Backyards designed, built,and kept up.
Cruz Landscaping is Fernando Cruz's landscape company in Chico. Full backyard designs and yard builds from bare dirt, complete sprinkler systems, walkways and patios in pavers and travertine, sprinkler repairs, and the regular weekly service that keeps a finished yard looking finished.
The whole yard, or just the mowing
Design and build for a yard that is starting over, scheduled jobs for the one thing that needs doing, and a weekly route for everything that has to keep happening.
Design and build
Drawing and written price firstFull backyard design and build
Start with what you want the yard to do: eat outside, give the kids room, stop looking at dirt. Fernando draws it up with you, prices it, and builds it, or builds from a plan you already have.
Yard builds from bare dirt
New-construction lots and yards that were never finished. Grading and drainage, sprinklers and drip, hardscape, soil, sod or seed, planting, and mulch, in the order they have to go in.
Sprinkler system installation
Complete systems: mainline, valves, controller, spray zones for lawn and drip zones for beds, laid out for head-to-head coverage and a schedule that fits a Chico summer.
Walkways, patios and pavers
Paver and travertine walkways, patios and pads on a compacted base, set so they stay flat through wet winters and 100-degree summers. Edging, steps and borders to match.
Scheduled work
Quoted per jobSpring and fall cleanups
A full reset: cut back, prune, weed, edge, re-mulch, haul away. Usually the first visit for a yard that has gotten ahead of its owner.
New lawns and lawn repair
Sod or seed, prepped soil underneath, and sprinklers set up to cover it. Aeration, dethatching and overseeding for a lawn that is thin but worth keeping.
Lawn-to-garden conversions
Turf out, drip in, mulch down, and planting chosen for a Chico summer: natives, Mediterranean shrubs and perennials that hold up at 105 degrees.
Sprinkler and drip repair
Broken heads, stuck or leaking valves, dead controllers, spray beds converted to drip, and a watering schedule that matches the season instead of running all year.
Planting
Trees, shrubs, seasonal color and vegetable beds, planted in the right window: fall and late winter for most things, so roots take before the heat.
Bark, gravel and hauling
Bark, mulch, decorative rock and gravel delivered and spread. Green waste, old sod and brush hauled off when it will not fit in the cart.
On the route
Weekly or every other weekMowing and edging
Cut to the height the season calls for, edged along walks and beds, clippings bagged or mulched, and every hard surface blown off before the gate closes.
Beds and ground cover
Weeding by hand and with pre-emergent, deadheading, bark and mulch topped up where it has thinned, bermuda pulled back out of the beds.
Shrubs and hedges
Trimmed on a schedule that suits the plant, not just the calendar: spring bloomers after they flower, hedges a few times through the growing season.
Sprinklers and drip
Heads, nozzles, risers, drip emitters and valves checked as part of the visit. Small fixes done on the spot; anything bigger flagged with a price first.
Leaf season
From late October into December, Chico’s trees drop for weeks. Extra pickups keep lawns from matting and gutters and drains clear.
What a yard here needs, month by month
Chico runs hot and dry from June into September, wet and mild in winter, and drops its leaves for weeks every fall. The route follows that calendar.
- Prune roses and fruit trees
- Plant bare-root trees and shrubs
- Mow only as needed
- Pre-emergent before weeds germinate
- Top up mulch in the beds
- First feeding for lawns late in the month
- Irrigation start-up and leak check
- First regular mows as the grass wakes
- Cut back perennials
- Weekly mowing
- Aerate compacted lawns
- Spring planting window
- Raise the mowing height
- Check drip emitters and spray coverage
- Trim spring bloomers after they finish
- Watering schedule set for summer
- Deep-water young trees
- Hedges trimmed
- Mow high, water early
- No fertilizer in the heat
- Watch for dry spots and clogged emitters
- Keep bermuda out of the beds
- Adjust controllers as days shorten
- Plan fall planting
- Overseed and feed cool-season lawns
- Fall planting opens
- Dethatch where needed
- First leaf pickups
- Cut irrigation back
- Plant trees and shrubs
- Weekly leaf pickups
- Gutters and drains cleared
- Irrigation off after the first real rain
- Final leaf cleanup
- Mow every other week
- Plan spring changes
Growing season: the weekly route runs April through November.
The things people ask before they let anyone in the yard
Short answers here. Longer ones on the walk-through.
Something not covered? Send Fernando a note with the address and what the yard needs, and he will come take a look.
Ask FernandoHow often
Weekly through the growing season and every other week in winter is the usual rhythm for a lawn. Beds-only yards can run monthly. Pick the one that fits and change it when the season does.
Design help
Bring a plan, a photo from a magazine, or nothing at all. Fernando can design the yard with you and build it, or build from drawings you already have. Either way you see a drawing and a price before anything is dug.
Starting from dirt
New-construction lots are a regular job. Sprinklers, drainage and hardscape go in before any plants, so the yard does not get torn up twice.
Getting a quote
Fernando walks the yard with you and gives you a written price: per visit for the route, per job for a build or a repair. The walk-through does not cost anything.
Green waste
Clippings and trimmings go in your green cart when they fit. Cleanups and leaf season usually make more than a cart holds, and that gets hauled.
Sprinkler problems
A broken head or a clogged emitter found during a visit gets fixed then and there. A failed valve or controller gets flagged, with a price, before any work is done.
Rain days
Visits slide a day when the ground is too wet to mow without tearing it up. Nothing gets skipped; the route catches up.
Starting a yard, or keeping one up?
Send Fernando the address and he will set up a walk-through.
Tell Fernando about the yard
The address, roughly how big the yard is, and what you want done, whether that is a whole backyard or just the mowing. Fernando will set up a walk-through and follow up with a written price.