Landscaping and mulch beds in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

What a landscaping job from Autana includes

Landscaping is the biggest single category of work Autana does, and the range is wide on purpose. Some calls are a single bed getting its edge cut back and fresh mulch. Others are a full front yard rebuild: old shrubs pulled, grade corrected, new stone edging set, and forty or more plants going in over several days. Both get the same attention to what is underneath the dirt, because a bed that looks good in June and washes out by August was never really finished.

A typical Autana landscaping project includes some combination of the following, priced to the actual scope rather than a flat package:

• Old bed lines pulled and regraded
• Stone, boulder or steel edging set
• Weed barrier where the bed calls for it
• Pre-emergent applied before mulch or rock
• Mulch, river rock or decorative rock installed
• Plants selected for zone 6a and the site's sun
• Boulders placed as focal points or edge anchors
• Turf and bed fertilization
• Spring and fall cleanup
• Site cleaned, debris hauled off

Edging: stone, boulder or steel

The edge is what keeps a bed a bed instead of a blurry line the mower chews into every week. Autana sets three kinds, and which one fits depends on the house and the budget.

Stone edging is the most common choice we install, cut or natural stone set along a curved or straight line that holds mulch or rock back from the lawn. Boulder edging uses larger fieldstone, usually on a bed with more depth or a slope to hold, and it doubles as a visual anchor next to a lamp post or a corner of the house. Steel edging is the thin, clean line for a more modern front yard where you want the edge to disappear rather than stand out. All three get set into a trench, not just laid on top of the grass, or the first hard frost pushes them out of line.

Mulch, river rock, or decorative rock

This is the question we get on almost every landscaping call, and the honest answer is that it depends on the bed, not on which one looks nicer in a photo.

Mulch, usually black or a natural brown, breaks down over a season or two and feeds the soil as it does. It is the right call for beds with a lot of perennials and shrubs that benefit from that organic matter, and it is the cheaper material up front, though it needs topping off every year or two. River rock does not break down, drains well, and reads clean along a foundation or under a downspout, which is exactly why we use it in a lot of drainage-adjacent beds. Brown and white decorative rock split the difference: brown rock blends into a natural planting scheme, white rock shows dirt and leaf litter less and reads brighter against dark siding or brick. None of the rock options feed the soil, and all three trap heat more than mulch does, which matters if the bed sits against a foundation in full sun.

Plant selection for zone 6a

Fort Wayne and Allen County sit in USDA hardiness zone 6a. That number sets a hard floor on what Autana will plant, because a shrub rated for a warmer zone might look fine the first October and be dead wood by the second spring. We pick from perennials, shrubs and small ornamental trees that are proven for this zone and for the clay soil underneath them, not from a generic supplier list. Sun exposure, drainage and how the bed sits relative to the house all factor into what actually goes in the ground.

Pre-emergent, boulders and rock services

Pre-emergent goes down before mulch or rock on most new and refreshed beds. It is the difference between a bed that stays clean through July and one that needs hand-weeding by the Fourth of July. We also handle standalone boulder placement and rock services for customers who already have a bed built and just want a focal boulder set, a dry creek bed added, or a rock border extended, without redoing the whole planting.

Softscaping and fertilization

Softscaping covers the living part of the property: turf and ornamental bed fertilization, trimming and pruning, and the general upkeep that keeps a landscape looking intentional instead of overgrown. Autana fertilizes both lawn and beds on a schedule that fits the plant material, not a one-size program, and pruning gets timed to the plant so we are not cutting off next year's blooms.

Spring and fall cleanups

Spring cleanup is beds cut back, leaf and debris cleared, mulch refreshed and pre-emergent reapplied before weeds get a head start. Fall cleanup is leaves cleared, perennials cut back where appropriate, and beds put to rest before the ground freezes. Both are the kind of work that is easy to skip and expensive to catch up on if you skip it two years running.

What landscaping costs around here

Autana landscaping projects run $900 to $10,000, and most land in the $2,000 to $3,000 range. What moves the number is plant count, bed square footage, whether edging and grading are part of it, and how much material has to be hauled in or out. One real job for us was 71 plants and 11 yards of mulch spread across three days of work, priced at $8,000. That is a full front yard rebuild, not a bed refresh, and it shows how much range this category covers.

A single bed getting new edging and mulch can land closer to $900. A full property with new beds, boulders, edging and forty-plus plants runs into the thousands. Every quote comes out of Jobber in writing, with the plant list, material yardage and labor spelled out, so you know what you are paying for before anyone digs.

Recent landscaping work

Related work

Landscaping rarely stands alone. These usually come with it:

• Lawn care and mowing →

  The turf side of the same property, weekly mowing plus the same edging and fertilization crew.

• Drainage solutions →

  Regrading and rock beds that carry water away, planned before the plants go in.

• Paver patios →

  Beds built to frame a new patio so the hardscape looks finished, not dropped in.

• Outdoor lighting →

  Lamp posts and path lights set into the same beds we build and plant.

Landscaping by city

• New Haven
• Fort Wayne
• Auburn

Also serving: Garrett, Columbia City, Warsaw, Huntertown, Leo-Cedarville, Grabill, Harlan, Woodburn, Monroeville, Hoagland, Waterloo, Butler and Kendallville.