How these services fit together
The cards above are the work we get asked for most, and they split into four decisions rather than seventeen. Something gets built, water gets sorted out, things get planted, and then somebody has to keep it all going. Most projects we take on are two of those at once, which is the main reason a quote for “a patio” and a quote for the same patio can look nothing alike.
The things that get built once
Hardscape is the half of the yard that is still there in twenty years if it is done properly, and the half that gets expensive to put right if it is not. Nearly all of it stands or falls on what is underneath: a woven fabric between our red clay and the stone, several inches of aggregate compacted in layers rather than dumped in one, and an edge that holds the whole thing in. You cannot see any of it once the job is finished, which is exactly why it is the first thing a cheap quote leaves out.
We build paver patios, retaining walls, steps, walkways and driveways, fire pits and outdoor kitchens. Each of those pages goes into the materials, the permit position city by city, and the parts people tend to regret.
Water, which is where the expensive problems start
A surprising number of the jobs that look like a lawn problem or a foundation problem are a water problem that has been left alone for a few seasons. Dunwoody sits near the top of its watersheds, so a yard that drained perfectly well for thirty years often did not change at all — a teardown, a couple of additions and a resurfaced street uphill did.
That work is drainage, French drains and grading, and it covers dry river beds, regrading a yard so water leaves the house, and the Dirt Locker installs on slopes too steep to plant any other way. Where the answer really is a pipe, our older French drain page goes through how one is actually built. We would rather slow water down and let it soak into the ground than pipe it straight to the street, which is better for the creek at the bottom of the hill and usually cheaper to keep working.
Planting, lawns and what actually grows in red clay
Design, plant installation and sod all sit on the same question: what the ground and the light in that particular yard will support. Six hours of sun and two hours of sun are two different gardens, and a thin sandy loam sitting over deep clay does not behave like the soil in a bag. Our residential landscaping page covers the design and planting side, and when a whole yard is being rethought at once, the backyard makeover page explains how the work gets sequenced.
Lawn care we do the slower way: aeration that pulls plugs, compost worked into the holes, overseeding into the openings, and feeding worked out from a soil test rather than from a date on the calendar. It takes two or three autumns instead of one visit, and we would rather say so at the start. That is set out on our eco-friendly lawn care page, with the treatment side on the fertilization, weed and pest control page — including the things we will not do, like blanket-spraying a lawn nobody has walked first.
Keeping it going
Maintenance is the quiet half of this business and the part where the electric equipment matters most, because it is the visit that happens every week rather than once. For homes that is residential maintenance. For offices, medical buildings, HOA common areas and retail we run commercial landscaping and commercial maintenance, where the account manager is the owner and the monthly report includes what was skipped and why.
What being an all-electric crew changes, and what it does not
Every mower, blower and trimmer we run is battery powered and charged off the solar trailer, so a crew can work outside a leased office or under a bedroom window without the all-day engine drone, and nobody on site is breathing two-stroke exhaust. That is the honest benefit, and it is most of the reason people call us.
The part we say out loud: a plate compactor, a masonry saw and a breaker are loud whatever powers them, so a hardscape build has noisy days and we name them in advance rather than after. The truck towing the trailer still burns fuel, which is one of the real reasons the map stays small. Where we work is on the service areas page.
If you are not sure which of these your project is, that is normal. It is what the site visit is for.
