Everything costs more on a slope, and pretending otherwise is how projects stall halfway through. We would rather show you the retaining and drainage number up front than discover it after the plants are ordered.
Where we work from: our shop is at 7980 OH-249, Hicksville, OH. Franklin sits outside our home counties — call and we will confirm scheduling before you commit to anything.
Soil and drainage in Franklin
Water in shale moves in ways that surprise people, travelling along bedding planes and surfacing well away from where it entered. That is why drainage design here starts with probing rather than with the obvious low point on the survey.
Anything cut into a hillside needs drain tile and clean angular stone behind it with a positive outlet. Water moving through shale is what walks a wall forward, and no amount of block quality substitutes for somewhere for that water to go.
What Franklin Township properties need
Deer pressure on properties backing to woods decides the plant list before anything else does. Arborvitae and yew are the two most commonly planted shrubs in Ohio and the two deer strip first. Spruce, juniper, boxwood, ornamental grasses, catmint and Russian sage hold up.
Every proposal we send states the specification rather than implying it — excavation depth, base material and thickness for hardscape, pipe size and outlet for drainage, and a plant schedule with species, install size and mature dimensions. If a competing bid states none of those and comes in lower, that difference is usually the reason.
Winter in Franklin
The winter work that protects a landscape is mostly done in November: leaves off the turf so it does not mat under snow and grow snow mold, evergreens watered deeply before the ground freezes so they have a reserve to draw on, drive and walk edges staked, and drainage outlets cleared so meltwater has somewhere to go in February.
Salt damage along drives and walks is the visible cost of over-application: a dead strip of turf that gets a little wider every year and browned evergreens where spray reaches them. Calibrated rates, salt-tolerant planting in the first few feet, and repairing the edge each spring keep it from compounding.
What Franklin Township properties call us for
These are the services this ground actually needs, ordered by what the soil and terrain in Coshocton County demand rather than by what is easiest to sell.
- Retaining Walls & TerracingEngineered walls with real drainage behind them — turning slopes you cannot mow into space you can use.
- Drainage Solutions & Yard GradingFrench drains, swales and regrading that move water away from your foundation before it costs you a basement.
- Lawn Mowing & Property MaintenanceWeekly mowing, trimming and edging on a schedule you can set your watch by — residential and commercial.
- Paver Patios & HardscapingPatios and walkways set on eight inches of compacted base — the reason ours are still flat after ten Ohio winters.
- Sod Installation, Seeding & Lawn RenovationNew lawns, thin lawns and construction scars — graded, amended and established properly the first time.
- Fire Pits & Outdoor Living SpacesFire features, seat walls and outdoor kitchens that stretch an Ohio patio season from May into November.
Why Franklin property owners choose us
We know Coshocton County ground
Coshocton County sits in the Unglaciated Allegheny Plateau, where thin hillside soil over sandstone and deep alluvium on the valley floors. We plan around that rather than applying a template written for another part of the state.
We fix the water before anything else
Every dollar spent on plants or hardscape sitting on ground that stays wet gets spent twice. On Coshocton County soil we diagnose drainage first — and often the honest answer is two downspouts rather than a system.
46 Google reviews, licensed and insured
Verbatim reviews from neighbours across the region, full coverage on every crew and machine, and financing available so a full plan can be built in one season.
One contractor for all four seasons
Landscaping April through November and snow and ice through the winter, from the same crews. The people who stake a drive in November are the people who mowed it in July.
Nearby places we also serve
Franklin sits in Coshocton County. We cover these neighbouring communities too:


