Service areas · Lakewood Ranch
Pavers and planting for Lakewood Ranch homes, designed with your HOA guidelines in hand.
Many Lakewood Ranch neighborhoods have written rules for how a yard can change. Craig designs the driveway, patio, pool deck, or planting around them from the first visit, and stays on the job until the walkthrough.
- Sarasota & Manatee County
- Free on-site estimate
- You deal with the owner
A master-planned community, neighborhood by neighborhood
Lakewood Ranch is a large master-planned community east of I-75 that crosses the Manatee–Sarasota county line. It is organized into villages, and each village is made up of separate neighborhoods, many with their own HOA, their own deed restrictions, and their own architectural review committee, often called the ARC.
That structure shapes landscape work here more than anything else. Two homes a mile apart can have different approved paver colors, different rules for walls and fences, and different lists of plants that are encouraged or not allowed. A good design for your yard starts with your neighborhood's documents, not a general idea of what Lakewood Ranch allows.
Because the community has been built out in phases over many years, the yards vary too. Some have mature planting that has outgrown its beds; others still have little beyond what came with the house.
Where neighborhood guidelines usually come in
Every neighborhood's rules are different. These are the parts of a landscape job they most often touch.
- 01
Paver color and pattern
Some neighborhoods limit driveway and walkway colors to an approved range, or ask that a widened drive match the original. Pick colors from the approved list, not just the sample board.
- 02
Walls and raised beds
Guidelines can cover wall height, block style, and how close a wall can sit to a lot line. Low walls for raised planting beds are usually simpler than walls that hold back a grade change.
- 03
Plants and trees
Some communities require certain street trees, limit hedge heights, or restrict particular species. Others encourage native and Florida-friendly plants. Your documents will say which.
Most architectural review processes ask for a description of the work, the materials and colors, and some kind of drawing, and approval generally has to come before work starts. Review times vary by neighborhood, so ask how long yours takes when you plan the schedule.
Projects that fit Lakewood Ranch lots
Wider or extended driveways
Driveways that came with the house are often sized for the minimum. Widening the drive, adding a border, or adding a parking pad where your guidelines allow it is a paver driveway job, and matching the existing pavers is part of the plan.
A patio beyond the lanai
Many homes have a covered or screened lanai with little usable space outside it. A paver patio beyond the screen gives room for a grill, a fire table, or chairs in the sun, and a walkway can tie it to the side yard.
Pool decks
Replacing or extending a pool deck, planned with the beds and palms around it so the pool area reads as one space.
Privacy between houses
In many neighborhoods the houses sit fairly close together, and back yards look onto a neighbor or a pond. Privacy planting along the side lot lines, kept within what your HOA allows, screens the view without boxing in the yard.
Raised beds and grade changes
Retaining walls for raised planting beds or a step in grade, in block that suits the house and your guidelines.
Worth thinking about before the visit
- What needs approval. Check whether your neighborhood reviews pavers, walls, and planting, or only some of them.
- Review time. If you want the work done by a certain date, build the approval time into the plan.
- Easements, swales, and pond banks. Neighborhood rules can limit what is built or planted in drainage areas and along ponds, and some of those areas are maintained by the community rather than the owner.
- Cold nights inland. Inland areas can get colder on the coldest winter nights than the coast does, which matters for cold-tender tropical plants. See choosing privacy plants for Sarasota yards.
- Irrigation. Where existing heads and lines run, so new beds and pavers are planned around them.
Lakewood Ranch questions
General answers. The specifics come from your HOA documents and the on-site look.
01Do I need HOA approval before landscape work in Lakewood Ranch?
In many Lakewood Ranch neighborhoods, yes: exterior changes such as new pavers, walls, and significant planting usually go through architectural review first. The rules and the process differ by neighborhood, so check your HOA documents or ask your HOA or management company, and bring what you find to the on-site visit.
02Can you match the pavers that came with my house?
Matching existing pavers is one of the jobs we take on. If you know the brand and color the builder used, that helps; your closing paperwork, your HOA, or the builder may have it. Pavers that have weathered can look different from new ones of the same product, so we will talk through how close the match will be and options like a border where old meets new.
03Does it matter which side of the county line I am on?
We work in both Sarasota County and Manatee County. Call with your neighborhood and the job and we will confirm the property is in range.
04Can you plant along the pond behind my house?
It depends on your neighborhood. Pond banks and drainage easements often have their own rules, and some are maintained by the community. Check your HOA documents first; the on-site look will cover what makes sense on your side of the line.
Nearby areas
Other places we work in Sarasota and Manatee County.
Free on-site estimate in Lakewood Ranch.
Tell us your neighborhood and the job: a driveway, patio, pool deck, wall, or planting.