Residential landscaping in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

Resource Protection 1 covers wetlands of an acre or more with very poorly drained soils or obligate wetland plants, about 14 percent of the town, and wetlands of two acres or more carry a 250-foot buffer. Resource Protection 2 covers smaller wetlands and poorly drained ground with facultative wetland plants, roughly another 15 percent, where the Planning Board can attach a buffer as a permit condition.

Before a planting plan or a new lawn edge is drawn toward a wet corner of the property, it helps to know which of those lines applies. Plantings that hold soil and tolerate wet feet are usually a better fit along a regulated edge than extending turf.

About one in five Cape Elizabeth homes predates 1940, and census estimates show more homes built in the 1960s than in any decade since. Yards laid out in those eras often have foundation shrubs that have swallowed the windows, lawns now shaded by trees that were saplings when the house was new, and runoff that was never planned for. Our residential work covers design, plantings, hydroseeding and cleanups on properties like these; weekly residential mowing is not part of what we offer.