$25,000–$40,000 · 3 weeks
Prairie front yard, New Braunfels
East of I-35, off Walnut Avenue, New Braunfels · finished 2025 · led by Jen Alvarez
Landscape Design · from $25,000–$60,000
Front yard design in New Braunfels and San Antonio
A front yard has three jobs. It gets people from the driveway to the door without walking on wet grass. It makes the house look cared for from the street. And it has to do both through a Hill Country summer on one or two watering days a week. Most front yards we're called to fix fail at the third job.
We design front yards around how the house is actually used: where cars park, which door guests use, where the downspouts dump water, and what your HOA allows. Then we pick plants and stone that keep looking good on the water you're allowed to use.
Who it's for
Who this is for
Homeowners whose St. Augustine died in the last drought and who don't want to pay to resod it. New builds with a builder-grade package of three boxwoods and a strip of sod. Older homes in Alamo Heights or Gruene where the beds are overgrown and the walk is heaving.
It's also for anyone selling in the next few years. A front yard is the first thing a buyer sees, and a planted, mulched, well-lit entry is one of the cheaper ways to make a house show better.
Materials and options
Common front yard materials and where they fit
| Option | Best for | Water need | Typical installed cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native shrub and perennial beds | Replacing lawn along the house and walk | Low: drip 1–2× a week in summer | $12–$22 per sq ft |
| Lindheimer muhly and grass masses | Large areas, slopes, street edges | Very low once established | $9–$15 per sq ft |
| Cut limestone border | Clean bed edges, HOA-friendly | None | $28–$45 per linear ft |
| Flagstone walkway on compacted base | Main entry walks | None | $22–$40 per sq ft |
| Zoysia or buffalo grass panel | A small lawn where kids or dogs play | Moderate | $1.60–$2.80 per sq ft |
What it costs
What front yard design costs
$25,000–$60,000
for most installed front yards, design credited
A typical front yard with new native beds, a limestone border, drip irrigation and a reset walkway lands between $25,000 and $40,000. Adding a new flagstone walk, entry lighting or grading to fix drainage pushes it toward $60,000.
You'll see every line in the proposal: plants by count and size, stone by square foot, irrigation by zone. The price is fixed for everything in that scope. We probe for rock on the site walk, and anything outside the scope is quoted in writing before work proceeds.
Timeline
How long it takes
Plan on five to eight weeks from site walk to finished front yard.
- Site walk and design2–3 weeks
- HOA review, if required2–4 weeks
- Demolition and soil prep2–3 days
- Hardscape, irrigation and planting1–2 weeks
- WalkthroughFinal day
Designing for the water you're allowed
Most cities we work in limit sprinklers to one assigned day a week during drought stages, and many HOAs still require some green. We design front yards to look finished on that schedule: drip-irrigated beds that can be watered any day under most city rules, plants that go a little gold in August instead of dying, and turf only where it earns its water.
Case study
Prairie front yard, New Braunfels
A dead St. Augustine front yard on blackland clay replaced with native prairie beds, a dry creek bed for the downspouts and three drip zones.
Read the case study“The water bill last August was about a third lower than the year before, and the creek bed handled the May storms without a drop on the walk. Neighbors stop to ask what the pink grass is.”
Questions
Front yard design questions
Will my HOA let me remove the front lawn?
Texas law limits an HOA's ability to ban drought-tolerant landscaping, but most can still require approval of your plan and set standards for how it looks. We design to those standards and prepare the submission for you.
How much water will a native front yard use?
Once established, usually after the first summer, a drip-irrigated native front yard typically uses a fraction of what St. Augustine needs. Our New Braunfels clients who switched report summer water use down by roughly a third or more.
Can you keep some lawn?
Yes. A small panel of Zoysia or buffalo grass where kids or dogs actually use it is often the right call. We just stop growing grass in the strips and shady corners where it never did well anyway.
Where we build this most
Free · 45 minutes · no obligation
Start with a free site walk
Forty-five minutes on your property with a designer. You'll leave with honest numbers and a clear next step. A fixed-price proposal with a 3D render follows within two weeks.