Garden 
Affiliate Disclosure
Some links on this page are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases — at no extra cost to you. We do not buy, test, or physically handle the products we cover; our rankings come from aggregated owner reviews, ratings and expert consensus. Commissions never change our verdicts. How we rank · full disclosure.
The short answer, in US dollars: DIY bed edging runs $3 to $8 per linear foot in materials. A DIY paver patio is $8 to $20 per square foot, and $15 to $40 per square foot installed by a contractor. A gravel path is under $4 per square foot DIY. Yard drainage runs $25 to $60 per linear foot for an installed French drain. Retaining walls are the expensive one at $30 to $75 per square face foot. A full professional yard install typically lands at 5 to 15 percent of the home's value, with 10 percent being the common working figure.
Those ranges are wide because landscaping prices are driven by region, access and site conditions more than by material choice. The rest of this page breaks the numbers down job by job and names the variables that move you from the bottom of a range to the top.
We are a research desk and never buy or physically handle products; pricing here reflects publicly reported US market ranges and aggregated owner and contractor discussion rather than first-hand purchasing. Our method is in how we rank.
Hardscaping Costs
| Job | DIY materials | Installed | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paver patio | $8 to $20 | $15 to $40 | per sq ft |
| Poured concrete patio | $6 to $12 | $8 to $18 | per sq ft |
| Stamped concrete | — | $12 to $25 | per sq ft |
| Natural flagstone | $12 to $30 | $20 to $50 | per sq ft |
| Gravel path or patio | $1.50 to $4 | $6 to $12 | per sq ft |
| Mulch path | $0.75 to $2 | $3 to $6 | per sq ft |
| Retaining wall, block | $15 to $30 | $30 to $75 | per sq face ft |
| Steps, block or stone | — | $150 to $400 | per step |
| Fire pit, prefab kit | $300 to $900 | $1,200 to $4,000 | each |
What moves the number: base depth is the biggest hidden variable. A patio in a freeze-thaw climate needs 8 to 12 inches of compacted crushed stone rather than 6, which can add several hundred dollars in stone and a day of labor. Access is the second: if a wheelbarrow cannot reach the site, or a truck cannot back in, expect a meaningful surcharge. Cuts add up too — a curved or circular patio wastes 15 to 20 percent of the pavers against about 5 to 10 percent for a rectangle. The full build sequence, including how deep that base really needs to be, is in how to lay a paver patio.
Edging and Bed Definition
| Edging type | DIY materials, per linear ft | Installed, per linear ft |
|---|---|---|
| No-dig plastic | $1.50 to $3 | $5 to $9 |
| Rubber | $2 to $4 | $6 to $10 |
| Aluminum | $4 to $8 | $9 to $16 |
| Steel | $3 to $7 | $8 to $15 |
| Brick or paver soldier course | $6 to $14 | $15 to $30 |
| Concrete curbing, extruded | — | $7 to $15 |
| Cut spade edge only | $0 | $1 to $3 |
Edging is the best return per dollar in the whole category. A typical front yard needs 60 to 120 linear feet, so a plastic install is often under $250 in materials and an afternoon of work. Add roughly 10 percent to your measured length for cuts and overlaps. Which material suits your yard is covered in steel vs plastic edging, the ranked field is in best landscape edging, and the install that stops it heaving out is in how to install landscape edging.
Drainage and Grading
| Job | DIY materials | Installed |
|---|---|---|
| Downspout extension | $15 to $60 each | $100 to $300 each |
| French drain | $10 to $20 per linear ft | $25 to $60 per linear ft |
| Dry creek bed | $8 to $18 per linear ft | $20 to $45 per linear ft |
| Dry well | $150 to $500 | $800 to $2,500 |
| Regrading around a foundation | $40 to $60 per cu yd soil | $1,500 to $5,000 |
| Catch basin and pipe run | $150 to $400 | $1,000 to $4,000 |
Drainage is where the cheap fix and the expensive fix are separated by whether you can dig. Extending a downspout 10 feet into a bed solves a surprising share of soggy-corner problems for the price of a length of pipe. A full French drain means excavating a trench, laying fabric, washed stone and perforated pipe, and finding somewhere legal for the water to daylight — which is why the installed range is what it is. The methods and when each applies are in fixing yard drainage.
