Landscaping in Milwaukee gets a short green season squeezed by a long winter of salt, plows, and lake wind. Parkway grass dies in the same strip every spring. Clay holds melt against limestone and brick foundations. Narrow side yards and downspouts at the wall fill basements during melt. Evergreens on the east face burn in the wind. The call is grade, plants, and hardscape that heaved, not a show bed.
Grade back toward a brick foundation beats any shrub you add. A path through a tight side yard still has to carry water somewhere that is not the neighbor's window well. Fence lines collect leaves and hold them on brick. Heaved walks are a trip on the first icy morning, which arrives early and stays. If the basement is already damp, say that before you talk about flowers.
The parkway tree may be in your lateral, and the strip may not be yours to redo. Say whether the work is that strip or the private yard. Salt splash kills a new lawn that ignores it. A dead hedge in a side yard may be your only screen, and replacing it is a width problem. Limbs on the roof or over the walk come before a bed plan.
Irrigation has to be blown out before this freeze or it becomes a broken line in the heating season. Mulch on the trunk rots bark that lake wind finishes. Fall planting races an early hard frost. Spring planting races mud and a late thaw. Choose plants for shade, clay, salt, and a short season. Containers on a stoop are not a yard rebuild. If water is at the wall tonight, that outranks the planting list.
Lead with water at the foundation, a heaved walk, a parkway tree, or a limb on the roof. Say whether melt is already in the basement. Name the lake side if the evergreens burned there. Milwaukee's winter is longer than the planting window. Call the number on this page.