Landscaping in Vermont is ledge, frost heave, and a yard that spends much of the year under snow or mud. Village walks lift. Stone walls spill. Metal roofs dump a winter of snow onto the only path and the shrubs beneath the eave. Farm drives rut when the frost leaves, and a truck that shows up too early makes a ditch. Maples over slate fill gutters that then ice. Say what the melt does, because that is the test, not a July sprinkle.
Downspouts that end at a sill create the wet wood ants and rot use later. Grade into a crawl floods it. A wellhead or a septic field is easy to bury in a new bed or to crush with equipment. Mention both before anyone digs. Snow storage cannot be the leach field or the front stair. Ask where the plow bank lands every year. That bank is a design fact.
Planting has to respect a late frost and a short stretch of real growth, especially up north, but the drainage and the heave are year-round problems you can describe in any month. Salt is less the ocean story here and more the road story along a state route through a village. Shade under spruce and maple wants less lawn. Roots and stone walls occupy the same ground. Do not assume a flat loam bed is under the sod.
A swale that works in a light rain may flood when the pack melts all at once. Separate that melt from a spring under the lawn and from a river that takes the lower field. They are not the same shovel. Timber walls rot. Brick and bluestone walk if the base is thin. Dogs and mud complete the April picture on a small village lot.
Describe the town, the slope, and where snow and water actually end up. Mention ledge, walls, and any yard system you must avoid. Have one priority. Call the number on this page.