Landscape maintenance is one of those services where the range is wide and the variables are many. A small front yard in a Windsor subdivision and a two-acre estate in Dry Creek Valley are both “landscape maintenance” — but the scope, crew size, equipment, and cost are entirely different. Understanding what drives pricing helps you evaluate proposals accurately and set a realistic budget for your property.
This guide covers what professional landscape maintenance includes, how companies price their services, what you can expect to pay in Sonoma County in 2026, and how to choose a maintenance provider worth trusting with your property.
What’s in This Guide
What Landscape Maintenance Includes
A full-service landscape maintenance program covers a lot of ground — literally and figuratively. Core services in a standard maintenance contract typically include:
- Mowing and edging: Lawn cutting at appropriate height for turf type, with clean edges along hardscape and beds
- Pruning and shaping: Seasonal pruning of shrubs, ornamental grasses, perennials, and hedges to maintain form and encourage healthy growth
- Fertilizing: Seasonal fertilization timed to plant needs — spring feeding for lawns and roses, fall feeding for cool-season plants
- Irrigation monitoring: Checking run times, replacing damaged emitters, adjusting controllers seasonally, and flagging leaks or coverage gaps
- Weed control: Hand weeding in beds and hardscape cracks; pre-emergent application in appropriate areas
- Seasonal cleanup: Leaf removal in fall, cutting back spent perennials and ornamental grasses in late winter/early spring
- Debris removal: Hauling away clippings, trimmings, and organic material — included in some contracts, billed separately in others
Additional services often offered as line items or add-ons: tree care and deep-root fertilization, pest and disease management, irrigation system upgrades, seasonal color installation, and one-time renovation or cleanup projects.
How Maintenance Is Priced
Landscape maintenance companies in Sonoma County generally use one of two pricing structures:
Per-visit pricing: A set rate for each service visit, billed by the visit. Common for properties that don’t need weekly service, or for clients who want flexibility. The downside: costs can vary month-to-month based on visit frequency, and it can be harder to budget predictably.
Monthly contract: A flat monthly fee covering a specified scope of work at a set frequency. Most professional maintenance companies prefer this structure — it allows for proper crew scheduling, and clients benefit from predictable costs. Contracts typically specify visit frequency (weekly, biweekly, monthly), scope of services included, and what’s billed as extra.
When comparing proposals, make sure you’re comparing the same scope. A $200/month proposal covering biweekly visits with debris removal is a different product than a $200/month proposal covering monthly visits without hauling.
Cost Ranges by Property Size
Based on current market rates in Sonoma County:
Small residential (under 5,000 sq ft of maintained area): $150–$250/month on a biweekly maintenance schedule. Typical for town homes, smaller suburban lots, and low-complexity plantings. Weekly service adds 30–40% to monthly cost.
Medium residential (5,000–15,000 sq ft): $300–$600/month. This is the most common range for Sonoma County single-family homes with established landscaping — a mix of lawn, shrubs, perennials, and some trees. Price varies significantly based on plant complexity, slope, and irrigation system demands.
Large residential / estate (over 15,000 sq ft): $700–$2,000+/month. Properties in this range often require multiple crew members, specialized equipment for slopes, and more intensive pruning and irrigation management. Wine country estate properties with extensive formal plantings, orchard areas, or complex irrigation systems sit at the higher end.
Commercial / HOA: Varies widely based on acreage, amenity areas, and service standards. Most commercial properties require a formal scope-of-work bid rather than a per-square-foot estimate.
What Drives Cost
Square footage is a starting point, but several factors move the needle significantly:
Plant complexity: A property with 50 different species — many requiring specific pruning timing, different fertilizer programs, and varied irrigation needs — takes more skilled labor and more time than a simple lawn-and-shrub property the same size. Complexity is often the biggest driver of maintenance cost beyond square footage.
Slopes and access: Properties on hillsides require more care to work safely, more time to move equipment, and sometimes specialized machinery. Slope work adds 20–40% to base labor costs.
Irrigation system age and condition: An older system with frequent failures, mismatched components, or incomplete coverage requires more time per visit to manage. Well-designed drip systems with smart controllers require significantly less monitoring time than aging spray systems.
Debris hauling: Whether your contract includes debris removal is a significant cost variable. In Sonoma County, green waste disposal fees have increased in recent years. Companies that include hauling in their base rate are absorbing that cost; those that don’t will bill it separately.
Service frequency: Weekly service costs roughly 80% more annually than biweekly service — not double, because setup and travel time don’t scale linearly. For most Sonoma County gardens, biweekly service is appropriate for most of the year with weekly service in spring when growth is fastest.
Professional Crew vs. Solo Gardener
The market for residential landscape maintenance in Sonoma County includes established companies with multiple crews, mid-size operations with two or three employees, and solo operators working alone. Each has tradeoffs.
Solo gardeners: Often the lowest-cost option. The tradeoff is capacity — a solo operator can’t cover a large property efficiently, may not have equipment for all tasks, and has no backup if they’re unavailable. Insurance coverage and licensing vary widely. For smaller, lower-complexity properties where personal attention matters more than scale, a skilled solo gardener can be excellent value.
Established crews: Higher base cost, but bring consistent labor, full equipment sets, insurance, contractor licensing, and the ability to scale up for larger seasonal tasks. The risk is crew turnover and the loss of the personal relationship that smaller operations provide. Well-run companies mitigate this by assigning consistent crews to accounts.
For properties over about 10,000 square feet, or any property with significant irrigation complexity, a licensed and insured company with multiple crew members is generally the more reliable choice.
How to Evaluate a Maintenance Company
Landscape maintenance licenses in California are issued through the Contractors State License Board. Any company charging more than $500 for labor and materials on a project should hold a valid C-27 Landscaping license. You can verify license status at cslb.ca.gov. Also confirm general liability and workers’ compensation insurance — ask for certificates of insurance before signing.
Beyond licensing, look for: consistent crew assignments rather than rotating strangers, responsiveness to communication, a clear written scope of work, and references from properties similar to yours in size and style.
Questions to Ask Before Signing
- What exactly is included in the monthly rate, and what’s billed as extra?
- Will the same crew service my property each visit?
- How do you handle irrigation — is monitoring included or billed per repair?
- Is debris hauling included?
- What’s your process when something needs attention between scheduled visits?
- Can I see a sample contract?
- Do you carry general liability and workers’ comp insurance? Can you provide certificates?
Maintenance Services from Geared for Growing
Geared for Growing has maintained Sonoma County properties for over four decades. Our maintenance programs are built around consistent crews, written scopes, and the kind of attention that comes from knowing a property through multiple seasons. We service residential properties throughout Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, Windsor, Sebastopol, and across Sonoma County, and we’re accepting new maintenance clients for the 2026 season.
If you’d like to discuss your property and get a maintenance proposal, contact us to schedule a site visit. We’ll walk the property, understand what it needs, and put together a program that makes sense for your plants and your budget.
