Commercial landscaping in Austin is priced per property, not per yard. Mowing, edging and blowing runs from $45 a visit on a small pad to $95 and up past half an acre, and bed care, mulch and seasonal work get added as written line items. Call (512) 690-4912 or request a free quote and we’ll walk the site.
This page is for property managers, HOA boards and owners of small to mid-size commercial sites in Austin and Travis County. It covers what maintenance really costs, what a visit includes, how the city’s watering rules and the soil on each side of I-35 change the plan, and how we put it all in a scope you can hold a vendor to.
How much does commercial landscaping cost in Austin?
Commercial maintenance is priced by the property. Routine mowing, edging and blowing runs about $45 to $55 per visit on small pads, $55 to $75 on mid-size sites, and $75 to $95 up to half an acre. Larger sites are quoted per property after a walk. Bed care, mulch and seasonal work are separate line items.
Those per-visit figures match the ranges on our Austin landscaping cost page, so what you read here agrees with the rest of the site. Commercial sites usually land on the higher end of the band because there’s more edging, more hard surface to blow off and more trimming around signs, light poles and curbs.
| Site size (turf and beds) | Mow, edge and blow, per visit | Typical Austin site |
|---|---|---|
| Under 5,000 sq ft | $45 to $55 | Small office pad, dental or medical suite, church frontage |
| 5,000 to 10,000 sq ft | $55 to $75 | Office building with lawn and front beds, small retail strip |
| 10,000 sq ft to half an acre | $75 to $95 | Apartment community common area, HOA entrance and amenity lot |
| Over half an acre | $95 and up | Office campus, larger retail center, school grounds |
Monthly numbers come from stacking those visits with the extras. The same cost page prices a seasonal cleanup at $200 to $600 per visit, installed mulch at $55 to $90 per cubic yard, and a flower bed refresh at $300 to $1,200 depending on size and plant selection. We don’t publish one flat monthly figure for commercial work, because two sites with the same square footage can have very different edge lengths, slopes and tree counts.
What moves a commercial quote up or down is mostly physical. Slope and rock on the west side of town slow the crew. Gated or tight access slows them too. Heavy trimming around trees, limestone outcrops and planting islands adds labor. A flat Blackland clay lot east of I-35 with open turf sits at the low end of its band.
What does a commercial maintenance visit include?
A standard weekly visit covers mowing at the right height for the turf, string-trimming around every obstacle, edging along beds and walks, and blowing clippings off pavement. Debris pickup from turf and beds is part of it. Bed weeding, pruning and mulch go on their own scheduled visits so the scope stays clear.
We write the visit down as a checklist so the board or manager can compare it against what actually shows up. If something on your site isn’t on the list, such as pressure-washing a patio or hauling storm limbs, it’s priced as its own line and approved before it happens, not added to a bill afterward.
- Every visit: mow, trim, edge, blow off hard surfaces, pick up litter and fallen debris from turf and beds.
- Scheduled visits: bed weeding, shrub shaping, mulch refresh, seasonal cleanup, and leaf removal when it’s in scope.
- As needed, approved first: storm cleanup, added beds, replanting, and anything that changes the monthly scope.
- Reporting: what was done, what we noticed (a dead shrub, a washed-out bed edge, a head spraying the street) and what needs a decision.
Mowing frequency follows the grass, not the calendar. Austin lawns are warm-season turf, so weekly cuts run from spring through early fall while growth is fast, then drop to every other week as growth slows in late fall and winter. Our lawn mowing page shows the same rhythm for homes.
What does our commercial landscaping process look like, step by step?
It starts with a site walk and ends with a written scope you approve before any work begins. Most properties go from first call to a first scheduled visit in a few weeks, depending on how fast the board or manager can approve the proposal and how many sites are being bid.
- Request and first call. You tell us the property type, the address of the site, who approves spending, and any access rules. You decide which services you want priced. This takes one call or one form.
- Site walk. We walk turf, beds, trees, drainage paths and access points with your manager or a board member, usually 30 to 60 minutes depending on size. You decide what’s in and what’s out of scope.
- Written proposal. You get visit frequency by area, per-visit or monthly pricing, exclusions, and approval rules for extras. Expect it within days of the walk. You decide whether to approve it, trim it or bid it against others.
- Kickoff and baseline. Before the first routine cut we note the starting condition of turf, beds and trees so later reports have something to compare against. This is one visit.
- Routine service. Visits run on the agreed day and in the agreed hours, with reports after each one or on the cadence you choose. You decide what to approve from the extras list.
- Seasonal review. Each season we walk the site again with you: mulch, cleanup, leaf drop, storm damage, anything that needs a decision. This is a short visit, and it’s where scope changes get put in writing.
What kinds of commercial properties do you maintain?
