Bedworks Design, Inc.

Chatham's Conservation Commission is highly active because so much of town is coastal. Grading, walls, plantings, or hardscape within 100 feet of a coastal bank, dune, salt marsh, or wetland — or in a flood or velocity zone — needs an Order of Conditions under the Wetlands Protection Act, and bank-stabilization work draws heavy scrutiny. The Building Department typically requires a permit for retaining walls over four feet of exposed height. Pools need building and electrical permits with fencing. Title 5 septic setbacks also constrain where plantings and grading can go on many lots.

Chatham pricing is among the highest on the Cape, driven by the affluent second-home market, salt-tolerant material costs, and the premium for hauling soil onto sandy lots. Weekly mowing on a small lot runs $50-80, spring cleanup $350-700, fall cleanup $400-900, and bark mulch $90-130 per yard installed. Bluestone patios run $12-18K. Full design-build coastal grounds — salt-tolerant plantings, masonry, irrigation, lighting, and full-service caretaking — commonly run $40-150K, and oceanfront estates go well beyond.

Massachusetts requires a written contract and a Home Improvement Contractor registration for most residential landscaping work; ask for the registration number and check it before paying a deposit.

More on permits, costs, rebates and common questions, plus every other landscaping contractor serving the town, on the Landscaping in Chatham page.