Landscape design in Gray, Maine.
A full landscape plan in Gray has more fixed points than most. There is usually a private well, a septic field, a long gravel drive, and often a lake or stream setback, all before anyone decides where the patio goes. Designing the whole property at once lets grading, drainage, plantings and stonework fit around those points instead of fighting them.
We walk the site, draw the plan and build it with our own crews, so the grading on the drawing is the grading that goes in.
Designing to Gray's lake numbers
On any lot inside Gray's shoreland zone, three figures shape the plan. Non-vegetated surfaces, including patios, walks and driveways, may cover no more than 20 percent of the lot area within the zone. Cleared openings for development, lawns included, are capped at a quarter of that area or 10,000 square feet, whichever is larger. The strip nearest the water, 100 feet from a GPA great pond, must keep a well-distributed stand of trees measured by a point system in 25-by-50-foot plots.
A design for a Little Sebago or Forest Lake property starts by mapping what is already cleared and paved, because existing openings may be kept but not enlarged except as the ordinance allows. The new outdoor space is carved from what is left.
Water moving across the lot
Soil maps for Gray show glaciomarine Lamoine and Scantic silt loams, dense-till Paxton and Woodbridge soils, and pockets of very poorly drained Sebago mucky peat. Each moves water differently, and runoff from a roof or driveway on silt or till will find the lowest point on its own if the plan does not give it one. Swales, dry wells and planted infiltration areas are sited in the design, not added after the first wet spring.
The lake watersheds explain why. The Little Sebago watershed covers about 13 square miles and more than 150 erosion sites have been corrected there. The groups doing that work name phosphorus carried by sediment as the lake's main problem. A yard that sheds water slowly is part of that effort.
Wells, septic fields and the wellhead districts
Gray protects the Gray Water District's supply with two wellhead zoning districts on four-acre minimums. Normal home gardening and lawn care are exempt from their chemical rules, but a plan still keeps heavy feeding and deep-rooted trees away from a private well and off the leach field. On most rural Gray lots the septic area is the flattest, sunniest ground, and a good design leaves it as open lawn.
Design · Planning · Full Installs
How we handle landscape design
We design landscapes that work as a whole — plantings, patios, walls, grading and drainage planned together before the first shovel breaks ground. Whether it is a full property redesign or a single outdoor living space, we walk the site, draw the plan and build it with our own crews.
See the full landscape design service page or everything we do in Gray, Maine.
Landscape Design in nearby towns
- Landscape Design in North Yarmouth
- Landscape Design in New Gloucester
- Landscape Design in Windham
- Landscape Design in Cumberland
- Landscape Design in Yarmouth
More services in Gray
- Hardscaping in Gray
- Retaining Walls in Gray
- Landscaping in Gray
- Planting & Garden Beds in Gray
- Hydroseeding, Sod & Turf in Gray
- Lawn Aeration & Overseeding in Gray
- Fall Cleanup & Leaf Removal in Gray
- Commercial Mowing & Cleanups in Gray
- Excavation & Land Clearing in Gray
- Septic Systems in Gray
- Tree & Shrub Services in Gray
- Tree Removal in Gray
Free Estimates
Landscape Design in Gray? 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