Reference
Nantucket Landscaping Glossary
Plain-English definitions of the landscaping, hardscaping, and horticulture terms that come up on Nantucket properties — and why each one matters on the island.
Aeration
Aeration is a lawn-care practice that removes small cores of soil and thatch from the turf, creating channels that let air, water, and nutrients reach the root zone.
Annual
An annual is a plant that germinates, flowers, sets seed, and dies within a single growing season.
Bluestone
Bluestone is a dense, fine-grained sandstone, typically blue-gray, quarried in the northeastern United States and used extensively for patios, walkways, pool surrounds, and stair treads.
Cobblestone
Cobblestone refers to naturally rounded or quarried square-cut stones used as paving for driveways, walkways, edging bands, and driveway aprons.
Deer-Resistant Plants
Deer-resistant plants are species that deer generally avoid because of their texture, scent, or taste, such as aromatic herbs, fuzzy-leaved plants, and toxic or bitter foliage.
Drainage
Drainage is the management of surface and subsurface water so it flows away from where it can cause damage.
Dune Grass (American Beachgrass)
Dune grass, most often American beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata), is a hardy perennial grass native to Atlantic coastal dunes.
Edging
Edging is the defined border that separates lawn from planting beds, walkways, or driveways, created either by cutting a clean trench or by installing materials such as steel, stone, brick, or cobble.
Grading
Grading is the process of reshaping and leveling the ground to establish proper slopes, elevations, and surfaces.
Hardscape
Hardscape refers to all the hard, non-living structural elements of a landscape, including patios, walkways, driveways, retaining walls, steps, and stone edging.
Hydrangea
Hydrangeas are deciduous flowering shrubs grown for their large, showy summer flower clusters in mophead or lacecap form.
Mulch
Mulch is a layer of material, most often shredded bark, wood chips, or compost, spread over the soil surface in planting beds and around trees and shrubs.
Perennial
A perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years, typically dying back to the ground in winter and regrowing from its roots each spring.
Privet Hedge
A privet hedge is a formal living screen created by planting privet (Ligustrum) shrubs close together and shearing them into a dense, flat-sided wall.
Retaining Wall
A retaining wall is a structure built to hold back soil and manage changes in grade, turning slopes into usable, level terraces and preventing erosion.
Salt-Tolerant Plants
Salt-tolerant plants are species adapted to survive exposure to salt, whether from airborne ocean spray or salt in the soil.
Sod
Sod is mature grass grown on a farm and harvested in rolls or strips with an intact layer of soil and roots, then laid over prepared ground to create an instant lawn.
Softscape
Softscape refers to the living, horticultural elements of a landscape, including lawns, trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, and groundcovers.
Topdressing
Topdressing is the practice of spreading a thin, even layer of quality material, usually compost or a sand-soil blend, across the surface of an established lawn.
Xeriscaping
Xeriscaping is a landscaping approach that minimizes the need for supplemental water by using drought-tolerant plants, efficient grouping of plants by water need, mulching, and improved soil.
Free estimates
Questions about your property? We'll walk it with you.
Tell us about your property and what you have in mind. We'll walk it with you and put together a clear, honest plan — no pressure, no job too big or small.