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. Somerset sits outside our home counties — call and we will confirm scheduling before you commit to anything.
Soil and drainage in Somerset
Erosion is the constant on these slopes. Bare ground on a hillside loses material with every storm, and mulch on a grade simply becomes something for the next rain to carry away. What holds is structure plus deep-rooted planting — a shaped swale or stone-lined channel that spreads concentrated flow, terraces where the grade is severe, and species whose roots reach far enough to matter.
Building level ground is the recurring project here. A usable patio or a flat lawn panel on a hillside means cut and fill, retaining the cut properly, and compacting the fill in lifts — which is why the hardscape budget on these properties is larger than an equivalent job on flat land.
What Somerset properties need most
On a village lot the four things that change how a property reads from the road are a defined spade-cut bed edge, mulch at two to three inches rather than the five or six that accumulates when it is added annually and never removed, shrubs hand-pruned to a scale that suits the house instead of sheared into shells, and clean edging along the walks and drive. Together they cost less than a single mature tree.
The order that gets the most from a budget is almost always the same: drainage and grading first because everything else sits on top of them, then hardscape with sleeves and conduit run for anything you might add later, then structural planting, then beds and mulch, then lighting.
Winter in Somerset
Snow agreements here should still be written rather than assumed. A stated trigger depth settles at 5 a.m. what nobody wants to argue about then, and the surfaces included — drive, walks, entry, ramp — should be listed rather than implied. Routes are built geographically and they fill, so booking happens in the fall, not after the first storm.
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 Somerset properties call us for
These are the services this ground actually needs, ordered by what the soil and terrain in Perry 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.
- Tree & Shrub TrimmingPruned at the right time of year, to the right cut — so plants stay in scale instead of getting sheared into boxes.
- 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 Somerset property owners choose us
We know Perry County ground
Perry County sits in the Unglaciated Allegheny Plateau, where thin acidic soil over sandstone and shale, with disturbed and compacted fill on reclaimed sites. 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 Perry 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
Somerset sits in Perry County. We cover these neighbouring communities too:
