Maffei Landscape Design, LLC

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United States
Kennett Square, PA
Maffei Landscape Design, LLC

Maffei Landscape Design, based in Kennett Square, PA, provides expert landscape design and architecture, along with project management services.

I provide landscape vision, leadership and project realization to residential, commercial and institutional clients.

08/26/2026

At Rooted, a retail shop devoted to local makers and artisans, the garden needed to feel as distinctive and handcrafted as the goods inside.

Working within a small terraced area between the street and the porch, we replaced a difficult-to-maintain lawn with an unconventional planting palette designed around color, seasonal succession, and natural form. Spring and late-summer blooms create moments of strong floral impact, while seed heads, dried hydrangea flowers, and ornamental grasses carry texture and structure through the quieter months.

Because Rooted’s owner is resourceful and hands-on, we developed a planting plan that she and her staff could install themselves. The result is a small garden that tells a much larger story: rooted in place, unpolished in all the right ways, and always changing with the seasons.

Click here to read more about the Rooted project: https://bit.ly/3SpN8Yo

08/19/2026

Puddock Hill was designed around a simple principle: work with the land rather than in opposition to it.

Set on a historic 12-acre property, the landscape brings together native plantings, pollinator habitat, natural stone, gathering spaces and thoughtful stormwater management. Each element was designed to support the homeowners’ conservationist values while creating a place for everyday life outdoors.

We are honored that Puddock Hill has received a 2026 Landscape Design Award of Merit from the Perennial Plant Association. Many thanks to the homeowners, our collaborators, and the Perennial Plant Association for this recognition.

Learn more about the project here: https://bit.ly/4x5kdaZ

08/12/2026

The best gardens don't show you everything at once.

Layered planting — canopy, understory, shrubs, perennials, groundcover — does more than fill space. It creates revelations: a water feature glimpsed through grasses, a reading nook tucked behind tall perennials, a path that draws you around one more corner.

When layers do the work, every turn offers a small discovery, whether the property is a compact cottage lot or a sprawling estate. That's the difference between a yard you look at and a landscape you experience. Gather experiences, not things.

08/10/2026

Late summer is the most honest season in the garden. Spring flatters everything. By August, a landscape shows you what it's really made of.

This is when structure earns its keep: stone walls, pathways, and mature trees hold the composition while early bloomers fade. It's also when the gaps appear. That bare stretch by the walk? A note for fall planting. And it's when seasonal succession pays off: grasses, late perennials, and seed heads stepping forward as others step back.

Walk your landscape this week and take inventory. What's holding strong, and what's gone quiet? That's your design roadmap.

07/30/2026

Some sites tell you exactly what they want to be.

Our Greenville Prairie Style project sits on a rectangular lot, with a rectangular house and a rectangular drive. In a region defined by rolling hills, this one is almost impossibly flat. Flat enough that water had nowhere to go, so correcting the drainage came first.

But that flatness was also an opportunity. A straight line laid across rolling ground never quite reads as straight. Here, it does. So instead of introducing curves for contrast, we leaned into the home's geometry: rectilinear beds, angular walkways, natural-stone hardscaping, and a fountain whose clean lines echo the mid-century architecture behind it.

And that green pattern climbing the stone wall is not a living wall, but a faux espalier. The home predates residential air conditioning, so retrofitting it meant running ductwork straight up the front facade. Of course, our first instinct was a true espalier, but the homeowners wanted something year-round, so we built a faux one instead. This was the one and only time we've ever used faux greenery in a garden. Years later, it's still stopping traffic, especially in January when it's the only green thing on the street.

07/28/2026

We're back at Valley View, where the project is moving from design development into construction documentation.

In design development, the team established the materiality of the project — the plant palettes, the overall look and feel of each zone. Now, with the architect and general contractor on board, the work is about precision: setting out every detail so the landscape and the architecture come together as one contiguous whole.

Take the front planting palette. In design development, it was a big green blob on a page. In construction documentation, that blob becomes exact placement, each one sited with an eye toward foliage texture, bloom time, and plant size, so the composition reads as one balanced picture rather than a list of parts.

This stage is what makes the project buildable: a construction set every contractor can build from.

Read our latest news post for more on this phase of the Valley View project: https://bit.ly/3Tf0M0y

07/15/2026

A sloped property is not simply a challenge to overcome. It can become one of the landscape’s most defining features. Thoughtful grading allows a designer to transform changes in elevation into a series of usable outdoor spaces while creating natural connections between the home, garden and surrounding property.

These landscapes show several ways elevation can become part of the design: large boulders woven into layered plantings, broad stone steps creating a direct path through a meadow, and retaining walls, terraces and gravel surfaces establishing comfortable transitions around the home.

Rather than forcing the land onto a flat plane, successful design works with its existing contours. Steps and pathways guide circulation, walls provide support and definition, and carefully placed planting helps soften grade changes while integrating the built and natural elements of the property.

07/09/2026

🌱 Welcome to the team, Abbey Levy! 🌱

We're thrilled to have Abbey Levy joining us as our summer intern! Abbey brings a wealth of hands-on experience in sustainability and community engagement, most recently working with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation on both their Stewardship and Sustainability teams — where she built out recycling programs, ran compost trainings, and managed a calendar of events in Philadelphia's park system.

Her background also includes environmental advocacy with PennEnvironment and volunteer coordination with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, giving her a strong foundation in community-centered environmental work.

Abbey holds a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of Pittsburgh and is currently pursuing her Master's in Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania — bringing both grounded field experience and forward-thinking design skills to our team this summer.

Join us in giving Abbey a warm welcome! 🌳🎉

07/07/2026

Summer is the season for lingering a little longer, whether it’s around the fire, beneath the trees, over dinner, or simply taking in the view. ☀️

From intimate garden nooks to open terraces and waterfront patios, a thoughtfully designed gathering space creates a natural place to connect. The setting may change, but the purpose remains the same: bringing people together and making the most of time spent outdoors.

The most successful gathering spaces feel effortless, with seating, shade, pathways and planting all working together to invite people in. Whether designed for a quiet morning coffee or a lively summer evening with family and friends, each space becomes an extension of the home and a backdrop for the moments that make this season truly memorable.

07/02/2026

This is what patience looks like. 🌿

Swipe to see the before! ➡️

Bare dirt, a network of stone steps, and a whole lot of potted plants waiting for their forever home at our Wilmington Contemporary project.

Fast forward, and that same path is disappearing into a thriving groundcover of ferns and perennials, which was exactly the point. Great ecological design isn't about instant impact, it's about giving plants room to fill in and do what they do best.

Give it time. It's worth it.

Address

120 E State Street, Kennett Square
Kennett Square, PA
19348

Telephone

(610) 357-9700

Website

https://www.maffeilandscapedesign.com/

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