We work with HOA common areas and entrances, small to mid-size office properties, retail strips, apartment and multifamily communities, medical suites, restaurants and church grounds across Travis County. Very large industrial or campus-scale grounds contracts aren’t the sweet spot. Smaller and mid-size sites with a clear scope are.
HOA entrances and amenity areas. Boards care about curb appeal and about a paper trail. Entrance beds, monument signs, pool decks and clubhouse lawns usually need weekly mowing in season plus scheduled bed work. Our reports are built so a board member who never visits the site can still see what was done.
Offices and medical suites. Visitors see the front beds before they see anything else. Work is scheduled around parking and business hours so the crew isn’t blowing clippings across a lot at nine on a Monday.
Retail strips and restaurants. High visibility and constant foot traffic. Trash and litter pickup matter as much as the mowing, and seasonal color, where the owner wants it, is priced as its own line.
Apartment and multifamily communities. Residents are home at all hours, so noise windows and resident access go in the scope in writing. Common-area turf, courtyard beds and entrance monuments are the usual mix.
How do Austin’s watering rules affect a commercial property?
Austin Water sets watering limits by method and by address. Under the current Conservation Stage, automatic in-ground sprinklers may run one assigned day a week, only before 10 a.m. and after 7 p.m. Hose-end sprinklers and drip get up to two days. Hand-watering with an auto-shutoff nozzle is allowed any time.
For a commercial site that has real consequences. Your irrigation timer has to be set to the property’s assigned day and window, and a system running off schedule is a fine waiting to happen. Runoff onto pavement and broken heads are also covered by the rules, which is why our visit reports flag any head spraying a sidewalk or street.
The stage can tighten. Austin steps through Stage 1, Stage 2 and Pro-Rata as Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan levels fall, and the rules follow reservoir storage, not the calendar. Your plan should say in writing who is responsible for updating the controller when that happens, because it’s usually the first thing nobody owns.
New plantings are the other gap. New sod or new beds need more water to establish than the one-day schedule allows. Austin Water offers a variance for new and replacement landscapes, and it has to be requested before you install, not after. Our watering restrictions page keeps the current rules, and the grass and watering guide covers how much water turf really needs.
How do soil and grass type change a commercial landscaping plan?
Austin has two soils split roughly along MoPac and I-35. East of that line is deep Blackland clay that swells and cracks. West is thin caliche over limestone that drains fast and holds little water. Each needs a different plan, and the grass has to match the light and the soil.
On Blackland clay, the work is compaction relief and drainage: annual core aeration, compost and expanded shale over time, and planting slightly high so shrink and swell doesn’t drown a shrub. Hard edges set on clay need proper base work or they shift. West of the escarpment the fix runs the other way: raised, amended beds over the rock, imported topsoil and heavy mulch to hold moisture.
| Condition | East and central-east Austin | West Austin and Hill Country edge |
|---|---|---|
| Soil | Deep Blackland clay | Thin caliche over limestone |
| Drainage | Slow, holds water, cracks in drought | Fast, droughty |
| Typical fix | Core aeration, compost, expanded shale | Raised beds, imported soil, heavy mulch |
| Cost effect | Cheap to mow, base work matters for hard edges | Slope, rock and slow digging add labor |
Both soils are alkaline, so yellow leaves with green veins on shrubs and St. Augustine are usually iron chlorosis, not a watering problem. Don’t add lime. For grass, St. Augustine fits shade and typical Austin sites, Bermuda suits full-sun, high-traffic strips, and fescue doesn’t survive Austin summers. The soil guide and the grass types page go deeper.
What do you do about irrigation on a commercial site?
We don’t install or repair irrigation. Texas rules say a person may not sell, design, install, maintain, alter, repair, service or inspect an irrigation system without a TCEQ license, so that work belongs to a licensed irrigator. What we do is report what we see on every visit so your irrigation vendor can fix it.
In practice that means a line in the visit report: zone pooling at the north bed, head knocked off by a mower, controller still on a summer schedule. You forward it to whoever holds the irrigation contract. In Austin, new irrigation work also takes a stand-alone plumbing irrigation permit and a backflow prevention assembly tested by a licensed tester registered with the city.
On the cost side, our 2026 cost guide lists an annual backflow test at about $50 to $125 and a drip conversion for beds at $1,500 to $4,000. Treat those as planning numbers for the irrigation contractor’s quote, not as a service we sell.
How do oak trees and city permits affect commercial grounds?
Austin protects large trees. A Protected tree is 19 inches or more across, measured 4.5 feet above the ground, and removing it takes a City Arborist permit. Heritage trees of 24 inches or more are almost never removable. Pruning more than 25% of a regulated tree’s canopy also needs a permit.
