Question
Can you help me estimate, how much it would cost for me to have  a rock border/edge flower bed? 90 ft long against the fence x 32 ft wide and 51 ft long against the fence x 10 on the left side of the house. I got 57 ft against the fence x 15 on the right side of the house for my vegetable garden for 3 people. I'm not sure about the size either . I have plum, pomegranate, 2 kinds of persimmons, 2 blueberries, avocado %26 lemon trees to plant too, maybe in front of the flower bed against the fence.

How much do you think for the sprinkler system? A new sod? Gosh! I still have a lot more..... We are planing to have a pergola covered patio kinda thing too, with concrete floor, so we could BBQ all year round. Probably more flower beds against the house too. I'm sorry I have a lot of questions for you. I wish you are my neighbor so you could come and help me design my backyard. i just can't afford to have this all done all at once. Need advice what to do first and it would be nice if I know how much it's gonna costs to do all this.....

Answer
There is no way for me to accurately price such a job based on the limited amount of details you have provided. For starters I have no idea what labor rates are in your area or the access, etc to your lot. Also there is a ton of details you need to know like size of plants, amount of mulch, amount of demolition to be done first, type of wood for pergola (cedar, pine, etc). Prices vary wildly across markets. The best way to be sure you list out all the plants you want planted,the size and quantity of each, all of the scope of work, all of the materials, all of the finishes, etc and then have at least three companies bid the work. You will learn very quickly who is fair and who is not when you tell them it is a competitive bid. It sounds like a large project so I would urge you to contact a local landscape architect or landscape designer. Fees for this design work should be from a few hundred dollars to several thousand depending on the level of detail you want.

Best of Luck

Sean J Murphy
www.seanjmurphy.com