What was wrong
Two mature white oaks covered most of the back yard. The owner overseeded every September and by July it was moss and dirt again. Every dollar spent on grass there was a dollar thrown at a shade problem.
What we did about it
Told them the truth on the first visit: turf will not hold under that canopy, and no seed blend changes that.
Converted two-thirds of the back yard to a woodland bed and kept a smaller, better lawn in the one place the sun reaches.
Kept everything shallow around the root flares, because a white oak that age does not forgive a rototiller.
Laid a bluestone stepper path so the shortcut everybody was already walking became part of the design.
Used leaf compost, not topsoil. Leaf litter is what lands there every autumn anyway.
- Town
- Glen Rock, New Jersey
- Year
- 2020
- Lot
- 0.29 acre
- House
- 1936 Tudor
- On site
- 7 working days
- Work
- Planting and garden design, Spring and fall cleanups
What went in the ground
- Hellebore
- Christmas fern
- Foamflower
- Oakleaf hydrangea
- Carex pensylvanica
- Virginia bluebells
Materials
- Irregular bluestone steppers
- Leaf compost, 14 yards
- Shredded hardwood mulch
Lawn area down 60 percent. Maintenance cost down with it.
They told us on the first visit that grass was never going to grow there. Twelve years of reseeding and nobody had said it.
Tell us what the yard is doing.
Forty-five minutes on your property, a drawing you keep, and a number in writing. If we are the wrong company for the job we will say so on the first visit.