Landscaping in Idaho is two climates sharing a name, and a planting plan for one will embarrass the other. Northern yards are greener, shadier, and tied to timber. Treasure Valley and Snake plain yards are hotter, drier, and tied to irrigation canals, clay, and foothill wind. A weekly cut is the small chapter. Grade that keeps canal water and melt off the basement is the chapter that matters.
Water that runs toward the house becomes a basement complaint on clay. Swales, downspout extensions, and beds that do not bury the siding matter more than mulch color. Canal seepage and a high water table will beat a pretty bed if the grade is wrong. Foothill wind lays a young tree over and dries new seed before the root takes. A windward row is structure, not decoration.
Define the work before you buy a vague season. Say whether you want mowing, grading, trees, or irrigation repair, and say it for the town you live in. Cleanup after a wind-thrown limb is not part of mowing unless you say so. Heads that spray siding keep a wall wet that the grade is already threatening. Canal schedules belong in the call if you are on one.
Hot dry weeks punish a planting that has no water plan, and cold weeks punish one that was started too late. Say if establishment is included or only the install. Shrubs buried in a drift on the windward side hide a furnace termination or a well head. That is a mechanical problem wearing a garden costume. Mention it if the equipment disappears under the pile every winter.
Say the town, mow or grade or trees or water, and which way the lot sheds. Mention a slope into the basement or a canal along the lot if that is the worry. The next valley does not have your clay. Wind off the foothills will dry a new planting while you debate the bed line. Bring the direction of the afternoon sun. Call the number on this page.