Landscape design in Windham, Maine.
Lot sizes in Windham vary more than most people expect. The comprehensive plan cites 80,000-square-foot minimums in the Farm zone and 60,000 square feet in Farm Residential, while the state's floor for a house on a private septic system is 20,000 square feet. Around the lakes the plan describes densely settled former camps, now year-round homes reached by gravel roads first built for summer traffic.
A full-property design has to account for all of that at once: where the septic field sits, where water runs, what the shoreland rules allow and where a patio or planting will actually be used.
Designing around the leach field and the well
Windham relies on septic systems for nearly all its homes, with public sewer historically limited to South Windham Village. The town has tracked rising nitrate levels in North Windham groundwater, which it associates with septic systems, and it identifies the aquifer around Little Sebago Lake as the largest mapped high-yield aquifer in southern Maine.
In a design that means the leach field is treated as fixed ground: no trees whose roots will seek it out, no patio on top of it and no heavy grading across it. Plantings and hardscape are laid out around it, and a replacement area is left open where one exists.
Low impact development, drawn in from the start
Windham's construction stormwater guidance asks owners and contractors to follow low impact development principles: minimize impervious surfaces, avoid disturbing and compacting soil, protect native vegetation, limit clearing and avoid piping runoff straight into streams or storm drains. Those are design decisions long before they are construction decisions.
Our design process walks the site, draws the plan and builds it with our own crews, so grading, drainage, plantings and stonework come from one drawing. On a Windham lot that often means keeping existing woods at the back of the property, directing roof and driveway water into planted swales, and sizing the lawn to what will actually be used.
Mount Hunger to the Presumpscot
Elevations run from under 100 feet along the Presumpscot River at the south end of town to 500 to 600 feet on Mount Hunger and Atherton Hill, and the land generally drains northeast to southwest toward the river. A design on a hillside lot above Little Sebago faces steeper grades than one on the flatter ground near South Windham, and terracing, walls and plant choices follow from that.
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 Windham, Maine.
Landscape Design in nearby towns
- Landscape Design in Gray
- Landscape Design in Cumberland
- Landscape Design in Standish
- Landscape Design in Gorham
- Landscape Design in Westbrook
More services in Windham
- Hardscaping in Windham
- Retaining Walls in Windham
- Landscaping in Windham
- Planting & Garden Beds in Windham
- Hydroseeding, Sod & Turf in Windham
- Lawn Aeration & Overseeding in Windham
- Fall Cleanup & Leaf Removal in Windham
- Commercial Mowing & Cleanups in Windham
- Excavation & Land Clearing in Windham
- Septic Systems in Windham
- Tree & Shrub Services in Windham
- Tree Removal in Windham
Sources for the local facts on this page
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Landscape Design in Windham? 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