Oregon regulates landscaping more tightly than any other state, and it comes with a trap that catches homeowners regularly: a contractor who shows you a CCB registration is still unlicensed for landscape work. Oregon requires a Landscape Contractors Board licence specifically, and the two are not interchangeable. That one check filters the Portland market faster than anything else. This page lists landscapers serving Portland.
What Portland landscapers handle
Native and adapted planting design. Portland has a genuinely strong native plant culture, and the regional palette is distinctive.
Stormwater management — rain gardens, bioswales, permeable paving. In a city with this much winter rain and strict on-site stormwater expectations, this is mainstream work.
Irrigation design, repair and winterisation, all of which require the LCB licence.
Invasive species control — English ivy, Himalayan blackberry and similar are a persistent regional battle.
Hardscape — patios, retaining walls, steps — on sloped, often wet sites.
Licensing: Oregon’s LCB, and the CCB trap
Oregon licenses landscape contracting through the Landscape Contractors Board (LCB). Most operators need both an individual landscape construction professional licence and a landscape contracting business licence.
Requirements are substantial: four years of experience or equivalent education, the LCB examination, a $20,000 surety bond, and proof of liability insurance. Businesses must carry both the bond and insurance.
Work requiring the licence is defined broadly and covers most of what people hire a landscaper for:
- Planning or installing lawns, shrubs, vines, trees and nursery stock
- Preparing property, including adding and incorporating soil amendments, rototilling and grading
- Installing or repairing irrigation systems
- Maintaining irrigation systems with compressed air — meaning the annual winterisation blow-out
The trap. Some landscapers register with the Construction Contractors Board (CCB) and present that as their credential. Under ORS 671, the LCB licence is the mandatory one for landscape work — a contractor holding only CCB registration is still unlicensed for the work described above.
So the question isn’t “are you licensed?” It’s “do you hold an LCB licence, and what’s the number?” The board maintains licensee lookups. Verify before signing.
What’s specific to Portland
Wet winters, dry summers. Portland sits around USDA zone 8b–9a with a Mediterranean-influenced pattern that surprises newcomers: heavy rain from roughly October through May, then a genuinely dry summer. Consequences:
- Summer irrigation is necessary, despite the city’s rainy reputation. Established plants still need water in July and August
- Winter drainage is the bigger design problem. Plants die of waterlogged roots far more often than of drought here
- Autumn planting is ideal. Winter rain establishes roots with no irrigation effort at all
Heavy clay and winter waterlogging. Much of the Portland area sits on clay that drains slowly. Combined with months of rain, that produces saturated soil for long stretches. Practical responses: raised beds and berms rather than fighting the profile, genuine drainage design, and plants that tolerate wet winter feet. A landscaper who plants a Mediterranean drought-lover into a flat clay bed has installed something that will die in February, not August.
Stormwater is regulated. Portland takes on-site stormwater management seriously, and projects that add impervious surface may trigger management requirements. Rain gardens, permeable paving and bioswales are common local solutions and often expected rather than optional. Confirm what applies before adding a large patio or driveway.
Tree regulations. Portland protects trees through city code, with permits typically required for removal of trees above certain sizes and rules covering both private property and street trees. Confirm before removing anything substantial — penalties and mitigation planting requirements are real.
Invasive species are a genuine workload. English ivy, Himalayan blackberry, clematis and others spread aggressively in this climate and escape into natural areas. Responsible local landscapers won’t plant known invasives and will discuss ongoing control rather than one-off removal, because these come back.
Moss is not a failure. In a shaded, damp climate, moss in lawns is the environment telling you something. Repeatedly killing it and reseeding grass in deep shade is an annual subscription to the same problem — converting to shade planting or embracing moss is often cheaper and better looking.
Pricing expectations
Portland figures for 2026, from the City’s bureaus and a local contractor:
- Portland reduces your bill rather than paying a rebate: on-site stormwater features can earn a discount of up to 35 percent of your total stormwater fee — a permanent monthly reduction, not a one-off
- Qualifying features are ordinary landscape: rain gardens, swales, lawns and landscaped areas — provided the ground receiving the water is at least 10 percent of the area draining to it
- Water Bureau outdoor rebates: an irrigation controller up to $100 for single-family (up to $500 multifamily or commercial); two hose faucet controllers at $50 each — $75 each if you are enrolled in the financial assistance programme; and $3 per multi-stream nozzle or WaterSense sprinkler body, up to 32 of them on a single-family property
- A single-family owner’s tree fee-in-lieu of replanting is capped at $1,200 — a protection most cities do not offer. The base rate follows the adopted schedule; the City’s own example puts a 1.5-inch caliper tree at $450
- A removal permit is required for private trees 12 inches in diameter and above. On the most recent published schedule, a street tree removal application is $35 and pruning applications in the relevant zones carry no charge; a permit appeal is $100
- Paver patios installed: $15–$35 per square foot. By size — 100–200 sq ft $2,500–$5,500; 200–400 sq ft $5,000–$12,000; 400–800+ sq ft $10,000–$25,000+. A 400 sq ft patio with borders, steps or a fire pit area runs $8,000–$18,000+
Portland is the only city on this site where landscaping can permanently lower a utility bill. The Bureau of Environmental Services offers a stormwater discount of up to 35 percent for managing rain on site, and the qualifying features are not exotic — rain gardens, swales, lawns and planted areas all count, provided the receiving ground is at least a tenth of the area draining into it. That changes the arithmetic on a project: a rebate pays once, a rate discount pays every month for as long as the feature works. Ask any designer whether their plan is being sized to qualify.
The tree rule here is unusually protective of homeowners, and worth knowing before a quote frightens you. Portland requires one tree replanted for every tree removed, with a fee payable in lieu where replanting is not possible — but on a single-family residential property that fee is capped at $1,200, no matter the size of the tree. In a city like Columbus the equivalent is uncapped and charged per inch. The removal permit threshold is 12 inches in diameter on private property.
One caveat on the tree figures: the fee schedule is old. The most recent published Title 11 schedule is effective 1 November 2017, and it is still the current one, so treat the application fees above as the published rates rather than as freshly reviewed ones and confirm before budgeting.
On credentials, Oregon has one of the clearest thresholds in the country. A Landscape Contractors Board licence is required to plan or install lawns, shrubs, vines, trees and irrigation — and the exemption is narrow: the total value of landscape work cannot exceed $4,600. Above that, ask for the LCB number. On irrigation, backflow assemblies must be tested every year by a state-certified tester.
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 the design is sized to qualify for the stormwater discount, which pays every month rather than once, and the contractor’s Oregon LCB licence number, since the exemption stops at $4,600 of work.
Neighborhoods served
Landscapers listed here work across Portland, including Alberta, Hawthorne, Sellwood-Moreland, Laurelhurst, Irvington, Alameda, Woodstock, Multnomah Village, St. Johns, Mount Tabor and the Pearl District.
Most also serve surrounding communities — Beaverton, Lake Oswego, Tigard, Milwaukie, Gresham, Hillsboro, West Linn and Vancouver, Washington.
How this directory helps
Every landscaper here is listed with business name, address and phone so you can verify them yourself, with LCB licence numbers where available.
The single most valuable question in this city: “What’s your LCB licence number?” If the answer is a CCB number instead, they are not licensed for landscape work in Oregon regardless of how the conversation is framed. After that, ask how they’d handle winter drainage on your soil — the honest answer usually involves raising beds rather than amending clay indefinitely.