Landscaping in Birmingham starts with red clay, a driveway that becomes a creek, and oaks that own the roof. The uphill neighbor can send a street worth of water at your foundation. A cut bank under a deck on the downhill side will keep sliding until the water has a path that is not the basement wall.
Retaining walls on hillside lots weep, lean, and spill clay onto the walk. When the weep holes clog, the wall holds a wet load and the basement behind it stays damp. Gutters that end at the high corner undercut piers and paint a red fan on the brick. Area wells at low windows fill with silt and keep the sash wet. That is landscaping, because the grade is the tool that either saves the wall or feeds it.
Street oaks in Avondale, Forest Park, and Highland shade the grass into mud and drop limbs on gables. Roots heave walks and invade old sewer lines. Pine straw used as a bed looks tidy and still holds moisture against siding if it is piled high. Turf that works on an open Huffman lot burns or thins under a Southside canopy. Erosion at the edge of a steep drive exposes the edge of the pavement and then the yard itself.
A swale cut across the slope can carry water to the street if it actually falls that way. Many of them fall toward the house because someone wanted a flat patio. French drains that stop in the clay become soggy trenches. Mosquitoes take the puddle at the low corner. Fire ants take the sunny bank. Say which of those you have before you talk about shrubs.
When you call, describe the hill in one breath. Water from the street, water from the rear bank, or a flat lot that still ponds. Name the trees on the roof and the wall that is green with algae. Mention a leaning wall, a washed drive, or a basement that smells after rain. The job is to get water off the house on a Birmingham slope. Planting comes after the water has somewhere else to go. Call the number on this page.