Planting and garden beds in Falmouth, Maine.
Foundation plantings, perennial borders and freshly mulched beds are where a Falmouth property shows the most change from season to season. The town sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a on the 2023 map, mild enough near Casco Bay for a broader shrub palette than the interior hill towns, and its mix of soils means the same plant can thrive on one side of a lot and sulk on the other.
Browntail hosts, invasives and deer
The Maine Forest Service lists oak, shadbush, apple, cherry, beach plum and rugosa rose as the main hosts of the browntail moth, whose caterpillar hairs cause a poison-ivy-like rash. Several of those are popular coastal ornamentals. They can still earn a place, but it helps to site them where winter webs can be spotted and clipped from the ground rather than up against a door or a play area.
Invasive plants are a named concern in the Comprehensive Plan, which lists identifying key invasive species and stopping their spread among its forestry actions. New beds are a chance to swap out anything on the state's invasive plant list for natives rather than carry it forward — Falmouth's own ordinance defines invasive plants by reference to that Maine Natural Areas Program list.
Deer browse is the other constant. With 56 of Falmouth's 304 reported crashes in 2022 involving deer, beds near woods or conserved land do best built from species deer usually pass over, with the tender plants kept closest to the house.
Feeding beds within the town's limits
Falmouth's Chapter II-21 applies to anyone who fertilizes, not just contractors. Nothing goes down outdoors between December 1 and March 31, nothing within 75 feet of a water body or 20 feet of a storm drain, and between 75 and 250 feet of the water only non-water-soluble fertilizer, compost or composted manure is allowed.
That makes compost the natural base for new beds: worked into the planting holes and the bed as a whole before anything is set, then topped with a clean-edged layer of mulch that holds moisture over the sandier soils and slowly adds organic matter. Where the soil is heavy marine silt, raising the bed a few inches keeps roots out of water that lingers after spring rain.
We match hardy perennials and shrubs to each bed's light and soil, from a single entry bed to a full hillside planting.
Plantings · Mulch · Garden Design
How we handle planting & garden beds
We build planting beds that look better every year — hardy perennials and shrubs matched to your site, finished with clean-edged mulch and stone accents. From single foundation beds to full hillside plantings.
See the full planting & garden beds service page or everything we do in Falmouth, Maine.
Planting & Garden Beds in nearby towns
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Planting & Garden Beds in Falmouth? Let's talk.
Tell us about your property and we will walk it with you — free estimates, straight answers, stonework guaranteed to hold its lines.
Mon–Sat 7:00am – 5:00pm · Based in Cumberland, Maine