Residential landscaping in South Portland, Maine.
South Portland writes more of its landscaping rules into law than almost any community around it. The Landcare Management Ordinance, Chapter 32 of the city code, prohibits synthetic pesticides on lawns, gardens and landscaped areas, and bans every pesticide and fertilizer, organic or not, within 75 feet of a water body or wetland. A residential landscape here is planned to thrive on organic inputs from the start.
The housing stock shapes the work as much as the ordinance does. About 58 percent of homes are owner-occupied, the median one dates to 1968, and roughly one in four predates 1940, from Ferry Village and Knightville out to Pleasantdale and Redbank.
Design that does not need a spray program
Because a weed or insect problem cannot simply be sprayed away, the planting plan does more of the work. Dense groundcovers and mulched beds leave less bare soil for weeds, shrubs are chosen for the light the lot actually gets, and turf goes only where it will be used and can be mowed high. The city's fact sheet points owners to OMRI-listed and Yardscaping-approved products as the way to tell what is allowed, and to a city list of products compatible with organic landscape management. Waivers for synthetic products exist, but the city grants them only for narrow cases and asks applicants to show that alternatives were exhausted.
Our landscaping work covers design, plantings, hydroseeding and seasonal cleanups. Weekly residential mowing is not part of it; the work is building the landscape and keeping its beds and turf in shape through the seasons.
New soil and new lawns under Chapter 32
Chapter 32 also reaches new work. Under Section 32-25, new development that leaves 2,000 square feet or more of disturbed ground unpaved needs a soil quality permit, and the finished site must have at least six inches of topsoil within a pH range of 5.8 to 7.2 over subsoil loose enough to pass a penetrometer test to ten inches. The city sends a copy of each application to the Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District engineer.
When a lawn is being established or re-established, the fertilizer rules relax slightly: organic fertilizer with phosphorus may be used without a soil test, capped at one pound of nitrogen and phosphorus per 1,000 square feet per application. Hydroseeding is one of the two methods the fact sheet exempts from working that fertilizer two to three inches into the soil.
Design · Planting · Cleanups
How we handle landscaping
We design and install residential landscapes across Cumberland and Greater Portland: plantings, hydroseeding, cleanups and the hardscape that ties the property together. Weekly residential mowing is not what we sell — full landscape work is.
See the full landscaping service page or everything we do in South Portland, Maine.
Landscaping in nearby towns
- Landscaping in Portland
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- Landscaping in Scarborough
- Landscaping in Falmouth
- Landscaping in Westbrook
More services in South Portland
- Hardscaping in South Portland
- Retaining Walls in South Portland
- Landscape Design in South Portland
- Planting & Garden Beds in South Portland
- Hydroseeding, Sod & Turf in South Portland
- Lawn Aeration & Overseeding in South Portland
- Fall Cleanup & Leaf Removal in South Portland
- Commercial Mowing & Cleanups in South Portland
- Excavation & Land Clearing in South Portland
- Septic Systems in South Portland
- Tree & Shrub Services in South Portland
- Tree Removal in South Portland
Free Estimates
Landscaping in South 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