Do you do both design and installation?

Yes. Happy to work from a landscape architect's plan if you've already got one, or handle the whole thing from concept through planting. For most residential properties in the Lakes Region, I walk the site with you, talk through what you're trying to achieve, and build out a plan from there — no separate design fee on smaller projects.

Can you handle lakefront landscaping with NH shoreline setbacks?

Yes. I'm familiar with the NH Shoreland Water Quality Protection Act and its buffer rules on Newfound Lake, Webster Lake, Winnipesaukee, and other protected waters. Lakefront work needs the right plantings, the right grading, and awareness of what's allowed inside the 250-foot buffer — I'll flag anything that requires a permit before we start.

How much does a new landscape install cost?

It varies wildly with scope. A small planting bed runs $500 to $1,500. A full front-yard redo with walkway, plantings, and fresh loam + seed is typically $3,000 to $15,000. Stone walls, patios, and lakefront work can run higher. Every estimate is itemized so you see exactly what you're paying for — no vague bottom-line numbers.

Landscaping & Outdoor Design in Hill, NH — Lakes Region

Good landscaping isn't a catalog of features bolted onto a yard. It's a read on the property — where water flows, where the sun lands, where the house wants to sit against the woods behind it — and then choices that make those bones feel intentional. I do landscape work across Hill (03243), Bristol (03222), Franklin (03235), Plymouth (03264), Laconia (03246), and the surrounding Lakes Region towns, and most of what I'm doing on any given project is editing: adding what's missing, removing what's fighting the site, and tuning the grade so rain goes where it should.

What I do

New landscape installs. Front-yard redos, backyard build-outs, whole-property plans for a new build or a property you just bought and want to start fresh on.
Garden design + planting. Perennial beds, foundation plantings, pollinator gardens, and screening hedgerows chosen for NH zone 5a/5b hardiness.
Walkways + stone work. Bluestone, granite, and fieldstone walks, steps, and patios. Dry-laid and mortared, depending on the application.
Grading + seed + sod. Rough and finish grading to fix drainage, bury a mess from an excavation project, or give a new lawn a proper base.
Seasonal cleanups. Spring cleanup (leaves, winter debris, bed edging, first mulch) and fall cleanup (leaves, cutbacks, bed prep for winter).
Mulching. Hardwood bark mulch on all beds — typically a refresh in spring and a top-up in fall if needed.
Ornamental tree + shrub planting. Maples, birches, dogwoods, hydrangeas, viburnums, and the rest of the usable Lakes Region palette.

Designed for NH winters

A landscape that looks great in July and collapses after one winter isn't a landscape — it's an expense waiting to repeat itself. Everything I install gets specified with the freeze-thaw cycle in mind. That means plants rated for NH zone 5a/5b, not something borderline that's going to die in a hard winter. It means stone walls built with proper base and drainage behind them so frost heaves don't tip them over in three years. It means walkways set on compacted crushed stone, not dropped on the dirt and prayed over.

Lakefront properties on Newfound Lake (03222), Webster Lake (03235), and Winnipesaukee have their own set of problems. Shoreline plantings need to handle spray, ice shove, and seasonal flooding. Buffer zones under the Shoreland Water Quality Protection Act limit what can come out and what has to stay in. I've worked on enough lakefront parcels to know where the permit line is and how to build landscapes that don't fight the site.

Drainage goes in first. If water is running the wrong way across a yard, no amount of mulch and shrubs fixes it. A properly graded yard with a French drain or a swale tucked where it needs to be will carry a landscape for decades.

When to schedule

Spring landscape installs book up fast — by mid-March, most weekends from May through June are already spoken for. If you're planning a larger project for this season, earlier is better. Smaller jobs I can usually fit within two to four weeks depending on how the schedule is running.

Fall cleanups run October through early November. Lawn and sod work turns out best after mid-May once the ground has actually dried out — putting sod down in a soggy April week is how you end up with a patchy lawn in July.

For emergency landscape work — drainage failure, retaining wall collapse, a storm that tore apart a bed — call (603) 832-8315 directly. Near-me searches tend to be urgent for a reason.