In Dallas, irrigation isn’t only about keeping a lawn green. The blackland clay under most of the city swells and shrinks enough with moisture to move house foundations, which is why watering strategy here is partly a structural question. A landscaper who doesn’t understand that — or who can’t legally touch your irrigation system — is the wrong hire. This page lists landscapers serving Dallas.
What Dallas landscapers handle
Maintenance across a long season, roughly March through November, with heavy growth in spring and autumn and a hot, stressed midsummer.
Irrigation design, installation and repair — the one part of Texas landscaping that requires a state licence.
Drainage and grading, driven by clay soil that sheds water rather than absorbing it.
Planting and design for a climate with genuinely hot summers and real winter cold, including occasional damaging ice.
Hardscape — patios, outdoor kitchens, fire features, shade structures — a large market given long shoulder seasons that make outdoor space usable.
Licensing: what Texas actually requires
Texas has no statewide general landscaping contractor licence. Mowing, planting, pruning and maintenance need no state credential.
Irrigation is the exception, and it’s enforced. Under Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1903, anyone who sells, designs, consults on, installs, maintains, alters, repairs, services or inspects an irrigation system must hold a TCEQ licence. Earning a Landscape Irrigator licence requires a 40-hour training course and a six-hour exam with at least 70% in each section; the licence runs three years. Irrigation Technicians may work under the direct supervision of a licensed irrigator.
Working without that licence is a Class C misdemeanour under §1903.251, carrying civil penalties up to $5,000 per day.
This is the single most useful verification available to a Dallas homeowner. Any company quoting sprinkler installation or repair should produce a TCEQ licence number on request. If they can’t, they cannot legally do the work.
Commercial pesticide application is separately licensed through the Texas Department of Agriculture — ask for that credential if anyone is treating your lawn.
Because state licensing is thin, verify general liability and workers’ compensation directly rather than accepting “licensed and insured” at face value.
What’s specific to Dallas
Blackland prairie clay, and what it does to houses. Dallas sits on expansive clay that swells when wet and contracts when dry. The seasonal movement is enough to cause differential foundation settlement — a genuinely expensive problem and one of the defining features of North Texas homeownership.
This produces a local practice that surprises newcomers: foundation watering. During hot, dry stretches, many Dallas homeowners run soaker hoses at a set distance from the slab perimeter to keep soil moisture — and therefore soil volume — reasonably stable, rather than letting the clay shrink away from the foundation. A competent Dallas landscaper will discuss this, know how far from the slab to place the line, and understand that consistency matters more than volume.
The same clay drives everything else:
- Drainage work is common, because water runs off rather than soaking in.
- Beds must drain away from the foundation, never toward it.
- Hardscape needs proper base depth or seasonal soil movement will heave it.
- Aeration is genuinely valuable rather than an upsell, because clay compacts hard.
Two-day watering, permanently. Dallas restricts lawn watering to two days per week on a permanent basis — not a drought response — and bans daytime irrigation from April through October. Days are assigned by address: odd-numbered addresses on Wednesday and Saturday, even-numbered on Thursday and Sunday.
That is a real design constraint. A landscape must deliver its entire water requirement across two days, outside daytime hours during the warm half of the year. It pushes toward deep infrequent cycles, cycle-and-soak scheduling on clay that resists fast infiltration, heavy mulch and hydrozoning. Confirm current rules with Dallas Water Utilities before planning.
Heat and cold both matter. Dallas sits around USDA zone 8a–8b. Summers push past 100°F; winters bring hard freezes and periodic damaging ice storms. The plant palette needs both tolerances, which rules out much of what works in Houston and nearly all of what works in coastal California.
Ice storm tree damage. Species with brittle wood — Bradford pear most notoriously — split apart under ice load. Tree selection and structural pruning are worth real attention here.
