Landscape Design for Los Angeles Yards
A real designer, 1-on-1, online. Plans built around your LADWP watering days and your fire zone.
Los Angeles gets 14.25 inches of rain a year, and none of it falls in August. Your yard lives on irrigation from May through October, on three watering days the city assigns by your street number. A Venice yard and a Chatsworth yard sit a full zone apart on winter cold and about 11 degrees apart on summer heat, so one citywide plant list is wrong before it starts.
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One city, two climates
Most of the basin and the Westside sit in USDA zone 10b. The north Valley, Chatsworth and Sylmar, drops to 9b. Downtown has not touched 32°F since January 1979, so tender succulents ride out winter near the coast. Woodland Hills has recorded 18°F.
Summer is the bigger split. Downtown averages 84°F in August. Canoga Park averages 95°F. That gap is why one plant list cannot cover the whole city.
Rainfall is 14.25 inches a year, and 0.00 inches in August, with five straight months under a third of an inch. Recent seasons ran 7.74 inches and 28.40 inches, so drainage gets sized for the wet year and planting for the dry one.
Soil splits by neighborhood. Much of the basin is well draining alluvium, but lower valley bottoms run to clay, and plenty of lots hit a compacted layer a few feet down that turns a deep planting pit into a bathtub. We size the pit to the lot, not to a rule of thumb.
LADWP Phase 2 gives three watering days. Odd addresses take Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Even addresses take Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Nothing runs between 9am and 4pm, and standard spray zones cap at 8 minutes per station. Drip and rotating nozzles are what make a plan legal here.
Plants that hold up here
Picked against your LADWP watering days, your USDA zone and whether CAL FIRE's 2025 map put you in a hazard zone. Not a mood board.
Toyon
Heteromeles arbutifolia · Los Angeles native
Evergreen screening shrub that lives on two waterings a month once established.
Coast live oak
Quercus agrifolia · Los Angeles native
Protected by city ordinance, and nothing inside its dripline gets summer irrigation.
Deer grass
Muhlenbergia rigens · Los Angeles native
The lawn replacement bunchgrass we specify instead of Mexican feather grass, which Cal-IPC now rates invasive.
Howard McMinn manzanita
Arctostaphylos densiflora 'Howard McMinn' · California native, from Sonoma, not local
The one manzanita that survives garden clay.
Lemonade berry
Rhus integrifolia · Los Angeles native
Nearly indestructible hedge inside about 10 miles of the ocean, where it beats sugar bush.
Ray Hartman California lilac
Ceanothus 'Ray Hartman' · California native hybrid
The Ceanothus that takes heavy clay and inland heat, where most of the genus dies young.
Foxtail agave
Agave attenuata · Adapted, not a native
No marginal teeth and no terminal spine, so it is safe against a pool deck or a walkway.
Coast rosemary
Westringia fruticosa · Adapted, not a native
Takes hard shearing on very little water, which is why it replaces boxwood in LA yards.
What LA yards get built with
The typical LA lot is R1, 5,000 to 7,500 square feet, so the backyard is a shallow band behind the house. Then an ADU takes up to 1,200 of it, sitting 4 feet off the rear line. We design around the one that is built or the one that is coming.
In Encino, Sherman Oaks and Brentwood the pool is usually already there, so the real work is the deck, the barrier and the planting around it. The barrier runs 60 inches with a self-closing gate, which makes the fence part of the design.
Valley yards get shade. A pergola or a canopy tree is the difference between a usable patio and a 100°F slab.
Lawn usually comes out. LADWP pays $5 a square foot to replace it, up to $25,000, but the plan has to hit 3 plants per 100 square feet and include a rain garden or dry creek. Artificial turf voids the rebate.
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How It Works
Bring your vision to life in three simple steps
Start by sharing photos of your property and telling us a little about your style. We’ll pair you with a knowledgeable landscape designer who understands your specific climate and planting zone. Whether you have a blank slate or an overgrown garden, our expert team is ready to translate your inspiration into a cohesive plan.
