Nerak Co.

CHAPTER 01

The street sees your yard first.

Curb appeal is not vanity — in Miami it is the first thing a buyer, a guest, or a neighbor notices. A tired front yard drags down everything behind it. We start most projects at the curb: redefined bed lines, fresh mulch, a walkway that reads as an invitation, and planting with layers — groundcover in front, mid-height color in the middle, palms or small trees anchoring the back.

South Florida gives us year-round growing season and punishes lazy planting choices. We spec plants that handle salt air near the bay and limestone soil inland: firebush for hummingbirds, coontie as a native groundcover, muhly grass for fall color, Simpson's stopper where you need a screen. Nothing that needs coddling to survive a normal July.

Front-yard refresh · from $450 — Sample

CHAPTER 02

Built for August, not for April.

Any yard looks good the week it is planted. The test is August: 94 degrees, rain every afternoon, fungus season for turf. Our installs are designed backward from that month. Sod goes down on properly prepped soil — not on top of old weeds — with irrigation dialed in before the first blade browns. Beds get the right mulch depth (three inches, not a volcano around the trunk). Drainage gets fixed during the dig, when the ground is already open.

St. Augustine takes the sun and the foot traffic; Zoysia earns its keep in part shade. We will tell you which one your yard actually is before you pay for either.

New sod install · from $1.20/sq ft — Sample

CHAPTER 03

Water is the whole job, twice.

Half our service calls are water problems wearing different costumes: brown patches that are actually broken heads, a "dying" hedge that is drowning, a patio that floods because the downspout ends at the foundation. Irrigation repair starts with an audit — every zone run, every head checked, pressure measured. Then we fix what is broken and tune what is wasteful: matched nozzles, rain sensors, controllers set to Miami-Dade's watering days.

The rainy season flips the problem. June through September, yards need drainage, not sprinklers. French drains, regraded swales, and catch basins move storm water off the lawn and away from the house. We have watched too many new patios become new ponds; we grade like we have seen the storm.

Irrigation tune-up · from $150 — Sample · French drains from $65/ft — Sample

CHAPTER 04

Outdoor rooms, planted in.

Miami lives outside nine months a year, so we build the outside like a room: patios with real drainage slope, pergolas rated for the wind zone, outdoor kitchens with gas and water run properly, fire features set at safe clearances, and low-voltage lighting that makes paths walkable after dark. Then we plant around the structure in the same project — so it looks grown-in by the first barbecue, not bolted onto a lawn.

Outdoor living projects · from $9,500 — Sample