How We Work: Design, Build and What Happens After

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Most Companies Either Design or Build

Most landscaping companies in Charleston either design or build. We do both, with our own crews, and that is the whole reason the work looks the way it does. This is how a project actually runs with us — what gets decided, in what order, and by whom.

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It Starts With the House, Not a Plant List

The first thing we look at is the architecture. A yard that suits the house looks deliberate; a yard assembled from favorite plants and catalog structures looks like it arrived separately. Some properties want to be formal and sheared, some tropical, some really a garden — and the house usually tells you which.

The second thing we ask is how you actually use the space. Not what style you want, but where you sit in the evening, where the dog runs, where guests stand when the grill is going, and which window you look out of most. Those answers decide layout far more than taste does.

Then we talk about budget, early and plainly. Most people call without any idea what a yard should cost. We would rather give you a real range in the first conversation and design to it than produce a beautiful plan you have to walk away from.

What You Get Before Anything Is Built

The consultation at your home is free around Charleston, Mount Pleasant and Summerville. For Kiawah, Seabrook, Wadmalaw and Awendaw, or anywhere else more than an hour from Charleston or Summerville, there is a charge for the proposal trip. It comes off the price if you go ahead with the build, and it is not refundable if you do not. After that you get drawings, and 3D renderings are available as an option at additional cost when seeing it in three dimensions is what makes the decision.

Two rules run through every design we draw:

We do not over plant. A bed packed to look finished on install day is a maintenance problem within three years, when everything in it is fighting for the same space.
We layer it correctly, so heights, textures and mature sizes work as one picture and the landscape grows together rather than against itself.

The same thinking applies to structures. Proportion is what separates a pavilion that looks built for the house from one that looks ordered from a catalog: post size, beam depth, roof pitch and ceiling height, worked out against the house rather than from a standard plan.

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A Charleston Front Yard, Start to Finish

This project is a fair example of everything working together. The front of the property needed retaining walls and stairs to handle the grade, and those had to look like they belonged to a Charleston house rather than to a retaining wall catalog: stucco walls with a brick cap and brick treads.

From there the rest followed the same line — a bluestone walkway with a brick border tying the steps to the drive, plantings layered along the walls, and artificial turf where grass would not have held up.

Masonry, carpentry, grading, planting and turf, one company, one sequence. Nobody had to wait on another trade, and nothing had to be cut into after the fact.

Everything In-House, Including the Parts Nobody Sees

Gas, electrical and plumbing are handled by our own team, along with the permits. On an outdoor kitchen or a pavilion that matters more than it sounds: those projects are four trades in one structure, and the seams between trades are where jobs go wrong and schedules slip.

Zach Cramer is our licensed residential builder. Doug has worked in landscaping his whole life, with more than 30 years of experience; Zach grew up here. One of them sees every project, and one of them is on site while it is being built.

We carry a 1-year workmanship and plant warranty, and we are insured.

When Another Quote Comes In Cheaper

It usually means the other quote is for something different: cheaper materials, less trim, or no trim at all. Trim and finish detail are most of what makes a structure look built rather than assembled, and they are the easiest things to quietly leave out of a number.

The same is true below ground. Base preparation, continuous footings and drainage do not show in a photograph, and they are exactly what decides whether a patio is still flat in ten years.

If your budget is fixed, tell us at the start. We can design within it. What we push back on is rushing — we would rather stage a project across a couple of years than build something you will look at every day and wish you had done properly.

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After the Install

A landscape is planted at the size it starts, not the size it was designed for. For clients we have done large projects for, we come back to prune and shape the planting as it was intended — keeping the hedge line where the drawing put it and the layering readable as things fill in.

That is the part most people do not think about when comparing quotes, and it is the difference between a design that matures and one that simply grows.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you design as well as install?

Yes, and the same company does both. The consultation at your home is free around Charleston, Mount Pleasant and Summerville. For Kiawah, Seabrook, Wadmalaw and Awendaw, or anywhere else more than an hour from Charleston or Summerville, there is a charge for the proposal trip. It comes off the price if you go ahead with the build, and it is not refundable if you do not. You get drawings, and 3D renderings are available as an option at additional cost.

What makes your quotes different from cheaper ones?

Usually the cheaper quote is for something different: cheaper materials, less trim or no trim, or less work below the surface. If your budget is fixed, tell us up front and we will design within it.

Do you subcontract the gas, electrical and plumbing?

No. Gas, electrical and plumbing are handled by our own team, along with the permits. Zach Cramer is our licensed residential builder.

Do you maintain the landscaping after it is installed?

For clients we have done large projects for, we come back to prune and shape the planting as it was designed to grow. We are not a general lawn maintenance company.

What warranty do you offer?

A 1-year workmanship and plant warranty. The plant warranty covers replacement of the plant and the labor, and it does not apply without an automatic watering system or to losses from weather.