Sierra Summit

Landscape Design & Build

Most of what the nursery sells will not live here

Six thousand feet, a ninety-day growing season, twenty feet of snow, and deer that treat new planting as a delivery. Then the fire requirements rule out a good portion of what is left, especially anything within five feet of the house. What survives all four constraints is a shorter list than people expect, and it is the whole job.

4.9 · 118 reviews Landscaping Truckee-Tahoe since 2009 Read reviews
A prepared planting bed with shrubs still in nursery pots, a shovel standing in the soil, drip tubing coiled nearby

What's included

  • Plant selection for altitude, snow load, deer pressure, and fire zone in that order
  • Zone 0 treated as a design constraint from the start, not a correction later
  • Soil work, because decomposed granite is not soil and nothing establishes without it
  • Drip irrigation on every bed, with a plan for blowout before the first freeze
  • A planting plan you keep, so replacements match years later

Worth asking anyone who bids this

If a designer puts juniper or arborvitae against your siding, they are designing for a different climate and a different fire code. Both are on every Tahoe removal list.

A bare dirt yard beside the same area finished with a flagstone path and planted beds Before After
Bare lot to finished landscape, one season apart

★★★★★

“Third try at this bed. The first two landscapers planted things the deer ate by August. Three years in, this one is still there.”
Peter and Sam D. · Glenshire

Photographed, zone by zone, for your insurer

Every defensible space job gets photographed before and after in each zone, with the work listed against the requirement it satisfies. You get that packet as a PDF. When your carrier asks for proof, you send it instead of scheduling another inspection.

Thinking about landscape design & build?

We walk the property with you and send a written assessment in two business days. Free, whether or not you hire us.

4.9 · 118 reviews Landscaping Truckee-Tahoe since 2009 Read reviews