Landscaping in Phoenix is a sun and irrigation problem disguised as a yard. Rock and drip keep a lot of tract houses stable. Citrus, mesquite, and palo verde in older neighborhoods make shade, drop litter, and send roots into sewer lines. Artificial turf on a west side becomes a hot surface you cannot stand on in June. Bermuda that still gets watered can look fine until the monsoon dumps mud into a grade that slopes toward the slab. Caliche sits under a thin skin of gravel and surprises anyone who thought a hole would be easy.
Say what you want done, and say what the water is doing. Ponding at the stem wall, a low spot that holds the brief rain, a tree on the tile, or a hedge cooking against a block wall are different jobs. Spray heads that mist the block leave scale stains and waste the thing the tree actually needed at the root. Drip that was never moved as the tree grew either starves it or rots it. Ask who adjusts the clock after the crew leaves. Ask who replaces a plant that dies in the first summer, and what watering you owe it.
Grade is the part that protects the house. A berm, a new planter, or a river of decorative rock that traps water against stucco will show up as a plumbing or interior stain later. Monsoon rain is short and rude. The bed needs somewhere to send it. Keep limbs off the roof and off the condenser. Ask about haul-away. If the lot backs to a canal or a wash, say so, because the edge of that lot is not a normal side yard.
The city does not give you a gentle establishment season. Planting into the worst heat is a different bet than planting when the nights are merely warm. Mowing, where lawn remains in Arcadia and a few older pockets, is a long season, not a coastal one. Describe the yard, the sun, and the job. Call the number on this page.