If you're planting or replanting your yard, make sure you have a good layer of topsoil. There are many varieties of loam and soil available. You can essentially customize your yard needs. Most places mix their soil with peat moss, compost, and stabilizers, and screen it for impurities and rocks. Calculate about four to six inches over the area of your yard for a healthy lawn.

Bob discusses landscape with John Sears, landscape contractor.

Angela Polo and Ken Micklow are on hand to show Bob the sustainable plantings selected for the Punta Gorda home. Polo shows Bob the firebushes selected for the water side of the garden because they are dwarf varieties that will not block the water views but will attract butterflies. Micklow shows Bob how the vegetable garden is built with interlocking anchor blocks and erosion cloth to prevent the rich humus mixture from seeping out of the raised bed. The soil is a mix of compost, peat moss, bark, and dolomite. This sunny spot will house tomatoes, peppers, onions, and herbs that will thrive in the heat and sun. Craig Harmer from Gardens Alive brings natural plant and animal products that are suited to specific plants to enhance the soil and promote growth. These soil mixes are completely unprocessed meals and protein blends developed for each plant. The pesticide applications are natural pyrethrins and canola oils that target specific pests. Even snails are eradicated with Escar-Go! Composting is also encouraged through the Florida Yards and Neighborhoods program. Polo adds that composting clippings, trimmings, and kitchen vegetable waste will build soil enhancers and microbes to enrich the gardens and plantings.

Landscape designer Ruth Foster gives a quick "how-to" on planting techniques using the shrubs for the Elizabethan-inspired garden as examples. A shrub is placed in a shallow hole, one inch higher than the grade. Compost and peat moss are added to the soil. A deep basin is created around the base of the tree and it is thoroughly soaked with water two times.

A new tree can improve the look of a yard and add personality to a home.

Building and maintaining a compost heap is a great way to reduce organic waste and to make rich compost for your plants and gardens.

Bob meets Bob Bevilacqua at the River Hill site in Mashpee, Massachusetts, where Bevilacqua and his crew have undertaken a mammoth job of earth moving as they cleared and prepared the site for eleven new homes. First they cleared the four-acre parcel of trees, stumps, and brush, before stripping, screening, and storing the top soil in a mound for later use. It will be used later in the project for road shoulders and finish landscaping. RJ Bevilacqua Construction has also cut in the road for blacktop, stripping the clay underneath and relocating it to the drainage basin they are preparing near the back of the development. A retention area is created to catch runoff from the road, where storm drains collect the water and send it through a sediment field to catch any oil or sediment from the water before before it passes to an overflow basin. About 3,000 yards of fill will be used to create the slope and basin for the retention and runoff area. The goal is to reuse all of the earth that has been moved on the site as fill once the finish work begins. The roadbed is another example of reuse, and is built of recycled concrete and asphalt from a demolished roadway.

Bob meets with landscape architect Juan Capote to discuss the installation of a sod lawn. Juan discusses the initial grading and sod types used in this project.

Bob meets with Mark Marini to discuss implementation of the landscaping plans and plant a Thunder Clod Plum tree in the bluestone terrace. Bob talks through the process and learns about the soil that is used around the roots and the initial watering schedule.

Bob meets with landscape designer Ruth Foster to discuss the foundation plantings. Ruth explains her material choices and cost saving measures. A lattice is applied under the deck and several evergreens and small trees are planted.