CRBA designs and builds landscapes across Hayward, Castro Valley, San Leandro, Fremont, San Jose, and the greater Bay Area — full yard transformations, drought-tolerant and water-wise conversions, irrigation systems that don’t waste water, grading and drainage that keep water away from your foundation, and ongoing maintenance to keep it all looking the way it did the week we finished. As a licensed general contractor rather than a landscaping-only crew, we can handle the structural side of a yard — grading, drainage, walls, and permits — in the same project as the planting. Lic #1095283.
CSLB Lic #1095283· Fully Insured · 10-Year Workmanship Warranty · Free Written Estimates
Talk to the contractor, not a call center.
Call (510) 990-9243 and tell us the yard, the slope, and what you want out of the space.
Six Landscaping services, each gives a different path.
A real plan before anything is planted or poured: layout, plant palette, irrigation zoning, lighting, drainage, and phasing — matched to your property’s sun, soil, slope, and how you actually use the yard. Plans mean you can build in stages without redoing work, and they prevent the most expensive landscaping mistake, which is buying plants first.
Full installation: soil preparation and amendment, trees, shrubs, perennials, ground covers, sod or seeded lawn, mulch, and edging. Plant selection for Bay Area conditions — Mediterranean climate, dry summers, clay soils — so the yard establishes instead of struggling.
Replacing thirsty turf with native and Mediterranean plantings, permeable surfaces, and efficient drip irrigation — lower water bills, less maintenance, and a yard that looks intentional rather than sparse. Several Bay Area water agencies offer rebates for lawn conversion; ask us and we’ll point you to the current programs
New drip and spray systems with zoned controllers and smart timers, plus repair of existing systems — broken heads, valve failures, leaks, and controller reprogramming. Correct irrigation is the difference between plants that establish and plants you replace next season.
The structural side of a yard: grading for positive drainage away from the house, French drains, dry creek beds, downspout routing, soil amendment, and erosion control on slopes. This is where being a licensed general contractor matters — drainage that involves your foundation isn’t gardening.
Scheduled maintenance to protect the investment: pruning, seasonal irrigation adjustment, fertilization, weed and pest management, mulch refresh, and cleanups. Residential and commercial programs available. Ask about maintenance when we quote the install — landscapes designed with a maintenance plan in mind cost less to keep.
Looking for decks, patios, pergolas, outdoor kitchens, retaining walls, or fencing? Those are on our backyard and outdoor living page — and we routinely combine hardscape and landscape into one project so the yard gets built once, in the right order.
Call (510) 990-9243. We ask about the property, the slope, what’s there now, how you want to use the space, whether drainage is a known problem, and your budget comfort. You get a working range and a first read on scope.
Free on-site visit: sun exposure, soil, slope and drainage patterns, existing plants worth keeping, irrigation condition, and access for equipment. Then a design and plant palette, and a written itemized quote — demo and removal, grading and drainage, soil prep, irrigation, plants, hardscape where included, lighting, and mulch — with phasing options if the full scope isn’t this year.
Demolition and removal, grading and drainage first (always first — everything else sits on top of it), then hardscape where part of the project, irrigation, soil preparation, planting, mulch, and lighting. We walk you through the irrigation controller and give you a plant-by-plant establishment schedule before we leave, because the first 90 days decide whether a landscape thrives.
Realistic timeline: front-yard or single-area projects 1–2 weeks; full-property landscapes 3–8 weeks depending on grading, hardscape, and plant availability. Design and plans add 1–3 weeks upfront.
Realistic Bay Area ranges: front-yard refreshes with planting, irrigation, and mulch typically run $8,000–$20,000; full backyard landscapes $25,000–$70,000; complete property landscapes with grading, drainage, and hardscape $60,000–$150,000+. Water-wise lawn conversions commonly $10–$25 per square foot, depending on plant density and surfaces. Maintenance programs are quoted monthly by property size and visit frequency.
What you won’t pay for:
Call (510) 990-9243 with your yard’s rough size and what you want it to become.
Landscaping quotes are hard to compare because the same yard can be done three completely different ways at three completely different prices. Our structure:
Phone range first. Property size, the area you want landscaped, slope, and whether drainage is involved.
