Lawn Care and Snow Removal
Landscaping and Planting in Nelsonville
New beds, shrubs, ornamental plantings and stone work shaped to the property, built to be maintained after they go in.
Scope
What Landscaping Work Do You Take On?
New Beds
Beds shaped from nothing
Laying out and cutting in a bed where there was only lawn, then building the soil, planting it and finishing it with a clean edge and mulch.
Plantings
Shrubs, grasses and perennials
Choosing and setting plants that suit the light, the drainage and the slope they are going into, spaced for what they will be in five years rather than what they are in the pot.
Stone and Steps
Working with a slope
Stone steps and set stone where a bank needs to be walkable or held, which on properties around here is a common requirement rather than a luxury.
Renovation
Beds that need resetting
Overgrown or tired beds taken back: what is worth keeping stays, what has outgrown the space comes out, and the bed gets reshaped around what is left.
Larger structural work, like retaining walls holding significant load, is outside what we take on, and we will tell you that at the quote rather than after we have started.
Getting Started
How Does a Landscaping Project Start?
With a walk around the property and a conversation about what is bothering you. Most people do not come to us with a design, they come with a problem: the front of the house looks like nothing, the bank is unusable, the beds have gotten away from them, or they want the place to look finished before they sell.
From there we talk about what fits the property and the budget, and what it will take to keep it looking right once it is in. Then you get a quote for the work we agreed on. We would rather do one area properly than spread a budget thin across the whole property, so if what you want is more than what you want to spend, we will tell you which part to do first.
Plant Choice
What Plants Hold Up in Southeast Ohio?
The ones that can take a wet spring, a dry stretch in August and a winter that cannot make up its mind. Clay soil, hillside drainage and deer are all real constraints here, and a plant that ignores any of them is going to disappoint somebody in year two.
So we lean toward hardy shrubs, ornamental grasses and perennials that handle this ground, placed according to what each spot actually gets rather than what looks good on paper. Sun on the south side of a house is not the same as sun at the bottom of a north facing slope. We would rather plant something less exciting that is still there in five years than something that needs babysitting through every dry spell.
Slopes and Ground
Can You Build Steps and Stone Into a Slope?
Yes, and on a lot of properties around Nelsonville and Athens it is the thing that makes the rest of the yard usable. A bank that is too steep to walk is also too steep to mow safely and too steep to plant into without the soil washing out at the first real rain.
Set stone steps give you a way up and down, break the slope into shorter runs so water slows instead of channeling, and create pockets that can actually be planted. Where the ground needs reshaping before anything goes in, Grading and Seeding handles that part first. We will tell you honestly if what your slope needs is engineering rather than landscaping.
Afterward
Who Maintains the Beds After They Go In?
Whoever you want, but it should be somebody, and it is worth deciding before the plants go in the ground rather than after. A new bed is at its most vulnerable in the first two seasons, when the plants are establishing roots and the weeds have open soil to work with.
We can keep it on a schedule with the rest of the property, which usually means weeding and an edge through the season and Mulch Installation once a year. Or we can hand it to you with a plain explanation of what each planting needs and when, and you run it yourself. What we would rather avoid is building something nobody has a plan to maintain, because in three seasons that is a renovation job again.
Common Questions
Landscaping and Planting FAQ
Do you provide a design or drawing first?
For most residential work we lay it out on the property with you rather than producing a drawing, because seeing the actual shape on the ground tells you more than a plan view does. For larger projects we will put the plan in writing so everybody is agreeing to the same thing.
What time of year is best for planting?
Spring and fall are both good windows in this climate, with fall often the better one for shrubs because the roots establish while the top growth is dormant. Midsummer planting is possible but it means committing to watering, and we will say so before you agree to it.
Will the deer eat what you plant?
Some of it, if we are careless about the choices. Deer pressure is real throughout Athens County, so on properties backing onto woods we steer toward plants deer tend to leave alone. Nothing is deer proof, and anybody who tells you otherwise has not planted here.
Can you work with plants I already have?
Yes, and we would rather. Established shrubs that are in the wrong place can often be moved, and a bed renovation that keeps what is working costs less than starting over.
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