Lake Elsinore landscaping
Your COMPLETE Landscape Contractor in Lake Elsinore
Lake Elsinore incorporated in 1888 and grew up around the largest natural freshwater lake in Southern California, roughly 3,000 acres. The lake has been the town's biggest feature and its biggest headache: it went dry and refilled several times through the 1900s, and a 1980 flood destroyed surrounding homes and businesses.
That history is why we start a yard here with the water: where it lands, where it sits, where it is supposed to go. Once that is settled we build the rest, turf or sod, irrigation, planting, the lot. One Contractor. One Plan. One Beautiful Finished Yard.
Old town, new tracts and the HOA communities
The 2020 population was 70,265, and housing runs the whole range: older streets, hillside neighborhoods like Country Club Heights, and big planned communities built later.
Summerly, Canyon Hills, Tuscany Hills, Rosetta Canyon and Alberhill Ranch are the newer side. If your yard is inside one, an association has an opinion about the front yard, and the plan matters as much as the work.
The good news is the association's opinion has limits. California Civil Code 4735 voids any rule that prohibits, or has the effect of prohibiting, low water plants or artificial turf. An association can still apply landscaping rules about the finished look, as long as those rules do not add up to a ban. We design to that line.
What we handle here
What we do most in Lake Elsinore
Landscape Drainage Solutions
Flood season runs October through April here, so our drainage solutions plan where water goes before we plan how the yard looks.
Landscape Renovation
A full landscape renovation lays the whole yard out before we dig, which is what an association wants and a sloped lot needs.
Artificial Turf Installation
Artificial turf suits a hillside front yard that never grew grass properly, with live planting kept in the design.
Sprinkler Repair
Broken heads and leaking lines soak the ground in the places you do not want soaked, so we repair the sprinklers before the slope pays for it.
Why Lake Elsinore calls us
Why yards here are planned around water
The city runs real flood infrastructure: flood channels at Leach Canyon, Ortega and McVicker Canyon, and levees at the Back Basin and Rice Canyon. Flood season is October through April, and properties in Special Flood Hazard Areas need an elevation certificate.
For a yard that means grading, swales and drains are the first thing on the plan, not extras. Water without a route will find one, usually along a foundation or down a slope where it takes soil with it.
Summers are hot and dry. July averages a high around 96.5 F, with about 11.65 inches of rain a year. Lake Elsinore sits in USDA zones 9b and 10a, so low water plants do well if put in properly and mulched. A minimum three inch mulch layer is part of the state landscape ordinance, and the cheapest way to hold moisture in clay ground.
The lake, the hills and the canyons
Everything here reads off the lake: roughly 3,000 acres of water, hills on both sides, and canyon drainages running down at Leach Canyon, Ortega and McVicker Canyon. The slope is what makes a Lake Elsinore yard different from a flat tract yard twenty minutes away.
We work from Menifee, a short run over, and we are in Lake Elsinore, Wildomar and Canyon Lake most weeks, on front yards, back yards, slopes and commercial properties.
Where we work
Working across Lake Elsinore
We cover the whole city, including Summerly, Canyon Hills, Tuscany Hills, Rosetta Canyon, Alberhill Ranch and Country Club Heights, plus the older streets closer to the lake. In Paul's words: "We service the Inland Valley Region. The areas along the 15 and 215 freeways. We are located in the City of Menifee, California." Lake Elsinore sits on the 15, with Wildomar just south and Canyon Lake just east, so this is home ground for us.
Ask the contractor
Straight answers to landscaping questions
My Lake Elsinore yard floods every winter. Can you fix it?
Usually yes, and it starts with grading and a proper route for the water rather than one drain in a low spot. Flood season here runs October through April, and the city itself runs channels at Leach Canyon, Ortega and McVicker Canyon plus levees at the Back Basin and Rice Canyon. We look at where the water arrives from, where it pools, and where it can legally go, then build to that.
I am in Summerly, Canyon Hills or Tuscany Hills in Lake Elsinore. Will the HOA approve this?
Those associations do have landscaping rules and you should submit your plan. What they cannot do is ban artificial turf or low water plants, because Civil Code 4735 makes any rule void and unenforceable if it prohibits, or has the effect of prohibiting, either one. We design the yard so it meets the look the association wants without giving up the water savings.
Do you handle hillside yards in Lake Elsinore?
Yes, and they are common here. Slopes need the water controlled, the soil held and the planting chosen for the exposure. The state landscape ordinance also rules out turfgrass on slopes steeper than 1 foot of drop for every 4 feet across, so a slope usually wants planting and mulch rather than lawn anyway.
Does artificial turf qualify for the EVMWD rebate in Lake Elsinore?
No. The eligibility rules say "No synthetic turf is allowed" and the project cannot include any live turf or turf looking grasses. Live drought planting is what earns the $2.25 per square foot. We can install turf where you want it and do qualifying planting elsewhere in the same project.
Does turf get hot in an Elsinore summer?
Yes. In full sun any synthetic surface gets hotter than live grass, because real grass cools itself by giving off water and synthetic turf cannot. With July highs averaging around 96.5 F at the long record station here, that is worth planning around. Shade, placement and mixing in planted areas all help, and we will say so if turf is wrong for a particular spot.
Are you licensed, bonded and insured?
Yes. California contractor license 840163, issued 06/07/2004, classification C-27 Landscaping. Bonded with Western Surety for $25,000 and workers comp active. Check it yourself at cslb.ca.gov before you hire anybody.