Landscape FAQs

Every project begins with a professional consultation to assess your property’s unique topography, sunlight, and drainage. We then create a conceptual layout that balances aesthetic beauty with functional elements like hardscaping and sustainable plantings. For luxury residential projects, we focus on creating “outdoor rooms,” while commercial designs prioritize brand image and pedestrian flow.

While hardscaping (patios and walls) can be done year-round, spring and fall are the ideal windows for “softscaping” (planting). Planting in the fall allows root systems to establish during the dormant season, while spring provides the immediate gratification of a blooming landscape.

Yes. We specialize in advanced drainage solutions, including French drains, dry river beds, and professional grading. Unlike many providers, we use high-quality PVC piping rather than corrugated plastic to ensure long-term durability and prevent clogs.

We start with how you actually want to use the space: dining, entertaining large groups, quiet morning coffee, or keeping an eye on kids and pets. From there we define the outdoor rooms, a patio that anchors seating, a fire feature that gives the space a reason to be used in cooler months, and plantings that create privacy without closing the yard in. Sightlines from inside the house matter as much as the view from the yard, so we design what you see from your kitchen and living room windows, not just what looks good on a plan.

Greensboro sits in North Carolina’s transition zone, which is why lawns here are harder to get right than in either the mountains or the coastal plain. Turf-type tall fescue is our default for most Piedmont Triad properties: it holds its color through winter, tolerates the shade thrown by mature hardwoods, and can be overseeded each fall to stay thick. Bermuda and zoysia are warm-season options that thrive in full sun and heavy summer traffic but go dormant and brown from roughly November through March. We recommend based on your sun exposure, irrigation, and how you use the lawn, not on a single default.

For a timeless, luxury feel, we recommend natural flagstone or high-quality pavers. We also specialize in pea gravel for a European aesthetic and retaining walls that provide both structural integrity and visual depth to your property.

Absolutely. We design and install custom fire pits and stone accents that serve as focal points for outdoor entertaining. We ensure these features are scaled perfectly to your landscape to look as though they have always been part of the environment.

Hardscaping is every permanent, non-living element of a landscape: patios, walkways, retaining walls, steps, driveways, fire pits, and stone accents. Softscaping is the living material: turf, trees, shrubs, and seasonal color. A well-built landscape needs both. Hardscaping gives the property its structure, defines how people move through it, and holds its value with almost no maintenance; softscaping gives it warmth, seasonal change, and privacy. We design the two together, because a patio placed without regard for drainage or mature tree canopy will cause problems no planting can fix.

A retaining wall holds back sloped earth to create usable, level ground, and on Piedmont properties with clay soil it is often the only way to stop a slope from eroding into a patio, driveway, or foundation. Cost per square face foot depends on material (segmental block, natural stone, or poured concrete) and wall height. Anything over four feet, or any wall retaining a driveway or structure, needs engineered drainage behind it and may require a permit. We build with proper drainage stone and geogrid reinforcement, because the walls that fail are almost always the ones built without a plan for where the water goes.

Our commercial packages are comprehensive, typically covering mowing, edging, blowing, pruning, and seasonal leaf removal. We also offer specialized “enhancements” such as seasonal color rotations (flowers) and mulch/pine needle installation to keep your business looking its best year-round.

We are a licensed and insured irrigation provider. Our services include system design, installation, and regular audits to ensure optimal water distribution. We focus on “smart” irrigation that accounts for slope, sun exposure, and plant types to conserve water while maintaining lush growth.

Yes. We offer reliable commercial snow and ice management to ensure your property remains safe and accessible for employees and clients during winter weather events.

Yes. Greensboro winters are mild enough that owners often skip it and hard enough that skipping it is expensive. Water left in lateral lines, backflow preventers, and valve bodies expands when it freezes and cracks components that are buried and costly to reach. We shut down and blow out systems each fall with compressed air, insulate above-ground components, and shut off and drain the backflow assembly. In spring we reverse the process and run a full audit, checking head alignment, coverage, and controller programming, so the season starts with the system actually watering the turf rather than the sidewalk.

A French drain is a gravel-filled trench with a perforated pipe at the bottom that collects water moving through the soil and carries it to a lower discharge point. It works by gravity and by giving water an easier path than the surrounding soil, which matters in the Piedmont, where dense clay holds water against foundations instead of letting it drain. Depth depends on the job: 18 to 24 inches for surface and yard water, deeper along a foundation footing. We use rigid PVC rather than corrugated plastic pipe, and wrap the aggregate in filter fabric, because the two things that kill a French drain are silt infiltration and a crushed pipe.

For high-end residential and commercial lawns, we typically recommend weekly service during the active growing season (March – December) – we do this up until the freeze point which “may change” depending on weather conditions. This ensures the grass remains at an optimal height and prevents “scalping” or weed breakthroughs. We provide biweekly services Jan-Feb depending on weather conditions.

This is a proactive approach to turf health. It includes scheduled fertilization, pre-emergent weed control, and treatments for local pests or diseases. Our goal is to create a thick, resilient lawn that requires less water and resists invasive species naturally.

Aeration pulls plugs of soil out of the lawn so air, water, and nutrients reach the root zone instead of sitting on compacted ground. Most Triad lawns benefit from core aeration once a year; heavily used lawns and the tight clay soils common around Greensboro often justify twice. For our fescue lawns, early to mid fall is the right window. Aerate and overseed together so the seed drops into open holes with good soil contact and the new grass establishes before summer heat. Warm-season lawns like bermuda and zoysia are aerated in late spring or early summer instead, during their active growth.

Water early, between about 4 and 9 a.m., so the blades dry through the day. Evening watering leaves turf wet overnight, which is how brown patch and other fungal diseases take hold in humid Piedmont summers. Aim for roughly one inch per week total, including rainfall, delivered in two or three deep soakings rather than daily light watering: deep and infrequent drives roots down, frequent and shallow keeps them at the surface where they scorch. Newly seeded areas are the exception and need light watering once or twice a day until the seedlings are established.

Timing depends on grass type, and getting it backwards does real damage. Cool-season lawns like the tall fescue most Greensboro properties run are fed primarily in fall, with a lighter early-spring application. Heavy spring nitrogen pushes soft top growth right into summer heat and disease pressure. Warm-season lawns are fed through late spring and summer while they are actively growing, and stopped well before dormancy. Our Lawn Application Program schedules these around the calendar along with pre-emergent weed control, so each treatment lands when the turf can actually use it.

Both work, and the choice is mostly about slope, plants, and the look you want. Pine straw is light, knits together, and stays put on slopes where hardwood mulch washes out in a heavy Piedmont thunderstorm; it also suits acid-loving plantings like azaleas, camellias, hollies, and dogwoods. Hardwood mulch is heavier, holds moisture longer, breaks down into the soil, and gives beds a cleaner, more formal edge. Either way, depth is what matters: two to three inches, pulled back from trunks and stems rather than piled against them. Both need refreshing annually, typically in spring.

Yes. Fields Landscaping Co. Inc. is a fully incorporated, licensed, and insured company. We prioritize safety and professionalism on every job site, protecting both our crew and your property.

We proudly serve residential and commercial property owners in Greensboro, NC, and the surrounding Piedmont Triad area.

You can reach out via our contact page or call us during business hours (Mon-Fri, 7am – 5pm and Sat if needed depending on priorities during the week). We will schedule a site visit to provide a detailed, transparent quote tailored to your specific needs.