Full-season, recurring care for established gardens and landscaped properties throughout Southern Maine and the Seacoast of New Hampshire.
Lovely Earth provides professional seasonal care for garden beds, ornamental trees and shrubs, perennial borders, annuals, and seasonal plantings. Each property begins with a Spring Opening, followed by scheduled weekly or biweekly maintenance and Fall Care & Closing. Our team adjusts the work throughout the season based on the property, plant material, weather, and what needs attention.
A Spring Opening brings the gardens and maintained areas back to standard
after winter and prepares the property for the growing season.
Winter debris, fallen branches, leaves, remaining perennial material, weeds, and loose organic debris are removed.
Beds are raked and detailed, and surrounding lawn areas, walks, steps, and entrances may also be
cleaned so the property starts the season neat and ready for care.
Plant-specific fertilizers and soil amendments, such as Holly-tone or Plant-tone, may be applied where appropriate based on the plants and needs of the property.
Dead, damaged, broken, crossing, or unwanted growth is removed, and ornamental trees and shrubs are selectively pruned according to plant type, seasonal timing, growth habit, and desired appearance. We favor thoughtful, natural pruning rather than routine shearing.
Garden beds are redefined by hand using a garden edger to establish a clean separation between lawn and planting areas.
A defined edge helps keep grass from spreading into the beds, keeps mulch contained, and gives the property a crisp, finished appearance.
Fresh premium mulch is installed or replenished as needed, generally to an appropriate finished depth while taking existing mulch into account to avoid unnecessary buildup.
Once the property has been opened for the season, our team returns on a scheduled weekly or biweekly route to keep the gardens clean, healthy, detailed, and consistently maintained.
The emphasis of each visit changes throughout the season, but our standard of care remains the same.
Garden and landscape beds are routinely hand-weeded, including unwanted seedlings, volunteer growth, and invasive plants before they become established.
Spent flowers are removed where appropriate to keep annuals and perennials tidy and encourage continued flowering when possible.
Perennials are cut back, thinned, divided, supported, or cleaned up as their growth and seasonal timing require.
Ornamental trees and shrubs are pruned throughout the season when appropriate, with attention to plant type, flowering cycle, structure, clearance, and natural form.
Annuals, containers, new plantings, and garden areas may be watered and fertilized as needed when included in the property’s maintenance program.
Loose mulch is reset, beds are tidied, and established edges are touched up as needed to keep planting areas neat and defined.
Fallen branches, spent plant material, leaves, clippings, and routine garden debris are removed from maintained areas.
Before leaving, adjacent walks, steps, entrances, patios, paths, driveway areas, and other common spaces are blown clean so the property is left finished and presentable.
Some of the most important garden work does not happen at every visit. Pruning, perennial cutbacks, bed re-edging, mulch replenishment, compost or top-dressing, leaf cleanup, and seasonal display changes are incorporated when the timing is appropriate for the plant and property.
The emphasis naturally changes throughout the year — from spring growth and perennial care, to midsummer deadheading and pruning, to fall cleanup and preparation for winter.
For active maintenance clients, Lovely Earth can provide smaller garden improvements as the property evolves, including annual displays, bulbs, replacement shrubs, ornamental trees, perennial additions, filling gaps in established beds, and garden renovations.
These services complement the ongoing maintenance relationship rather than operate as standalone landscape-installation projects.
As the growing season slows, recurring visits naturally shift toward preparing the gardens for winter.
Fall care may include leaf and seasonal debris removal, branch cleanup, perennial cutbacks, removal of spent annuals, continued weeding, final bed detailing, and selective pruning where appropriate. Larger cleanups may also include surrounding lawn areas, walks, steps, paths, entrances, and driveway areas.
The season concludes with the maintained gardens clean, orderly, and prepared for winter.
No two Lovely Earth properties receive exactly the same maintenance visit. Some visits are pruning-heavy, some focus on weeds and seasonal color, and others are primarily cleanup and detailing.
The work changes. The standard of care does not.
After scheduled visits, Lovely Earth provides a Service Visit Update with photos of the gardens and a summary of the work completed.
It provides a simple record of ongoing care and is especially useful for vacation homes, seasonal residences, and clients who aren’t always on the property.