Pricing expectations
Dallas figures for 2026, as published by the City and local landscaping companies:
- Dallas rebates irrigation equipment, not square footage: $150 for a WaterSense controller, $200 to convert a pop-up spray zone to drip or bubblers, $200 to convert fixed nozzles to multi-stream rotary nozzles in turf zones, $600 to split a single zone into separate bed and turf zones, plus 50% of outsourced labour — to a $3,000 lifetime cap. Read the pilot caveat below
- City fees you will actually meet: irrigation plan review $120; a tree removal application costs the removal contract value × $0.0095, minimum $60; reinspections $60, then $90, then $120; a tree removal investigation $550; tree survey review $100 an hour
- Landscape work: a front yard $5,000–$15,000; a backyard $15,000–$60,000; luxury outdoor living $75,000–$150,000+. By area, basic $8–$15 per square foot, mid-range design $15–$30
- Systems: irrigation installation $2,000–$8,000; drainage $3,000–$12,000; lighting $3,000–$15,000; patio and hardscape $8,000–$40,000+
- Trees by size: under 30 ft $300–$800; 30–60 ft $800–$2,000; 60–80 ft $2,000–$5,000; over 80 ft $4,000–$8,000+. Crane assistance adds $500–$2,500; emergency removal $800–$3,000, or $2,500–$8,000 where a crane is needed
- Mowing: $40–$120 a visit — about $50 on a 5,000 sq ft property, $75 on 5,000–10,000 sq ft, over $100 above that. Edging, weed management and seasonal cleanup add $15–$40 a visit; budget $100–$300 a month on a sizeable lawn
Dallas is the only city in this batch that pays for irrigation efficiency rather than for removing grass — and the design of it tells you what the utility actually wants. Splitting one zone into separate bed and turf zones earns the largest single rebate at $600, because watering shrubs on a lawn schedule is the most common way a Dallas garden wastes water. Read the caveat carefully though: this is a pilot, introduced to a pre-selected group of 100 residential properties, and eligibility requires you to be the property owner and account holder with a DWU account in good standing. Confirm you are in it before designing a project around it.
The watering rule applies to everyone and is permanent rather than drought-triggered. Outdoor watering is limited to a maximum of twice a week, on days set by the last digit of your address, and is prohibited between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on any day of the year. Note what is exempt: hand watering and soaker hoses are allowed on any day, and drip irrigation any day and at any time — which is precisely why the rebate above pays you to convert to drip. Fines run $250 to $2,000 per incident.
Dallas also publishes something most cities do not: a tree removal fee calculated as a percentage of the removal contract value — 0.95% of what you pay the tree company, with a $60 floor. That is unusual, and it means a bigger removal quote automatically brings a bigger city fee. Note also the escalating reinspection ladder and the $550 investigation fee if the city has to look into an unauthorised removal. The city works to a 40 percent tree canopy goal across a building site.
One easy credential check: a Texas licensed irrigator must display the licence number in the format “LI” followed by seven digits. If a sprinkler quote does not carry one, that is the end of the conversation.
These are ranges local landscaping companies publish for this metro rather than survey data, so treat them as a bracket to check a quote against, not a price list.
Two contract items: whether your property is actually in the DWU rebate pilot before you design around it, and the “LI” licence number on any irrigation quote, and which day your address may water.
Neighborhoods served
Landscapers listed here work across Dallas, including Lakewood, Preston Hollow, the M Streets, Lake Highlands, Oak Cliff, Bishop Arts, Kessler Park, Casa Linda, White Rock, Uptown, Bluffview and Northwood Hills.
Most also serve surrounding cities — Highland Park, University Park, Plano, Richardson, Garland, Irving, Mesquite, Grand Prairie, Carrollton, Addison and Rowlett.
How this directory helps
Every landscaper here is listed with business name, address and phone so you can verify them yourself.
Since Texas licenses so little, the questions do the filtering. Ask for the TCEQ irrigator licence number on any sprinkler work. Ask how they’d approach foundation watering during a dry August — anyone who has worked North Texas clay has a clear answer about distance from the slab and consistency. And confirm they’re designing irrigation around a two-day schedule rather than assuming daily access to water.