Free site visit and written quote, with grading and drainage priced honestly. The cheap landscape bid is usually the one that skips drainage and soil prep — the two things that determine whether the yard looks good in year three.
Five things drive the price:
Based in Hayward, landscaping across the East Bay and South Bay:
Core service area: Hayward · Castro Valley · San Leandro · Fremont · Union City · San Jose
Also serving: Palo Alto · Mountain View · Sunnyvale · Cupertino · Santa Clara · Los Gatos · Oakland · San Francisco
In 2026, front-yard landscaping with planting, irrigation, and mulch typically runs $8,000–$20,000 in the Bay Area, full backyard landscapes $25,000–$70,000, and complete property projects including grading, drainage, and hardscape $60,000–$150,000+. Cost is driven mainly by area, grading and drainage needs, plant size at installation, and irrigation scope.
Mediterranean and California native plantings suit this climate best — they're adapted to wet winters and dry summers, so once established they need far less water than turf. Common choices include manzanita, ceanothus, salvias, ornamental grasses, lavender, and rosemary, combined with permeable gravel or decomposed granite areas and drip irrigation. Good design keeps it looking full and intentional rather than sparse.
Several Bay Area water agencies have offered lawn-replacement and irrigation-efficiency rebates, though programs, funding, and eligibility change frequently. Check with your specific water provider before starting — rebates usually require pre-approval and photos of the existing lawn, so applying after the work is done typically disqualifies you. We'll flag the requirement during your estimate.
Converting turf to drought-tolerant planting with drip irrigation typically reduces that area's water use substantially, because lawns are the thirstiest thing in most yards and overhead spray loses water to evaporation and overspray. Actual savings depend on what you replace, plant density, and how well the irrigation is zoned. The savings are real; be skeptical of anyone quoting a precise percentage before seeing your yard.
If water pools anywhere in the yard, runs toward the house, or the property slopes toward the foundation, it's not an upsell — it's the most important part of the project. East Bay clay soils shed water rather than absorbing it, and water against a foundation causes problems that cost far more than any landscape. A landscape installed over a drainage problem fails, and the plants get blamed.
Fall and early winter are ideal for planting — winter rains help plants establish with minimal supplemental watering, and roots develop before summer heat. Spring works well too. Summer planting is possible but requires more irrigation and more care during establishment. Hardscape and grading can be done year-round, with wet-weather delays mainly affecting concrete work.
Expect one season for plants to settle, two to three years for shrubs and perennials to reach intended size, and five or more for trees. This is why plant size at install matters: larger plants cost more but look finished sooner, while smaller plants catch up within a few seasons at a fraction of the cost. Good design accounts for mature size so nothing needs removal in year four.
Both. We offer scheduled maintenance programs — pruning, seasonal irrigation adjustment, fertilization, weed management, and mulch refresh — for residential and commercial properties. Landscapes maintained from the start look dramatically better at year three than installed-and-forgotten ones, and they cost less to keep because problems get caught small.
Yes — multi-tenant residential, offices, retail, and HOA common areas, including installation and ongoing maintenance contracts. Certificates of insurance provided on request, and we schedule around your tenants' and customers' hours.
Yes, and it's a common call. Usually it's irrigation that was never zoned properly, plants chosen for the wrong exposure, or drainage that was never addressed. We assess what's salvageable — often more than homeowners expect — and give you a plan that fixes the causes rather than replacing everything.
Yes, including removal, stump grinding, and hauling. Note that many Bay Area cities protect certain trees by species or size and require a permit before removal — we confirm your city's ordinance before scheduling any tree work.
Yes, and it's the right way to sequence a yard. Grading and drainage go in first, then hardscape structures, then irrigation, then planting — doing them as separate projects means digging up finished work. See our backyard and outdoor living page for decks, patios, pergolas, walls, and fencing, and we'll quote the whole yard as one scope.
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Landscape design, planting, water-wise conversions, irrigation, grading and drainage, and maintenance programs across Hayward, Fremont, San Jose, and the Bay Area. Licensed general contractor — the structural side of a yard handled properly. Free consult and written quote.
