Our Landscaping Insights

Property Lighting Safety Checklist: Lit Commercial Walkway at Dusk

Lit commercial walkway at dusk showing property lighting safety checklist items: clear path lights, trimmed shrubs, and a bright entrance

The clocks change Nov 1. Use this 15-minute property lighting safety checklist at dusk to find dark walkways, blocked fixtures, and trip hazards before winter.

7 Stunning Landscape Lighting Ideas for Shorter Days in Walpole, MA

Landscape lighting on a stone patio and walkway at dusk at a Walpole, MA home

Rock salt rarely ruins quality pavers on its own, but it does break down joint sand, sealers, natural stone and nearby shrubs. Here’s what New England homeowners should use instead.

Is Rock Salt Damaging Your Pavers and Shrubs? What New England Homeowners Should Use Instead

Rock salt damage to pavers on a New England walkway next to salt-burned boxwood shrubs

Rock salt rarely ruins quality pavers on its own, but it does break down joint sand, sealers, natural stone and nearby shrubs. Here’s what New England homeowners should use instead.

How to Read a Landscape Plan: 7 Easy Steps for Homeowners

How to read a landscape plan: a color residential landscape design plan showing a patio, planting beds, trees, and a lawn area

Most yards take far more work than they need to. Here is how low maintenance landscape design cuts weekly yard care to about two hours, using the right layout, plants, and materials for New England.

How to Design a Yard You Can Maintain in Two Hours a Week

Low maintenance landscape design in New England with native perennials, ornamental grasses, a small lawn, and a stone path

Most yards take far more work than they need to. Here is how low maintenance landscape design cuts weekly yard care to about two hours, using the right layout, plants, and materials for New England.

Fall Garden Cleanup: What to Cut Back and What to Leave

all garden, garden maintenance, perennials, pruning, Massachusetts gardening

Not everything in your garden should be cut back in fall. Here’s what to cut, what to leave standing for winter, which shrubs never to prune in fall, and what to do with all those leaves.

Walpole Landscape Design: How a Backyard Redesign Works, Step by Step

Hand drawing a colored landscape plan of a circular stone patio surrounded by trees and shrubs

Thinking about redesigning your yard? Here’s how Walpole landscape design works, step by step, from the first conversation to a garden that gets better every year, plus the mistakes to avoid.

Landscape Architect vs. Landscape Designer vs. Contractor: Who Do You Actually Need?

Hand drawing a colored landscape plan of a circular stone patio surrounded by trees and shrubs, on a wooden desk with a ruler and pens

Landscape architect, landscape designer, landscape contractor: most homeowners can’t tell them apart, and hiring the wrong one costs money and time. I’m a landscape designer, and I’ll be honest about when you don’t need one.

Best Landscape Design-Build Companies in Massachusetts

Bluestone patio with fire pit and landscape lighting built by Land Design Associates, one of the best landscape design-build companies in Massachusetts

Looking for a landscape design-build firm in Massachusetts? Compare five firms on in-house crews, drainage expertise, and outdoor living scope, with questions to ask before you sign.