Oak wilt adds a timing rule. The Texas A&M Forest Service flags February 1 through June 30 as the high-risk window, so oaks shouldn’t be pruned then. July through January is the safer window, and every cut, including storm damage, should be sealed right away. If your grounds have live oaks, that rule belongs in the written scope.
The other permit most commercial sites run into is walls. A retaining wall over 4 feet, measured from the bottom of the footing, needs a building permit, and the exemption doesn’t apply if the wall holds a surcharge such as a parking lot above it. If a bed edge on your site is failing and needs a real wall, that’s a hardscaping conversation with the permit named up front. Our permits guide lists the official city pages.
What happens on a commercial property through the year?
The year splits into a growth season and a cleanup season. Mowing and edging carry March through November, mulch and bed work cluster in spring and fall, and storm cleanup is the wildcard. Live oaks shed in spring, which surprises new managers who expected leaf drop only in fall.
| Season | What the grounds need | Decision for the manager |
|---|---|---|
| Late winter | Cleanup, bed prep, hold oak pruning from February 1 | Approve spring scope and mulch |
| Spring (March to May) | Weekly mowing begins, mulch refresh, spring leaf drop from live oaks | Seasonal color, planting windows |
| Summer | Weekly mowing, watering-day compliance, heat stress on beds | Controller schedule, replace failed plants in fall |
| Fall (September to November) | Best planting window, leaf cleanup, final bed refresh | Fall planting, leaf removal |
| Winter | Every-other-week mowing, oak pruning window (July to January) | Storm cleanup approvals |
Planting works best in spring and fall. Avoid planting in the heat of July and August. The landscaping calendar carries the same windows for homeowners if you manage a mixed property.
Are there Austin Water rebates for HOAs and commercial properties?
Yes, Austin Water lists separate commercial, multifamily and HOA programs. Turf conversion for multifamily or HOA sites is listed at up to $5,000 under WaterWise Landscape, and commercial irrigation-efficiency work has a maximum that varies. Confirm eligibility and preapproval before you buy materials or start work.
A contractor price isn’t a rebate approval, so keep the two separate on paper. Identify the utility account and customer class for the service address, open the commercial or multifamily application, and subtract only what was actually approved and paid. A $4,000 conversion with an approved $1,000 rebate nets $3,000 before taxes and any ineligible items. That’s arithmetic, not a savings promise.
What does a typical commercial job look like?
Here are three typical scopes, built from the per-visit ranges above. They’re illustrations of how the pricing stacks up for a given kind of property, not completed jobs, and your own site would be priced only after we’ve walked it and written down what’s in scope.
A typical small office pad
Under 5,000 square feet of turf and front beds. Weekly mow, edge and blow in season at $45 to $55 a visit, a spring mulch refresh priced by the cubic yard, and a fall cleanup in the $200 to $600 range. Time on site is short, and the crew is usually in and out before the lot fills.
A typical HOA entrance and amenity area
A half-acre or less of common turf, entrance beds, a monument sign and a pool deck perimeter. Weekly mowing at $75 to $95 a visit, quarterly bed and shrub work, and a seasonal review with the board. Extras such as seasonal color or a replant are approved by line item before they happen.
A typical multifamily courtyard
A mix of turf, courtyard beds and mature trees. Mowing sits in the $75 to $95 band, with leaf removal in fall and oak pruning kept inside the July through January window. Noise windows and resident access are written into the scope so nobody is surprised.
Which Austin suburbs do you serve for commercial work?
We serve commercial properties across Austin and the surrounding Travis, Williamson and Hays County communities. That includes Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander, Pflugerville, Hutto and Georgetown to the north, and Buda, Kyle and San Marcos to the south. The price bands above don’t change by suburb. Access and slope do.
- Round Rock and Cedar Park: office parks, retail strips and HOA entrances.
- Pflugerville, Hutto and Manor: newer HOA common areas on Blackland clay.
- Lakeway, Bee Cave and West Lake Hills: sloped, rocky Hill Country sites with caliche.
- Leander and Georgetown: growing commercial and multifamily corridors.
The full list is on our areas we serve page.
How do I request a commercial landscaping quote in Austin?
Call (512) 690-4912 or send the details through the free quote form. Tell us the property type, the address, who approves spending, and which services you want priced. We set a site walk, then send a written scope with visit frequency, pricing, exclusions and approval rules for extras.
For multi-site requests, list each property separately with its own decision owner, scope and billing approval so every site gets its own number. When you compare us with other bids, line up the same items: visit frequency, what’s in each visit, what’s billed separately, and who handles storm cleanup.
Ready to start? Request a free commercial quote or call (512) 690-4912. If you also want to see how design work fits into a property refresh, our landscape design page covers planning and phasing.