Lower Merion Township, where the route starts.

Lower Merion Township is the southeast corner of Montgomery County, running along the Main Line rail corridor out from City Avenue, where it meets Philadelphia. It is a township of named places rather than one town: Penn Valley, Merion Station, Wynnewood, Bala Cynwyd and Ardmore are all inside it, and Ardmore runs across the line into Haverford Township. Landscaping in Lower Merion Township mostly means working on properties that were laid out a long time ago.

The houses are largely stone and stucco, a good share of them around a century old, on lots that were graded once and have been settling since. The trees are mature, so there is shade, roots under most of the yard and a heavy leaf load every November. Stone walks, steps and walls have been in the ground long enough to move.

Most jobs here are renovation and correction, not new construction on bare ground: resetting stone that has sunk or leaned, sending water somewhere sensible, renovating beds planted for a house that has since grown up around them, and building new patios and walls on a base that will hold. One crew does the design, the grading, the stone, the planting and the upkeep.