Landscaping in Maine has a short, crowded season and a long list of things that aren't about grass. Between a late spring and an early frost, a landscaper in Freeport, Augusta or Belfast is also dealing with ticks, browntail moth, shoreland rules on the lake lots and ledge under the patio. The right company for you depends on which of those your yard actually has.
When do browntail moth webs need to come down?
Browntail moth has a strange history in Maine. The Maine Forest Service traces its arrival to Somerville, Massachusetts in 1897. By the 1960s it had retreated to Cape Cod and a few islands in Casco Bay, and now it is back, concentrated in mid-coastal Maine and the capital region. It turns up along the coast and as far as 60 miles inland, which takes in towns like Hallowell, Gardiner, Winthrop and Waldoboro.
The danger is the caterpillar's hairs, which cause a rash much like poison ivy. The Forest Service lays out the calendar:
- October to March: clip the winter webs, the small silk-wrapped clusters of leaves at branch tips, and destroy them.
- Mid-April: caterpillars emerge.
- April to August: avoid heavily infested areas.
- July and August: adult moths fly.
So a landscaper who offers browntail web removal should be working in winter, not in May. High webs on oaks and fruit trees need a lift or a pole saw, and the crew should cover skin and eyes. Ask how they dispose of the clipped webs. If a company offers to spray for caterpillars instead, it's pesticide work, and the next section applies.
Who is allowed to spray your lawn or your trees?
Mowing, mulching, planting and stone work need no state license in Maine. Applying pesticides for hire does. That covers weed control on a lawn, grub treatment, tick and mosquito sprays, and tree treatments for browntail. Anyone doing it as a business must be licensed by the Board of Pesticides Control, and the Board publishes its list of licensed commercial applicators.
Ask a lawn care company two things before you sign up:
- Who on the crew holds the applicator license, and is the company itself listed?
- What exactly will be applied, how often, and what notice will you get before each treatment?
A mowing company that adds "weed and feed" to every visit without a license is breaking the rule, and you have no way to know what is going down where your kids and dogs play. If you have a private well, which is common outside the water districts, ask how close to the well head they will apply anything.
Can you cut trees along the lake or the shore?
Maine regulates the land closest to the water more strictly than the rest of the lot. The shoreland zone runs 250 feet back from great ponds, rivers and tidal waters, and 75 feet from certain streams (38 M.R.S. §435). The Mandatory Shoreland Zoning Act makes every town adopt and enforce a shoreland ordinance, and those ordinances limit how much vegetation can be removed near the water. DEP points homeowners to the local code enforcement officer first (Maine DEP shoreland zoning).
For a camp in the Belgrade Lakes or a cottage on Mount Desert, that means a landscaper who offers to "open up the view" may be proposing a violation, and the fine lands on the owner. A good shoreland landscaper will talk to the code officer before cutting, keep a vegetated buffer, and often suggest pruning or limbing up rather than removal.
What must happen before a patio or retaining wall is dug?
A digging rule. Maine's Dig Safe law, 23 M.R.S. §3360-A, makes the excavator notify Dig Safe no sooner than 30 calendar days and no later than 3 business days before breaking ground. A patio base, a retaining wall footing or a new planting bed with a stump grinder all qualify. The landscaper who digs places the call; ask for the ticket number.
Hardscape jobs are also where the money gets larger. A patio or wall priced over $3,000 should come with a written contract in the form of Maine's Home Construction Contracts Act (10 M.R.S. §1487), with a payment schedule that asks for a third or less at signing. The contract should name the stone or paver, the depth of the gravel base, and how drainage is handled.
Will a dry summer change what you plant or water?
It can. A dry stretch hits private wells before it hits anything else, and a well running low is the first sign many owners notice. The National Weather Service office in Gray publishes a drought information statement for Maine and New Hampshire when conditions warrant. If you're on a private well, a new lawn or an irrigation system that runs every morning can draw harder than you expect.
Ask a landscaper who proposes irrigation how many gallons a cycle uses, and whether drip lines or native, drought-tolerant plantings would do the job instead. Seeding in late summer or early fall, when rain is more reliable, can save water and replanting.
What should a fall cleanup cover on a place you leave for the winter?
Many Maine yards belong to houses that sit empty from October to May, from summer cottages in Kennebunk to hunting camps north of Bangor. The fall visit matters more there than any summer mowing, because nobody will notice a problem until spring.
A useful fall list to give a landscaper:
- Clear leaves and needles from gutters, roof valleys and window wells, so snowmelt can drain.
- Cut back limbs over the roof and the driveway, which a heavy wet snow or ice storm can bring down.
- Mark the edges of the driveway, the septic tank cover and any low plantings with stakes, so the plow driver doesn't scrape them.
- Turn off and drain outdoor faucets and any irrigation lines.
- Clip any browntail webs within reach, if you are in the moth's range.
- Take photos of the property at the end of the visit, with the date.
Ask whether the company will check the property after big storms and what that costs per visit. A downed tree on a roof in January is far less expensive when someone sees it the next day.
What does routine landscaping cost in Maine?
The Maine calculator default for routine maintenance is about $50 to $70 a visit, and the Maine landscaping cost estimate breaks out what it includes. Spring cleanup, fall leaf removal and hardscape are priced separately.
Maine's season is short, so landscapers in Lewiston, Kennebunk or Bar Harbor often fill their schedule by early spring. A seasonal contract with a set number of visits gets you on the calendar. Read it for what happens in a wet week, whether skipped visits roll over, and when the season ends.
