Landscape design in Portland, Maine.
A landscape plan in Portland starts with the zoning map as much as the site. The city's residential neighborhood zones set very different ground rules: a single-family lot needs 6,500 square feet in RN-1, 6,000 in RN-2, 5,000 in RN-3 and just 2,000 in RN-4. Maximum building coverage is 60 percent in all four, which leaves a small and fixed amount of ground for everything else.
Our design process walks the property, draws the plan and builds it with our own crews, with plantings, patios, walls, grading and drainage worked out together. In Portland that coordination is not optional, because several of those elements are regulated separately.
What the code counts
The Land Use Code's landscaped open space ratio is the constraint that most often decides a design. It requires 30 percent of a residential lot in RN-1 through RN-3 to remain landscaped open space, and it excludes engineered surfaces from that total, so pavers, stone walks and decks all come out of the same budget. A design that looks good on paper can fail this test if the patio is drawn first and the planting is fitted in afterward.
Other provisions help. Retaining walls, fences and raised garden beds may sit inside required setbacks, which makes terraced beds along a side or rear lot line a useful way to gain level ground on a sloping lot without crowding the house.
Review, shoreland and older ground
For properties inside a historic designation, regrading and new hardscape are site alterations subject to administrative review, while changes to plantings outside a designated historic landscape district are exempt. A plan that separates the two lets planting move ahead while stonework is reviewed.
Near Back Cove, the Fore River or the island shores, the Shoreland Overlay Zone reaches 250 feet from tidal water and coastal wetlands. Within it, non-vegetated surfaces are capped at 20 percent of the lot area inside the zone in most districts, and the 75-foot buffer carries its own clearing limits.
Drainage belongs in the first draft. In a city where nearly half the housing predates 1940, stormwater from a new terrace has to go somewhere other than an old basement wall, and inside the shoreland zone the code calls for keeping natural runoff features such as swales, berms and wooded areas wherever possible.
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 Portland, Maine.
Landscape Design in nearby towns
- Landscape Design in South Portland
- Landscape Design in Falmouth
- Landscape Design in Westbrook
- Landscape Design in Scarborough
- Landscape Design in Cape Elizabeth
More services in Portland
- Hardscaping in Portland
- Retaining Walls in Portland
- Landscaping in Portland
- Planting & Garden Beds in Portland
- Hydroseeding, Sod & Turf in Portland
- Lawn Aeration & Overseeding in Portland
- Fall Cleanup & Leaf Removal in Portland
- Commercial Mowing & Cleanups in Portland
- Excavation & Land Clearing in Portland
- Septic Systems in Portland
- Tree & Shrub Services in Portland
- Tree Removal in Portland
Sources for the local facts on this page
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Landscape Design in Portland? 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