Landscaping in Coral Gables, FL

Coral Gables is where the artistic side of what we do gets used properly. The Gables was laid out as a designed city and it still holds itself to that: mature live oak canopy, banyans, formal ficus and clusia hedges, and front gardens that are expected to look composed rather than merely tidy.

That makes hedge and topiary work the core of it. A ficus hedge in the Gables is architecture — it is the wall of the garden — and it has to be cut true to a line and a level, not rounded off with a hedge trimmer held at arm's length. Podocarpus columns, shaped standards and specimen plants get cut by hand, stem by stem, on the schedule the plant wants rather than whenever a crew is passing.

Under the oak canopy the other question is always light. Half the planting problems we are called to look at in the Gables and in Pinecrest are shade problems being treated as water problems, and the fix is a different plant rather than a different schedule.

Barrel-tile roofs, coral-rock walls and paver drives all want soft washing rather than pressure — coral rock in particular is soft, and a wand held too close will pit it permanently.

Call (786) 985-5921 for a free estimate in Coral Gables, South Miami or Pinecrest.