How Yardzen Works

The most delightful way to transform your outdoor space, from design all the way through to build.


Start with our YardBuilder

Dream up your dream yard. After purchasing your Yardzen design package, it's time to set up your account. Yardzen's delightful process starts with our information-gathering YardBuilder™ tool, which prompts you to share everything we need to know to start working on your project, including your style preferences, inspiration photos, site conditions, and how you want to live in your outdoor space.

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Show us your outdoor space

Our guided step-by-step process walks you through the exact photos and videos we need to see your outdoor space as though we’re right there with you. Talk through your video and show us everything. Using these photos and videos, we’ll be able to measure and map your yard using our 3D modeling software.

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Narrow in on your budget

Yardzen’s proprietary budget tool allows you to browse different elements with associated price tags, from pergolas to patios to pools, and everything in between. This will help you arrive at a budget and a vision for your space, which we’ll share with your design and build teams. Not sure about your budget? There’s room to explain that too.

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Your design team gets to work

The Yardzen team consists of landscape designers, horticulturalists, and construction experts, working together to design an outdoor space for your property that achieves your budget and style goals, and helps you live a better, more sustainable life outside.

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Revise and iterate

Yardzen is an iterative process that includes a thorough round of revisions. With your first design, you’ll start to visualize your new outdoor space. At this point, you’ll be able to provide feedback on the design in our collaborative, online feedback studio.

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Match with a contractor

At the end of the Yardzen design process, you’ll receive your final design, a plant list, a furniture list, and detailed construction documents, called CAD plans. Now it’s time to match with a Yardzen pro! Yardzen’s Pro Network of vetted, licensed, and insured landscape contractors stretches from coast to coast. Yardzen’s team will pair you with a contractor who fits your budget and vision, and they’ll quickly schedule time to visit your property to provide a quote.

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Bring your dream yard to life

Once you’ve finalized your quote with your contractor (Yardzen’s team is here to support you through the bidding process), it’s time to get on your contractor’s schedule and break ground. Yardzen remains highly engaged with both the homeowner and contractor throughout the install process to ensure an exceptional experience for all.

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Live a better life outside

Yardzen partners with the leading outdoor furniture and decor companies, including Crate & Barrel, Rejuvenation, Solo Stove, and more, to ensure that every client loves their new outdoor space.

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From day one to installation

Exceptional designers working on your space in a way that’s also efficient for you

DAY 1
SHARE YOUR VISION

Share your vision with the team. Go through our YardBuilder budget exercise, and share photos, videos, and inspiration images.

WEEK 1 - 3
DESIGN

Our world-class team of designers and horticulturalists get to work creating a custom design for your unique property.

WEEK 3 - 6
DESIGN REVISION

Review your detailed renders and go through our thorough revision process before finalizing your design.

WEEK 6 - 7
BUILD

Connect with a vetted Pro Network contractor to install your design and starting enjoying your new outdoor space.

 
  • We use a combination of your photo and video, plant science, data science, and our proprietary style quiz to create a fully custom design without ever stepping foot on your property.

  • At the outset of the design process, we ask you for your all-in budget for your project. Your designer will create your design with that number in mind. However, it's important to keep in mind that there are always variables — like the materials and plant sizes you ultimately choose — that can bring down cost or ratchet it up. Our Build Team, composed of former landscape contractors with over 50 years of combined experience, will consult with you and your design team throughout the process to help ensure that you stay on budget.

  • At the beginning of the process, we'll ask for inspiration photos and guide you through a style quiz to get a very good sense of your style and how you want to use your yard. Across our team of world-class designers, we have specialists in every aesthetic, from very traditional to ultra-modern, and everywhere in between.

  • We've built a database of plants, trees, and groundcovers that match to planting zones, sun/shade/water requirements, aesthetic, and essential features like "native," "deer-proof," "non-toxic for pets" and "year-round blooms." Additionally, we use satellite and aerial imagery, coupled with your photo, video, and responses to our questions, to assess sun and shade patterns at your property throughout the day. We rely heavily on this database, but we always have a horticulturist make the final calls when choosing your design's plant palette. After you show us your style and tell us how and who uses your outdoor space, we're well-equipped to choose your plants.

  • In many ways, our deep contractor relationships are our secret sauce. The contractors in the Yardzen Pro Network are top-rated professionals. We partner only with the best, most responsive, and diligent contractors for our clients' projects. So why are they thrilled to work on Yardzen projects when you regularly find it hard to get an exceptional contractor to return a call? Because with Yardzen, every project starts with a design. They appreciate that we've already invested the work to help you arrive at a plan. So when they enter the picture, they can get to work. Win-win.

  • Our favorite topic! Our core ethos is that anyone who controls a patch of Earth has the potential to effect positive change. We're a team of landscape designers & LEED-certified architects, environmental consultants, conservationists, even beekeepers. We're here to empower people to make good decisions, which is why we'll lead you toward a low-water yard and educate you about rain catchment systems and why there are better choices than traditional sod. As a general rule, every Yardzen design includes pollinator-loving, climate-adapted plants that lay the groundwork for wildlife corridors. We believe that if we all do a little we can do a lot. Learn more about our sustainability commitment here: American Rewilding Project.

Live a better life outside