Rules
Part of Native landscaping: observe your yard before planting
How to vet a native landscaping contractor before signing anything
The questions that separate a native-plant specialist from a mow-and-blow crew, plus the contract terms that keep substitutions and watering honest.
What to take away
- Ask for scientific names. A crew that cannot supply them cannot control substitutions.
- Native planting, irrigation, tree work and pesticide application are different licensed scopes.
- Get establishment watering written into the contract or expect it not to happen.
- Visit a job the crew planted three years ago, not one finished last month.
- Verify every credential by number in a public register, never by résumé.
- Get the certificate of insurance from the insurer itself, and a lien waiver before the first payment.
Start with vocabulary
The fastest screening question is a naming question. Ask which species the bid includes and get the answer in Latin. A crew that answers "native grasses" for a $6,000 bed is either subcontracting the plant knowledge or improvising at the nursery.
USDA notes that its PLANTS Database supplies standardized information on the vascular plants, mosses and lichens of the United States and its territories, so any species on a bid can be looked up in one place.
A Fish and Wildlife Service write-up of a native plant workshop opened with exactly that ground: botanical terminology, and what it means for a plant to be native rather than introduced. If a professional cannot hold that line, the plant list will drift toward whatever the wholesaler has in stock.
Confirm which scopes each person actually holds
One company rarely covers everything. Ask who performs each of these and under what credential in your state:
Scopes and Credentials
- Planting and bed construction
- Irrigation modificationlicensed installer, backflow test
- Tree removal or pruningarborist, city permit
- Herbicide applicationlicensed in most states
- Grading or drainage changesengineered plan
- Native planting and design. In many states this runs through a landscaping contractor license issued by the state contractor board. California's Contractors State License Board is one example: it issues the C-27 Landscaping Contractor license and keeps a free public license lookup you can search by name or license number. Nursery stock has its own paper trail — dealers are registered by the state department of agriculture under a nursery dealer license, in California the Department of Food and Agriculture. Check the contractor board's register and the agriculture department's nursery list.
- Irrigation. Most states require a separate irrigation credential, and nearly all require backflow certification where a system connects to a potable supply. The credential is a certified backflow prevention assembly tester. Check the irrigation or plumbing board that issues it, ask for the backflow certificate, and confirm the tester's certification with the state or local cross-connection control program.
- Tree work. Certification is voluntary in most states but checkable. Ask for the ISA Certified Arborist credential number and look it up in the International Society of Arboriculture's public directory of credentialed arborists. A few states also license tree services.
- Pesticide application. The credential is a commercial pesticide applicator license, issued by the state pesticide regulator — usually the department of agriculture, in California the Department of Pesticide Regulation — under an EPA-approved certification plan. Ask for the applicator number and verify it in that regulator's public registry.
Ask the insurer to send the certificate of insurance directly, not a photocopy, and check that it is current on the date work starts. Two lines on it matter: general liability that names you or the property as an additional insured, and workers' compensation covering everyone who will be on site. Before the first payment, also collect a conditional lien waiver or release from the contractor and from each subcontractor and supplier, so an unpaid supplier cannot file a mechanic's lien against your house.
Compare bids on the same scope, not the same number
Three bids are comparable only if they cover the same square footage, removal method, plant sizes, and aftercare. Give every bidder your plant list and area measurement. Then differences sit in price and method, not guesswork.
Bid Comparison Criteria
Ask for
- Removal method and disposal
- Sod cutting, sheet covering, herbicide differ
- Plant sizes and counts
- Plugs versus one-gallon can double or halve
- Soil work
- Amendment often unnecessary and always billable
- Establishment care
- Watering visits, weeding visits, and duration
- Replacement terms
- Whether dead plant replaced free, and for how long
Why it changes the number
- Removal method and disposal
- Plant sizes and counts
- Soil work
- Establishment care
- Replacement terms
The rest is reading the quantities, allowances and exclusions when the bids come back.
| Ask for | Why it changes the number |
|---|---|
| Removal method and disposal | Sod cutting, sheet covering and herbicide differ in cost and timing |
| Plant sizes and counts | Plugs versus one-gallon stock can double or halve the plant line |
| Soil work | Amendment is often unnecessary and always billable |
| Establishment care | Watering visits, weeding visits, and for how long |
| Replacement terms | Whether a dead plant is replaced free, and for how long |
Write the substitution rule down
Substitution quietly ends a native job. The clause is short: no species substitution without written owner approval, and any substitute must be a straight species from the same regional list.
Without it, a sold-out sedge becomes a big-box cultivar, nobody tells you, and the swap discards the hand-collected regional material you were paying for.
Attach the plant list and a scaled plan as contract exhibits. Both are also what the local planning or building department asks for at permit review and what the HOA architectural review committee wants with the application, which is why checking local rules early saves a revision cycle.
Check references that have aged
A three-month-old job proves nothing except that the crew can plant. Ask for two addresses planted at least three years ago, and go look. Are the plants spaced for their mature size? Is the edge still crisp? Did the owner have to replace much?
Bring the questions from our Getting started with native landscaping guide to that visit. The owner will tell you more in five minutes than any portfolio.
