Service Areas
Ten places around the Perimeter, one soil profile under all of them
A steep river lot in Vinings, a rebuilt house in Smyrna and a forty-year-old subdivision in Peachtree Corners share the same Piedmont clay and almost nothing else. Each page covers what the ground, the terrain and the canopy do in that place.
Dunwoody
A DeKalb County city of 51,683, incorporated in 2008, just over three miles east. Wooded subdivision stock on the same Piedmont clay, on rolling ground that sheds fast.
Brookhaven
DeKalb County, 55,161 people, incorporated in 2012 and about five miles southeast. Older housing on tighter lots, with Nancy Creek running through the middle of it.
Roswell
North Fulton, 92,833 people, about seven and a half miles north across the Chattahoochee. Larger wooded lots, steeper river ground, and the same county as Sandy Springs.
Chamblee
A DeKalb County city of 30,164, about five miles southeast. Smaller lots, a lot of recent rebuilding, and yards where every square foot has to earn its place.
Doraville
DeKalb County, 10,623 people, about six miles east. Post-war housing on flatter ground than most of this list, which changes what a yard needs.
Vinings
A Cobb County census designated place of 12,581 across the river, about seven and a half miles west. The steepest ground on this list, which puts walls at the center of most projects.
Smyrna
Cobb County, 55,663 people, about ten miles west. A great deal of rebuilding on older lots, which means new houses on old ground.
Marietta
The Cobb County seat, 60,972 people, about ten miles northwest. The oldest housing stock on this list and the most established gardens on it.
Alpharetta
North Fulton, 65,818 people, about eleven miles north. Newer subdivisions on rolling ground, often with covenants that shape what a front yard can be.
Peachtree Corners
Gwinnett County, 42,243 people, incorporated in 2012 and about eight miles northeast. Wooded 1970s and 1980s subdivisions on ground that falls toward the river.
How far it reaches
Most of the work happens in Sandy Springs and the ring immediately around it. Straight-line distances from the middle of Sandy Springs, taken from the Census Gazetteer, put Dunwoody at about 3 miles, Brookhaven and Chamblee at around 5, Doraville at 6, Roswell and Vinings at 7 to 8, Peachtree Corners at 8, Smyrna and Marietta at around 10, and Alpharetta at 11. Those are straight lines rather than drive times, and anyone who has sat on I-285 knows the difference.
Beyond that ring the geography opens up quickly into Johns Creek, Milton, Tucker and the rest of the northern arc. Work out that far is possible on larger scopes where a single mobilisation makes sense, and it is worth asking about rather than assuming either way.
What changes across the ring, and what does not
The soil does not change. Every place on this page sits on the same Cecil-type Piedmont profile, a thin sandy loam surface over red clay subsoil, kaolinitic and rated low for shrink-swell, absorbing water at around half an inch an hour and shedding everything past that across the surface. A drainage problem in Marietta and a drainage problem in Brookhaven have the same cause.
What does change is the terrain and the age of the planting. Vinings and riverside Roswell are steep enough that walls and terracing come before anything else. Doraville is flat enough that water has to be given a fall it does not naturally have. Chamblee and Smyrna have turned over enough housing stock that compacted construction soil is the first thing to fix. Marietta has gardens old enough to be worth editing rather than replacing. Those are different briefs on identical ground.
Watering is the same everywhere. Georgia limits outdoor landscape irrigation to the hours between 4 p.m. and 10 a.m. statewide, with a 30-day exemption for newly installed plants, seed and turf, and with drip irrigation, soaker hoses and hand watering carrying no time limit at all. All four counties sit inside the Metro North Georgia Water Planning District, whose water-efficiency requirements cover new landscape irrigation systems connected to a public water supply.
Find out what the yard would cost
Call (404) 737-3568 or use the quote form, and a Sandy Springs landscaping company prices the work at no charge.