Landscape design and installation on Hilton Head Island, SC
Whole yard design and installation, built around what actually grows on the island and what your community allows.
- Bluffton
- Hilton Head Island
- Okatie
- Hardeeville
- Ridgeland
A landscape on Hilton Head has to satisfy two things at once. It has to survive salt, sand and island heat, and on a great many properties it also has to sit within what the community expects a front yard to look like.
Those two constraints together rule out a lot of what looks good in a catalog, and working inside them from the start is far cheaper than installing something that either dies or has to come back out.
What a design and install covers
- Walking the property and working out what the space is actually for
- A plan for beds, planting and flow rather than material dropped in wherever there is a gap
- Material chosen for salt exposure, light and the water the spot really gets
- Bed preparation and clean defined edges that hold their line
- Planting, mulching and finishing in a sequence that leaves the yard usable throughout
- A straight conversation about what it takes to maintain, before it goes in
How a project runs
We walk it with you
What you want the space to do, what you do not want to be maintaining, and what has failed there before.
You get a plan and a price
Staged if you want it staged. Plenty of island properties do one area a season rather than the whole yard at once.
We install it
Beds, planting, mulch and edges, finished area by area rather than leaving the whole property torn up.
Designing inside island constraints
The island constraint people underestimate is not salt, it is light. Hilton Head's mature live oak canopy is the reason the island looks the way it does, and it also means a great many properties have far less usable sun than the owner assumes. Material specified for full sun goes into a spot that gets four hours and slowly gives up.
The other is community standards. Sea Pines, Palmetto Dunes and Palmetto Hall each carry expectations about what is visible from the street, and some communities have written landscape requirements. Designing inside those from the start avoids the worst outcome available here, which is a finished installation that has to be undone.
Related services
Planting & Mulching
Beds planted with material that survives salt and sand, and mulched to hold what water the ground gets.
Sod Installation
New sod over properly prepared ground, with turf chosen for sandy island soil and salt exposure.
Irrigation Installation
Sprinkler systems designed around sandy island ground and set to run whether or not anyone is at the property.
Landscape Design & Installation questions
Do I need POA approval for landscaping work?
Some island communities carry landscape standards, and some require review before work that changes what is visible from the street. Check with your POA, tell us what it says, and we will design inside it.
Can the work be staged?
Yes, and on island properties that is common. We would rather do one area properly a season than spread a budget thin across a whole yard.
Will the design need a lot of maintenance?
That is a decision we make with you at the start, not a surprise afterward. Tell us how much you want to be doing and we will specify for it.
Why do things keep dying in the same spot in my yard?
Usually light or salt, and occasionally drainage. Under a mature oak canopy the sun a spot actually gets is often half what people estimate, and working that out before replanting is the difference between a fix and doing it again next year.
Get a free estimate
We come out, walk the property with you and price the work before anything starts. Serving Bluffton, Hilton Head Island, Okatie, Hardeeville, Ridgeland.