Middleburg, Virginia
The grounds look after themselves.
That is our job, not yours.
Meridian holds the grounds contract on sixty-two estates, farms and commercial properties across the Virginia Piedmont. One schedule, one crew, one invoice — and nobody calling you about it.
Request a consultation
We walk the property, then send a written schedule and an annual figure.retained contract
weekly
Piedmont
on three platforms
About Meridian
Thirty-one years on the same forty square miles.
Meridian was founded in 1994 by Ellen Hartsook to do one thing properly: hold the grounds contract on a property and take the whole problem away from the owner. We have never worked outside the Piedmont and we do not intend to.
Twenty-two people on our own payroll, including two certified arborists and a horticulturist. No subcontractors on a retained property, ever — the same faces arrive on the same day every week.
- Virginia Class A contractor, licensed and bonded
- $5M liability, workers’ compensation on every crew member
- Two ISA Certified Arborists on staff
- Average client relationship: eleven years
Scope of works
What a retained contract actually covers.
One annual figure, billed monthly. Everything below is included unless the schedule says otherwise, and the schedule is written before you sign.
Turf & meadow
Mowing, edging, aeration, overseeding and a managed meadow regime where you want acreage left long. Cut heights set by season, not by calendar.
- Weekly, Mar–Nov
- Soil tests twice yearly
- Meadow cuts x2
Trees & woodland
Inventory, crown work, deadwood, storm response and succession planting, all signed off by our own arborists rather than sent out.
- Annual survey
- 24hr storm response
- Risk register kept
Formal gardens
Hedges, parterres, borders and containers. Pruned to a written specification so the shape is the same in year ten as year one.
- Hedges x3 yearly
- Seasonal bedding
- Border renovation
Drives, walls & water
Gravel, verges, dry stone, culverts, ponds and drainage — the infrastructure that costs a fortune once it has been left a decade.
- Quarterly inspection
- Gravel top-up
- Culvert clearance
Snow & storm
Drives and access cleared before first light on a contracted trigger depth, with a named crew already assigned to your property in October.
- 2″ trigger
- Pre-dawn clearance
- No call-out needed
Portfolio
Properties we hold the contract on.
Photographed on ordinary maintenance days rather than after a one-off tidy. This is what a retained property looks like on a Tuesday.
Restoration
Marshall parterre, eighteen months apart.
The condition
A walled garden that had been mown but not gardened for nineteen years. The box was bare at the base, four of the eight beds had lost their edges entirely, and the 1920s planting plan survived only in the county archive.
The work
Two seasons. We lifted and re-set every edge to the original plan, replaced the box with a blight-resistant hybrid, rebuilt the soil across all eight beds, and put the whole garden on the standing contract so it cannot slide again.
What it cost, honestly
Restoration was $78,000 across two seasons. The standing contract that keeps it there is $1,850 a month. The second number is the one that matters — the first only exists because the second was allowed to lapse in 2005.
Why we show this one
It is the best argument we have for retained management over piecework. A garden does not fail in a year. It fails in nineteen, quietly, while somebody keeps mowing the lawn around it.
Why Meridian
Four things that are unusual in this trade.
A written specification, not a visit
You get a document that says what happens to every part of the property and when. Most contracts in this trade are a monthly figure and a handshake, which is exactly why standards drift in year three.
The same crew, named
Your property is assigned to a foreman and a crew who do not rotate. They know where the septic field runs and which gate sticks, and you are not explaining it again every April.
We turn work down
Sixty-two properties is close to our ceiling, and we would rather hold the standard than add a name. If we cannot serve you properly we will say so and tell you who can.
Arborists on the payroll
Two ISA Certified Arborists in house. Tree work on an estate is where the real liability sits, and subcontracting it means nobody owns the risk register.
How it begins
Four steps, about five weeks.
We walk the property
Two to three hours with you, then another half day on our own with a measure and a camera. No charge, and no obligation at the end of it.
You get the schedule
A written scope covering every area of the grounds, the frequency of each operation, and one annual figure. Usually about two weeks.
We agree the year
You cut what you do not want. The figure moves with it, in front of you, and nothing is bundled where you cannot see it.
The crew starts
Named foreman, fixed day of the week, and a standing review each October before the next year is set.
4.9 across 180 reviews
What the owners say about us.
“Nine years and I have never once had to telephone them about the grounds. That is the entire product.”
“They told us our oak avenue had eleven years left and gave us a planting plan. Nobody else had even looked up.”
“The schedule is thirty-one pages. I have never read past page four, which I think is the point.”
Recognised by
Coverage
Forty square miles, and no further.
A retained contract only works if the crew can be at your gate in twenty minutes. That is why we have never opened a second office, and why we will tell you honestly if you are outside the line.
- Middleburg
- Upperville
- The Plains
- Marshall
- Aldie
- Philomont
- Delaplane
- Bluemont
- Rectortown
- Paris
- Hume
- Purcellville
Before you call
The questions owners ask first.
What does a retained contract cost?
Our smallest is $1,400 a month for roughly three managed acres; the largest is just over $14,000. The figure is set by the written schedule, not by acreage alone — two properties of the same size can differ threefold depending on how much of it is formal. You will have a number before you commit to anything.
Will you take on a single job rather than a contract?
Restoration work, yes, and tree work, yes. Routine mowing on its own, no. We are not set up for it and you would be better served by somebody who is — we will give you two names.
What happens if standards slip?
The schedule is the test, so it is a factual conversation rather than an argument about taste. Every contract has a thirty-day termination clause on your side, and it has been used twice in thirty-one years.
Do you work with our existing gardener?
Often. Around a fifth of our properties have a resident gardener, and the schedule is written to say plainly which operations are theirs and which are ours so nothing falls between the two.
How far ahead are you booking?
New contracts generally begin at the start of a season, so enquiries in autumn start in March. We are close to capacity at sixty-two properties and will tell you at the walk-through if we cannot take you on.
Is snow clearance really included?
Yes, on a contracted trigger depth of two inches, with your crew assigned in October. There is no call-out charge and no separate winter agreement.
Enquiries
Tell us about the property.
We reply the same working day and walk most properties within a fortnight. There is no charge for the visit or the written schedule, and you keep both either way.
- Telephone(540) 555-0139
- Emailoffice@meridiangrounds.example
- Office1 Liberty Street, Middleburg, VA 20117
- LicenceVA Class A 0000000000 · Insured to $5M