Landscaping in Sharon, MA

Sharon is built around Lake Massapoag and backed by Moose Hill, the oldest Audubon wildlife sanctuary in the country. The town is heavily wooded and conservation-minded, and that shows in what homeowners ask for.

We get more requests for native planting and low-input lawn programs in Sharon than almost anywhere else we work.

Lake Massapoag is the centre of the town in every sense, and the properties around it carry the usual waterfront responsibilities. Phosphorus-free fertilizer, applications held well back from the shoreline, and a native buffer planting between lawn and water that intercepts runoff before it arrives.

Moose Hill and the conservation land across the western side keep much of Sharon wooded. Shade, acidic soil from decades of oak and pine litter, and heavy fall leaf load are the standing conditions. Two-pass cleanups are normal on the wooded lots.

Organic and reduced-input lawn programs come up more here than in most towns, and they work — compost topdressing, natural nitrogen sources, corn gluten as a limited pre-emergent, and integrated pest management instead of a fixed spray schedule. Results build more slowly and soil quality improves more over time.

Deer pressure through the wooded sections is significant. Design accounts for it rather than fighting it annually, which mostly means not planting arborvitae and leaning on boxwood, spirea, ferns, grasses and inkberry.

Route 95 and Route 27 run through town, and the frontages along them take heavy salt exposure every winter — dead turf strips and browned evergreens on the road-facing side each March.

Because Sharon is genuinely conservation-minded, a lot of owners here want to know what a given recommendation costs environmentally as well as financially. We are comfortable with that conversation — most of what we suggest for soil health happens to reduce inputs over time rather than increase them.