Planting, Lawn and Mulch
| Item | Typical US cost |
|---|---|
| Bulk mulch, delivered | $30 to $60 per cubic yard |
| Bagged mulch, 2 cu ft | $3 to $6 per bag |
| Bulk topsoil or compost | $25 to $60 per cubic yard |
| Crushed stone base | $25 to $50 per cubic yard |
| Sod, installed | $1.50 to $3 per sq ft |
| Grass seed and prep | $0.15 to $0.60 per sq ft |
| 1-gallon perennial | $10 to $20 |
| 3-gallon shrub | $25 to $60 |
| Tree, 1.5 to 2 in caliber | $200 to $600 installed |
| Irrigation system, per zone | $500 to $1,200 |
| Low-voltage lighting, per fixture | $100 to $300 installed |
One cubic yard of mulch covers about 100 square feet at 3 inches deep, so a front yard with 300 square feet of beds needs roughly 3 yards. Bulk delivery beats bags at anything over about 12 to 15 bags, which is where most homeowners actually are without realizing it.
What Whole Projects Cost
| Project | DIY | Professional |
|---|---|---|
| Front yard weekend refresh | $300 to $900 | $1,500 to $4,000 |
| New beds, edging and planting, front yard | $800 to $2,500 | $3,000 to $8,000 |
| 12 x 16 ft paver patio | $1,500 to $3,800 | $2,900 to $7,700 |
| Backyard with patio, planting and lighting | $4,000 to $10,000 | $12,000 to $35,000 |
| Full property landscape renovation | — | 5 to 15 percent of home value |
Design fees sit on top of construction for professional work: $500 to $2,500 for a residential plan, or 5 to 15 percent of construction cost for full design and project management. Permits for retaining walls over 3 to 4 feet, and for any work in a drainage or setback easement, vary by municipality — check locally rather than assuming.
The Six Variables That Move Every Quote
Region. The same patio can differ by 40 percent or more between a low-cost metro and a coastal high-cost one, almost entirely on labor.
Access. A backyard reachable only through a 36-inch gate means everything moves by wheelbarrow. That alone can add 20 to 30 percent to a hardscape quote.
Soil and slope. Heavy clay needs deeper base and more drainage. Slope needs walls, steps or terracing, and walls are the most expensive thing in the price list.
Disposal. Excavated soil and stone has to go somewhere. Dump fees and hauling are a real line item on any patio or drainage job.
Season. Spring is peak demand and peak pricing. Late fall quotes are often noticeably better, and fall is a good planting window in most of the country anyway.
Scope creep. The most common cost overrun is discovering mid-project that the drainage needed fixing first. Grade and water before hardscape, always. Two more numbers worth having before you price anything: mulch goes down at the 2- to 4-inch depth Penn State Extension recommends, and plant selection is bounded by the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which sorts the country by average annual extreme minimum winter temperature and was last updated in 2023.
Where to Spend and Where to Save
Worth paying for: retaining walls, grading, anything involving machinery or structural load, and the base preparation under a large patio. These are the jobs where a mistake is expensive to undo and where professional compaction equipment genuinely changes the outcome.
Worth doing yourself: layout and planning, bed edging, mulching, planting, gravel and mulch paths, downspout extensions, low-voltage lighting and drip irrigation. All are low-risk, need no specialized equipment, and are dominated by labor cost when hired out.
Worth skipping: landscape fabric under mulch in planting beds — Illinois Extension notes fabric pores trap sediment until they stop being permeable, and that mulch decomposing on top of the fabric can never be incorporated into the soil below — decorative rock as a large-area lawn substitute in cold climates, and any plant sold well outside your USDA zone. Each of those is a cost that returns in the form of a future removal bill.
The cheapest way to control the total is to plan the whole yard once and build it in phases — a drawn plan means year two does not undo year one. Start with how to plan a yard layout, then work through the landscaping and hardscaping hub in build order.