One yard, start to finish. Then the shorter ones.

The Weatherstone yard, Apex

A 1970s ranch on a quarter acre. The owners had been fighting the front yard for years: a dying willow oak shading everything, fescue that never made it past June, foundation hollies that had eaten the windows, and a walk that flooded because the yard sloped at the house. They texted a photo in February.

1. Week 1. Our arborist partner took the oak down and ground the stump. We hauled the chips and pulled the hollies, roots and all.
2. Week 2. Regraded the front so it falls two inches over ten feet away from the foundation, buried both front downspouts to a pop-up at the curb strip.
3. Week 3. Cut new bed lines along the walk and foundation, tilled compost into the clay, planted Emerald Green arborvitae for height at the corners, dwarf gardenia and encore azaleas in front, perennials at the walk. Hardwood mulch, three inches.
4. Week 4. Fescue sod on the lawn side, seed and straw on the strip, watering schedule by text. Weekly mowing started in May.

Cost: about $6,800 including the tree, which was the biggest single line. Time: four weeks, mostly waiting on weather and the arborist's schedule. What the owner said: ask them, they are on the route and happy to talk. We do not print reviews we typed ourselves.

• CaryKildaire Farm side yard. Sixty feet of French drain and two buried downspouts. The pond between the houses stopped being a pond. Two days, $2,460.
• Holly SpringsSunset Ridge front beds. Edge, weed, 38 bales of pine straw, two hollies replaced with loropetalum. One morning, $585.
• MorrisvilleKitts Creek townhome. Back patio strip: gravel pad for the grill and cans, steel edge, three inches of mulch, one Japanese maple. Half a day, $1,140.
• ApexScotts Mill fescue rescue. 6,200 sq ft aerated and overseeded the last week of September. By Thanksgiving it looked like a different house. $682.
• Fuquay-VarinaSouth Lakes half acre. Weekly mowing since 2022. Nothing dramatic. That is the point.

Photos of these go here as we shoot them. Every job on this page has a street we can name and an owner who can be asked.