Before
After
Overgrown yard cleanup
Nobody who calls about this is pleased with the yard. It got away over a summer, or it came with the house, or a year turned into three while something more important was going on. It is the most common job we do and the one people apologise for most, which they do not need to.
Send two photos and you get a real number the same day. If it has gone far enough that photos will not tell the truth, we come and walk it before we price it.
Three yards, and they are not the same job.
The single thing that decides the number is how long it has been. Square footage barely moves it. Two properties the same size, one left a season and one left three years, are different jobs done with different equipment.
One season
Knee high, beds lost their edge, the shrubs have closed over the windows.
This is still a one-day job on most Charleston lots. Cut down, cut back, edges re-cut, everything on the truck. The yard underneath is intact and comes back on its own.
A year
Waist high, saplings coming up through the beds, the fence line has disappeared.
A day or two, and the difference is what is now woody. Anything that has had a full season to put down roots has to be cut and pulled rather than mown, and the volume leaving the property roughly doubles.
Two years or more
Over head height in places, vines up the walls, and you cannot see the back of the lot from the house.
This gets walked before it gets priced, every time. Not to pad the number, but because what is under it decides the job: an old fence, a stump, a slab, a pile someone left. Quoting that from a satellite photo is how a job gets abandoned halfway through.
Growing season here runs most of the year, which is why a Charleston yard gets away faster than people expect. A lot that would take two summers to disappear further north does it in one.
This one had been left two years.
Waist-high weeds, shrubs over the windows, vines up the brick and the walkway gone completely. Same house, same spot, same angle, weeks apart.
Before
After
There is a clock, and it is ten days.
Say so when you call. It changes where you go in the schedule, and it does not change the price.
- Charleston County code enforcement serves a notice on the property owner
- You have ten days from service to cut and remove it
- After that it is a misdemeanour, with a fine of up to $500
- Every further day counts as a separate offence
- The county can clear it themselves and put the cost on the property as a lien
Ten days is enough
It is enough time if you start on day one and not day eight. Most of these are cleared inside a week of the call. Bring the letter to the phone with you and read us the date it was served.
Four questions worth answering before anyone starts.
What is the tree that keeps coming back in my yard?
In Charleston it is usually Chinese tallow, the popcorn tree. It is a listed invasive across the Lowcountry and the single most common thing we pull out of a neglected yard here. It seeds hard and regrows from the stump, so cutting it at ground level and walking away buys you about a season.
Why does the wisteria grow back every year?
Because it was cut, not removed. Wisteria and greenbrier both regrow from root. Taking the top off makes a yard look finished and changes nothing underneath. If it returns to the same corner every spring, it was never actually taken out.
Is there poison ivy in it?
In an overgrown Charleston yard, usually yes. Hairy vine climbing a trunk, leaves in threes. It is the reason we look before anyone starts cutting: running a strimmer through a patch throws the oil around and has put people in urgent care. It gets handled deliberately or not at all.
What is living in an overgrown yard?
Ticks and chiggers for most of the year, and snakes in anything left undisturbed a couple of seasons. Worth knowing before you decide to spend a Saturday on it in shorts and trainers.
If you would rather do it yourself, do it in this order.
Plenty of people do, and it is a fair weekend or three depending on how far it has gone. This is the order that works, and we would rather you had it than not.
- Walk it first and find the edges. The fence line, the bed lines, the path. Knowing where they are is what stops you cutting through an irrigation line or a cable, and it tells you how much yard is actually under there.
- Cut top-down, in passes. Take the height off first across the whole yard, then go back and take it lower. Trying to get to ground level in one pass bogs the machine, burns the day and leaves you looking at a third of a finished yard.
- Deal with the woody growth separately. Anything thicker than a thumb wants loppers or a saw, not a strimmer. Cut it, then get the root out, or you are doing this again next spring.
- Sort the disposal before you start, not after. This is where most people stall. Two years of growth off an average lot is more volume than it looks like standing up, and a pile at the kerb is its own code violation. Know where it is going first.
- Then keep it. The clearing is the hard part and the easy part to undo. A cut every week or two through the growing season holds it, and the growing season here runs most of the year.
The stage most people call us at is the disposal. Clearing it is satisfying. Discovering the pile is bigger than the truck, on a Sunday afternoon, is not.
What people ask before they call.
How much does it cost to clear an overgrown yard?
It follows how long it has been, how much has to leave the property, and whether a truck and trailer can get near it. Not square footage, which is why a rate per square foot from anyone who has not seen it is a guess. Send two photos and you get a real number the same day.
How do I clean up an overgrown backyard myself?
Find the edges, cut top-down in passes rather than trying to reach the ground first, take the woody growth out with loppers instead of a strimmer, and sort the disposal before you start rather than after. The full order of work is on this page. Most people manage it and the ones who call us usually do so at the disposal stage.
Can you clear it if I have had a letter from the county?
Yes, and say so when you call because it changes the scheduling rather than the price. Charleston County gives ten days from the notice being served. After that it is a misdemeanour carrying a fine of up to $500, every further day counts as a separate offence, and the county can clear it themselves and put the cost on the property as a lien. Ten days is enough time if you start now.
It has been two years. Is that too far gone?
No. Nothing has been yet. The yard in the photographs on this site had been left two years, vines up the brick and the walkway gone completely.
Do I need to be there while you do it?
No, as long as we can get to the gate. Leave the code. People who are embarrassed about the state of it often prefer not to be home, and that is completely fine.
Will it just grow back?
Not if the woody growth and the roots come out rather than getting cut off at the top, and not if something keeps it afterwards. We will tell you which of the two is going on in your yard, because a cheap job that grows back in a season is not cheap.
Get your number
Two photos and an address.
However far it has gone. You get a figure the same day, and if it needs a walk before it can be priced honestly, we will tell you that instead of guessing.
Once it is back to zero.
01
Cleanups
Seasonal resets and storm debris
02
Lawn care
Weekly and biweekly, so it stays cleared
03
Ground covers
Mulch and pine straw to hold the beds
04
Fencing
Once you can see the line again
We clear overgrown property across North Charleston · Mount Pleasant · James Island · Johns Island · West Ashley.