Landscaping in the Eastatoe valley

Eastatoe is a valley, not a town, and the properties in it behave differently from anything else in Pickens County. The ground drops hard off the escarpment, Eastatoe Creek runs cold and fast through the bottom, and the whole valley collects cool air at night. People move out here for exactly that — it is quieter and several degrees cooler than Six Mile in August — and then discover that a yard on a mountain grade is a different maintenance problem from a yard in town. Our work in the valley is mostly about water and access. Long private drives need their shoulders cut and their culverts kept open, or the first big rain takes a section out. Cleared areas around houses want to revert to forest and need an edge held every season. And any planting that goes in on the slope has to be set with the water in mind, because runoff here does not soak in — it runs. Creek frontage adds a second layer. Eastatoe Creek is a trout stream, and what happens on the bank affects it. We keep a vegetated buffer along the water, keep fertilizer well back from it, and stabilize any disturbed ground quickly. That is good stewardship and it is also what keeps a bank from collapsing into the creek the next time it comes up. Because Eastatoe is close to our shop in Six Mile, we can serve the valley on the same route day. For properties used seasonally, we check on them between visits and send photos.