Landscaping in McCandless Township

McCandless is established North Hills suburbia, and almost everything we do here is renovation rather than installation.

The pattern repeats from street to street. Foundation shrubs planted when the house was built, now pressing against the siding and blocking the windows. Timber retaining walls installed in the eighties that have finally rotted through. Bed lines that have crept outward a few inches a year until the lawn is an odd shape nobody chose.

Taking things out is as much of the job as putting things in, and it is usually the part that transforms a property. A house that has been hidden behind overgrown planting for twenty years looks like a different building once it is cleared.

The ground rolls enough that most level outdoor space here was built rather than found, which is why the retaining walls matter so much when they start to fail.