A foundation planting is the bed along the house: the shrubs, the low natives, and sometimes a palm, set so they are not in the wall or the roof. The guide is foundation plantings. The plants we already use are croton, viburnum, coontie, and sabal palm. A single bed or a foundation refresh usually falls around $400–$1,200. That is a range, not a bid. The walk sets it from the length of the wall and the size of the plants.
The row has to look acceptable in September, after a wet summer, not only on the day the pots come off the truck. Right plant, right place, on this sand. Salt and drought get a stricter filter near a canal. Brittle and invasive trees stay off the roof. Brazilian pepper and melaleuca are not foundation plants.
What it looks like here
Coontie stays low under windows and does not sprawl into the gutter or the walk. Viburnum is the screen, and it is the wrong choice in a spot where a tall plant will eat the view or the soffit. Croton wants the sun that makes the color. A north wall in oak shade wastes it. A sabal is the vertical accent, the cabbage palm, and it goes where the crown will clear the eave at mature size, not at pot size. If that clearance does not exist, the palm does not go on that wall.
Mulch around the plants. Rock at the slab. Leave air between the stems and the stucco. A shrub pressed to the siding is a mildew problem by August, worse where salt spray adds to the humidity. An overgrown row on an older house is often a removal and a replant, not a harder shear.
What we do with it
We walk the wall, match plants to the light, and install with our own crew. Sod, rock, and mulch on that visit stay in their own bands: $0.85–$1.75 for sod, $3–$9 for a bed. A full yard, not one wall, is the larger landscape range, $2,500–$8,000 or more. We will not pad a one-bed job into a full design, and we will not hide a paver, a cage, or an irrigation rebuild inside the bed price.
Measure the mature width before you fall in love with a pot. We would rather plant the short plant under the window than sell you a trim forever. The list and the clearances are foundation plantings.