Landscaping in Summerville.
Summerville started as the place Charleston went to get away from the coast: a village in the pines, well inland, where planters sat out the summer away from the swamps and the fever. The yards still carry that history. Pines overhead, old azaleas along the fences, no salt in the air, and a town that has protected its trees since it was incorporated in 1847. That last part is the one that catches people out.
- Area
- Summerville, SC
- Based
- North Charleston, SC
- You hear back
- The day you call
A tree permit, a needle drop, and a deadline for the azaleas
Taking a tree down needs the town's permission. Inside town limits, any tree eight inches across at chest height needs a removal permit, whatever the species, and dead ones are included. At sixteen inches the application goes before the Tree Protection Board, which meets once a month. Take out a healthy protected tree and you owe the town replacement planting for it. That is a far lower bar than the twenty-four inch grand tree mark people know from Charleston County.
So on any job that touches a tree, the permit comes first. A new fence line, a patio, a bed where a dead pine is still standing: if a trunk that size is in the way, the permit is step one of the plan, and a tree big enough for the board can add up to a month before anyone digs. We check before we quote. Worth knowing too that a Summerville mailing address is not always inside the town. Summerville spreads across three counties, and plenty of addresses that carry the name sit outside the limits, where the county's rules apply instead. We find out which side of the line you are on before we tell you what is possible.
Pines are the reason grass has a chance here. The town has called itself Flower Town in the Pines since 1925, and in a lot of Summerville yards the canopy overhead is pine rather than live oak. Pine shade is high and broken, not the solid shade under a James Island oak, so a lawn can hold on underneath with the right grass. The price is the needles. What drops in the fall mats over the lawn and shades it out if it is left there, so a fall visit here is as much about getting needles off the grass as cutting it. Right under the trees, where turf struggles anyway, pine straw is the local answer, and the trees keep supplying it.
The azaleas run on a deadline. Summerville has held its Flowertown Festival in Azalea Park every year since 1972, and plenty of older yards have azalea hedges to match. Azaleas set next year's flower buds over the summer, so cutting them back in the fall along with the other hedges removes next spring's flowers. Clemson's extension service says to prune right after they bloom and to be finished by the end of May. We schedule them that way and leave them alone for the rest of the year. If yours flowered thin this spring, a fall cut is the first thing we would ask about.
- Grass that works here
- Centipede is the usual choice and copes with light pine shade, as long as it is not buried in needles. St. Augustine where the shade gets heavier. Zoysia on open, sunny lots that take real foot traffic.
A front walk, start to finish.
A lighter paver field inside a charcoal border, run from the drive to the front step, with new beds cut, planted and mulched down both sides.
Walks, patios and edging like this are quoted per job, because the ground under them decides most of the work. You get the number before anything is dug.
What people in Summerville actually ask us.
Do I need a permit to take a tree out of my own yard?
Inside town limits, yes, for anything eight inches across at chest height, and that includes dead trees. The town arborist usually turns an application around within a week. Anything sixteen inches or bigger waits for the Tree Protection Board, which meets monthly. If a project depends on a tree coming out, that is the first thing to sort, not the last.
The grass under my pines keeps thinning out.
Look at what is lying on it first. A season of needles left on the lawn will thin it by itself, and it passes for a shade or feeding problem when it is neither. Keep the needles off through the fall and a lot of lawns recover. The ring right around the trunks, where roots and shade are heaviest, usually looks better as a pine straw bed than as grass you keep reseeding.
When should my azaleas be cut back?
Right after they flower, and done by the end of May. They build next year's buds over the summer, so anything cut later comes off with the flowers. We put them on the schedule for late spring and leave them alone the rest of the year.
Are you the Palmetto company in Summerville?
No. Palmetto Landscaping & Design is a separate company based in Summerville, and we are not connected to it. We are Palmetto Landscape, based in North Charleston, and we come out to Summerville. If you are trying to reach them about an existing job, they are the ones to call.
Tell us the Summerville address.
You get a real figure the same day, and we will tell you what is driving it. If your property needs more than we quoted, you hear that before anyone starts, not after.
Every service, in Summerville.
We also work in North Charleston · Mount Pleasant · James Island · West Ashley · Johns Island.