Great landscapes are built around your lifestyle. Work 1:1 with your designer to curate a layout that meets your functional needs—from dining areas to drought-tolerant gardens. You’ll be able to visualize every detail and refine the look with stunning, photorealistic 3D renderings of your actual yard before any digging begins.
We bridge the gap between design and construction. Receive a complete "Contractor Packet" including precise CAD drawings, planting lists, and material specifications. It’s everything a contractor needs to start building immediately, making the journey from "digital design" to "backyard paradise" seamless and stress-free.
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Where we design across LA County
LADWP's $5 a square foot only applies inside City of LA water service, so Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica run their own smaller programs. Your address sets the plant list, the rebate and the permit path.
Hillside parcels in Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Bel-Air and Pacific Palisades fall under the Baseline Hillside Ordinance, which allows one freestanding retaining wall at 12 feet. Malibu and Venice yards can need a Coastal Development Permit before any grading. Altadena and parts of Topanga are unincorporated county, with county rules instead of city ones.
Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino, Tarzana, Woodland Hills, Toluca Lake, Northridge, Porter Ranch, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Mar Vista, Cheviot Hills, Bel-Air, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Hancock Park, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes Estates, Torrance, Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Marino, La Canada Flintridge, Altadena, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, Malibu, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Glendale and Burbank.
Los Angeles questions we get asked
Watering days, the turf rebate, fire zones and protected oaks. The things that decide an LA plan.
Phase 2 of the city ordinance gives you three watering days. Odd addresses water Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Even addresses water Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Standard spray nozzles cap at 8 minutes per station per day, which is 24 minutes a week. That will not carry a cool-season lawn through a 95°F August in the Valley. We usually keep one small lawn on rotating nozzles and plant the rest.
LADWP pays $5 a square foot, from 250 up to 5,000 square feet, capped at $25,000. Get pre-approved at SoCalWater$mart before any grass comes out. The plan has to carry at least 3 plants per 100 square feet, a stormwater feature such as a rain garden or dry creek bed, and no synthetic turf. We draw to those rules. Outside LADWP service, Pasadena, Glendale and Burbank run their own smaller programs.
CAL FIRE's March 2025 maps added more than 440,000 acres of hazard zone in LA County, so many flat-lot homeowners are newly inside one. Brush clearance reaches up to 200 feet from the structure, which rules out a solid hedge along the back fence. LA County Fire's fuel modification list bans California buckwheat, California sagebrush and chamise. We also keep the first five feet against the house inert. Gravel, not bark mulch.
Yes, carefully. Coast live oak is protected under LA's tree ordinance, and removal includes anything that kills the tree, so trenching, grade changes and new irrigation in the root zone all count. Summer water inside the dripline feeds oak root fungus. Everything under the canopy goes on its own low-water valve. Heuchera maxima is our usual answer for the dry shade underneath.
No. The Westside sits in zone 10b and Downtown averages 84°F in August. Chatsworth and Sylmar drop to 9b, Canoga Park averages 95°F, and Woodland Hills has recorded 18°F. Foxtail agave scorches in full inland sun and gives up below about 30°F, so it belongs near the coast or in shade. Lemonade berry wins within roughly 10 miles of the ocean. Inland we swap in sugar bush, Rhus ovata.
Tell us at intake either way. California law lets a detached ADU sit 4 feet off the rear and side lines at up to 1,200 square feet, so on a 5,000 to 7,500 square foot LA lot it takes the same 15 to 25 feet the patio wanted. If it is built, we design around it. If it is coming, we phase the yard so heavy access and trenching happen before any planting goes in.
We are design only. You work 1-on-1 with a real designer, online. You get photorealistic 3D of your actual yard, planting plans and contractor-ready drawings. We do not have an office, a crew or staff in Los Angeles, and we do not install. You hire a local licensed contractor to build it, and the plans are made to be bid and priced by whoever you choose. Packages start at $647, currently 35% off.
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