Because the ground has some fall to it, the mistakes are subtler than they are on the lake plain — water does leave, just slowly and often toward the house rather than away from it. Grade at the foundation is the first thing we check.
Where we work from: our shop is at 7980 OH-249, Hicksville, OH. Upper Arlington sits outside our home counties — call and we will confirm scheduling before you commit to anything.
Soil and drainage in Upper Arlington
Till soils here drain better than the lake plain, so a French drain usually has somewhere to discharge — which makes drainage design more straightforward than it is further north. The trade-off is excavation. Till carries gravel, sand lenses and cobble mixed through the clay, so a patio dig can hit a seam that drains beautifully or a cobble layer that slows the machine to a crawl. We price hardscape here after seeing the site rather than off a formula.
Because a drain here usually has somewhere to go, subsurface solutions genuinely work — perforated pipe bedded in washed stone and wrapped in filter fabric, carried to a real outlet. Skip the fabric and it silts shut within a few years.
What Upper Arlington properties need most
A blank-slate property is an opportunity most people waste by planting before planning. Draw the whole thing first — grade, bed lines, hardscape footprints, plant placement at mature size — then build it in whatever order the budget allows. Phasing without a plan is how a patio ends up in the wrong place.
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 Upper Arlington
Walks and entries deserve their own line item even on a residential drive agreement. They are where people actually fall, and they are the surfaces a plow truck cannot reach.
Documentation is worth more than most people expect on any property the public walks across. Time-stamped records of what was cleared, when, and what material went down at what rate are exactly what an insurer asks for, and they cannot be reconstructed after a claim.
What Upper Arlington properties call us for
These are the services this ground actually needs, ordered by what the soil and terrain in Franklin County demand rather than by what is easiest to sell.
- Landscape Design & InstallationA drawn plan before a shovel moves — so the beds, grades and plant choices still make sense in year ten.
- Sod Installation, Seeding & Lawn RenovationNew lawns, thin lawns and construction scars — graded, amended and established properly the first time.
- Commercial Landscaping & Grounds MaintenanceOne contractor for grounds and snow, with documented service and a contact who answers the phone.
- Landscape LightingLow-voltage LED lighting that makes the yard usable after 5pm — which in Ohio is half the year.
- Tree & Shrub TrimmingPruned at the right time of year, to the right cut — so plants stay in scale instead of getting sheared into boxes.
- Fire Pits & Outdoor Living SpacesFire features, seat walls and outdoor kitchens that stretch an Ohio patio season from May into November.
Why Upper Arlington property owners choose us
We know Franklin County ground
Franklin County sits in the Central Lowland till plains, where clay loam over till, heavily compacted across the suburban ring where construction stripped the topsoil. 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 Franklin 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
Upper Arlington sits in Franklin County. We cover these neighbouring communities too:
