Landscaping Services

Foundation Plantings

Our foundation plantings are designed to complement the style and features of your home’s façade, softening hard lines, adding vibrant colors and textures, and concealing less attractive architectural aspects. We carefully incorporate elements such as specimen plants, evergreen and flowering shrubs, perennials, boulders, sculptures, water features, edging, and small retaining walls to create a harmonious and appealing landscape.

Berms

We design berms—elevated mounds of soil—to introduce height and visual appeal, particularly in flat landscapes. Berms serve various purposes, such as creating focal points, blocking unwanted views, enhancing privacy, redirecting water flow, and defining pathways. To achieve these effects, we often include elements like boulders, large shrubs, evergreen trees, prominent specimen plants, and colorful accents.

Accent Boulders

Ledge rock, characterized by linearly shaped boulders, can be strategically placed in the landscape to mimic the appearance of a natural "rock shelf." This technique helps manage existing elevation changes, create new ones, and enhance the visual appeal of planter beds. Additionally, rounded accent boulders of various sizes can be integrated into the landscape, complemented by decorative cobblers, to create year-round interest and break up expansive mulched areas.

Dry Creek Beds

We design dry creek beds using a combination of boulders, cobblers, decorative gravels, and vegetation to serve both functional and aesthetic purposes. Functionally, dry creek beds help manage surface water runoff and control erosion by creating safe pathways for water flow and collection. Aesthetically, these creek beds or gravel accent areas add depth to your landscape, highlighting vegetation during the growing season and bringing color and visual interest throughout the winter months.

Screens

We design screen plantings using a selection of large vegetation to conceal unsightly views and create a sense of privacy. For added height, screens can be paired with berms and may consist of a single plant variety or a mix of deciduous trees, medium to large evergreens, large shrubs, tall ornamental grasses, and vining plants on trellises. This approach offers both visual coverage and an attractive, layered look to your landscape.

Bubbler Boulder Fountains

For clients seeking a natural water feature in a limited space, we install bubbling boulders. These compact, low-maintenance features create a serene ambiance, offering the soothing sounds of water gently cascading over the rocks, perfect for enhancing relaxation in your outdoor space.

Pondless Waterfalls

Pondless waterfalls bring movement and sound to your landscape, creating a dynamic and inviting space. These low-maintenance water features only require keeping their basin filled. They can range from a simple design with a single waterfall flowing into a rock basin to a larger installation featuring a winding stream with multiple cascading falls, enhancing both visual appeal and tranquility in your outdoor area.

Edging

We install both natural and man-made edgers to help define landscape spaces and maintain ground cover elements like mulch, gravel, and turf. These edgers can also be used within landscape beds to outline and frame areas with varying ground cover materials, adding structure and contrast to your outdoor design.

Grading

At Shelton Landscape, every project begins with precise grading. Whether it involves a simple landscape planter bed or elevating a backyard with a retaining wall and fill soil, we carefully consider water runoff and its impact on the newly created slope. Grading also enhances the landscape's visual appeal by introducing elevation changes, like berms, to previously flat areas.

Drainage Pipe

While grading can often direct surface water away from your structure, not all drainage issues can be resolved this way. To manage larger volumes of water effectively, we install corrugated or PVC drainage pipes connected to your home’s downspouts. This prevents water from pooling near foundations or disrupting the surrounding landscape by channeling it to a more suitable runoff area.

EZ Flow Drainage Pipe

Low areas where water tends to settle can be effectively managed with a French drain or catch basin system. Modern French drains utilize EZ Flow drainage pipes surrounded by a sand-based soil backfill to efficiently channel water. The area can then be restored with sod to return it to turfgrass or, for a more decorative touch, transformed into a dry creek bed. Catch basins, which are plastic boxes of various sizes, are buried at points where standing water accumulates. As water rises to a set level in the basin, it is directed through a solid pipe to a more suitable runoff location, helping to maintain a dry and well-managed landscape.

Underground Storage Basins

Water wells, or underground storage basins, are designed to capture groundwater rather than surface water. These wells are essentially excavated holes lined with geotextile fabric and filled with clean gravel. Groundwater infiltrates the gravel-filled area and is then channeled through a buried pipe to a designated location, allowing for controlled redirection of water within the landscape.