lawn is and what shape it takes. Where the paths run and what they are made of. Which beds stay, which trees are kept, where the levels change and how water leaves the property. It also gives you an order of work, so the yard can be built in stages without digging anything up twice. Design sits at the front of every job in our landscaping services because it is the difference between a yard that was planned and one that accumulated.
What actually survives a North Texas yard?
Not everything you see on a mood board. The Dallas metro sits in a hot, dry summer climate on heavy black clay, and it swings from drought to hard storms in the same season. A design that ignores that gives you two good months and ten of maintenance.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the starting reference for what handles winters here, and heat and water are the other half of the answer. We design around the conditions the yard actually has, which is also why turf carries the areas where nothing will grow.
Get the whole yard on one plan
Free on-site estimates across the Dallas metro from a family run crew designing and building since 2008.
Call (972) 464-7000How do lawn, stone and planting fit together?
Proportion and edges. A lawn shape that curves with the space reads as designed; a rectangle dropped into the middle does not. Stone paths need to go where people already walk, or they get ignored and the turf wears a track beside them. Beds need enough depth to hold planting that will not be overwhelmed by the paving next to it. Getting those relationships right is what makes a yard feel settled, and the stone side of it is covered on our hardscaping page.
Can a design fix a yard that floods?
Usually, and it is one of the most common reasons people call. Water problems in this part of Texas are rarely about rainfall totals; they are about clay that will not take water in and ground that was graded toward the house instead of away from it. A design deals with that first: falls set across the whole yard, a route planned for storm water to leave, beds and walls placed so they hold soil rather than dam water. Everything else is decoration until that is solved.
Ask a turf installer
Straight answers about artificial turf in North Texas
Do I have to build the whole design at once?
No. We plan the finished yard, then build it in phases in a sensible order. That way each stage is complete in itself and nothing has to be dug up to reach the next one.
Can you work with the trees and beds I already have?
Yes, and we usually want to. Mature trees are the hardest thing to replace in a Texas yard, so the design goes around them and we protect the root zone during the work.
Do you design front yards as well as back?
Both. Front yards are mostly about proportion, edges and something that stays presentable in August, which is where turf, borders and stone do the heavy lifting for us.
How do you handle shade areas in the design?
We stop trying to grow lawn in them. Deep shade under mature trees gets turf, stone, mulch or planting that suits low light, so the space stops being the bare patch you look at.
Will the design account for water restrictions?
Yes. Watering limits are a normal part of a dry North Texas summer, so we design for a yard that still looks right when irrigation is restricted rather than one that depends on it.
Who builds the design once it is agreed?
We do. Palms Living Oasis handles the work from design through installation with our own crew, so there is no handover between a designer and a contractor for details to fall through.