Landscape design, grading and drainage, sod, seeding, and planting from an experienced, family-owned crew. Whether you're fixing a yard that floods, renovating a tired lawn, or starting fresh around a new build, we shape the ground right and put a free written estimate in your hands first.
A good landscape starts under the surface, with ground that drains correctly and soil that plants can actually live in, and finishes with the beds, lawn, and plantings that make a yard feel finished. Gray & Sons Contracting handles residential landscaping across Calvert, St. Mary's, and Charles County, from a single planting bed to a full front-and-back renovation. Because we're a general contractor, landscaping pairs naturally with the hardscaping and structural work a real outdoor project usually needs.
We start with what you actually want the space to do, entertain, screen a neighbor, feed pollinators, or just look sharp from the curb, and build a plan around your soil, sun, and slope. Then we install it: beds, lawn, plantings, and edging that come together as one cohesive yard instead of a pile of unrelated purchases.
This is where most Southern Maryland yard problems live. Our clay soils hold water, and a yard that slopes the wrong way sends it straight at the foundation. We regrade to pitch water away from the house and add French drains, dry wells, and downspout extensions where the site needs them so the low spots stop staying wet.
Whether you want an instant lawn from sod or a renovated one from seed, we prep the ground properly first, grading, amending thin soil, and clearing what's failing, because a lawn is only as good as what's underneath it. New sod gives you green in a day; a fall seeding gives a thick, established stand for less.
We install trees, shrubs, perennials, and foundation plantings chosen to thrive in our climate rather than fight it. Right plant, right place, planted at the right depth in amended soil, that's the difference between plantings that fill in and mature and ones you're replacing in two seasons.
The finishing touches that hold a landscape together. Fresh mulch to lock in moisture and suppress weeds, clean-cut bed edges that define the lines, and full seasonal cleanups to reset an overgrown or neglected yard back to sharp.
Landscaping ranges widely with scope, but here's the honest shape of it: a focused planting bed or small sod install often starts around $2,000, while a full yard renovation with grading, beds, sod, and new plantings commonly runs $10,000 or more, and grading and drainage work is priced by the size of the problem it's solving. Four things drive the number most: the size of the yard, the plant material you choose (mature trees and specimen shrubs cost more than starter plants), how much grading is involved, and whether drainage has to be engineered to move water off the property. We walk the site, talk through priorities, and put a real number in writing for free, no surprise line items later.
Cosmetic problems like a thin lawn or tired beds are the easy part. It's the drainage and grading underneath that decide whether the pretty part lasts, which is why we always start by reading how water moves across your yard.
We work with quality nursery stock, balled-and-burlapped and container trees, shrubs, and perennials selected to suit Southern Maryland's climate and your specific light and soil. For lawns we install locally grown cool-season sod (turf-type tall fescue and fescue blends that hold up to our summers) and premium seed for renovations. Beds get shredded hardwood mulch, and we amend planting soil with compost so roots have something to grow into. For drainage we use proper perforated pipe, washed stone, and filter fabric so a French drain keeps working for years instead of silting up.
We landscape homes throughout Calvert, St. Mary's, and Charles County, including Prince Frederick, Solomons, Lusby, Huntingtown, Dunkirk, Owings, St. Leonard, Leonardtown, California, Lexington Park, Hollywood, Waldorf, and La Plata. See our full service area.
Because a real outdoor project is rarely just plants. As a full home improvement company, we can grade and plant your yard and, in the same coordinated project, build the patio or walkway that anchors it, install the retaining wall a sloped lot needs to hold the grade, and set the fence that frames it all. One contractor, one crew, one standard, instead of stitching together a landscaper, a mason, and a fence company and hoping they coordinate.
Tell us what's wrong or what you're dreaming up and we'll come take a look. Drainage fix or full renovation, you'll get a straight answer and a free written estimate.