Scape-Abilities

Scape-Abilities Providing comprehensive lawn care services, property maintenance and design with an emphasis on letting ONE COMPANY take care of everything.

Established in 1991, Scape-Abilities has over 20 years experience providing innovative landscape design, build and maintenance services in New Jersey. Our knowledgeable staff, lead by owner Steve Costalos, work with our customers to ensure their needs and wishes are met in a professional manner. Our goal is to build long and lasting relationships with our customers while enhancing the value and be

auty of their homes. Scape-abilities provide a broad range of professional landscaping services that can help you design, build and maintain your ideal garden.

-A personalized design consultation from certified Landscape Architects.
-Planting guides specifically tailored to your garden environment
-Skillfully installed landscaping for patios, walkways, pools and driveways
-Irrigation design, installation and maintenance
-A natural, sustainable and 100% organic lawn treatment program
-Complete lawn care and maintenance
-Full service yard maintenance

Scape-Abilities is certified member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers and is a proud member of the Chamber of Commerce for both Westfield and Bernards Township. In addition, we are also a member of the New Jersey Nursery & Landscape Association, The Professional Landcare Network and the Irrigation Association of New Jersey. We are certified with both the Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute and the Irrigation Association of New Jersey.

Landscape lighting problem homeowners rarely notice:"The LED bulbs don't necessarily burn out. They will oftentimes dim....
08/31/2026

Landscape lighting problem homeowners rarely notice:

"The LED bulbs don't necessarily burn out. They will oftentimes dim. So you might have had 60-watt luminescence on that tree. The bulb will dim. So then it's not giving the right effect. Changing the bulb, even though it hasn't technically burnt out, could be a big improvement for the landscape lighting." - Steve Costalos, Owner & Founder, Scape-Abilities

Halogen bulbs fail hard. You see the dark spot the next morning. LED bulbs fade gradually. The uplight on the mature maple that was 60 watts in year one is putting out 35 watts in year six, and nobody in the house has clocked the difference.

We visit landscape lighting systems three times a year on the maintenance plan. Clean the fixtures, check the aim, verify the bulb output isn't dropping below spec, adjust the astronomic timer for the changing sunset.

None of this is dramatic. It's why the property still looks right at night after ten years.

Standard advice for a mosquito problem: spray for mosquitoes. Steve's version is more useful."We're applying for mosquit...
08/24/2026

Standard advice for a mosquito problem: spray for mosquitoes. Steve's version is more useful.

"We're applying for mosquitoes to prevent and kill larvae and adult mosquitoes. But then also to improve the property, so the mosquitoes are not born again. It could be a grading issue where there's puddling. It could be a very small puddle behind a raised bed. It could be a gutter that is holding water and needs to be cleaned. It could be an irrigation system that's watering too frequently and keeping certain areas overly wet. That's creating a perfect environment for mosquitoes to breed." - Steve Costalos, Owner & Founder, Scape-Abilities

Applying repellent kills the mosquitoes on the property this week. Fixing the source stops next week's generation from being born there.

This is why the Mosquito Now application from a landscape company covers different ground than the same application from a pest-control specialist. The crew doing the treatment is also on the property adjusting irrigation, cleaning the gutter, and flagging the grading fix.

With the current NJDOH West Nile advisory, both matter.

Every Thursday morning at Scape-Abilities, the crews meet before routes start. Steve calls them tailgate meetings."We ha...
08/20/2026

Every Thursday morning at Scape-Abilities, the crews meet before routes start. Steve calls them tailgate meetings.

"We have Thursday morning tailgate meetings. It could be grass cutting techniques, pruning techniques, what's happening with lawn treatments and what to look out for. Then in the field, we have sessions where we'll pick one customer property and different crews meet us out there. We'll go over what's going right and what's not going right." - Steve Costalos, Owner & Founder, Scape-Abilities

This is where identifying w**d vines, correcting improper bed lines, spotting plants pruned the wrong way, and recognizing bloom times get taught. Not in a manual. On a real property, with the crews who work it every week.

The reason your yard looks the way it does over years, not just after one visit, is the training the crews got the Thursday morning before they showed up.

Same neighborhoods. Same crews. Same standards, reinforced weekly.

One of the most common misunderstandings we run into on client properties:Fertilizers and pesticides get confused as the...
08/19/2026

One of the most common misunderstandings we run into on client properties:

Fertilizers and pesticides get confused as the same category of product. They're not.

"There's a misconception about confusing fertilizers with pesticides. You can fertilize your lawn with a completely non-toxic chemical. The toxicity level, which is 0 for fertilizers." - Steve Costalos, Owner & Founder, Scape-Abilities

Fertilizer is plant nutrition. Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, plus trace minerals. Toxicity to kids, pets, and pollinators: essentially zero. It's the same category of thing as compost, just refined.

Pesticide is a targeted product designed to control a specific pest. Herbicide, insecticide, fungicide. These have safety protocols and re-entry intervals for good reason.

Homeowners often shy away from fertilizer applications because they're associating the wrong risk profile with them. Well-timed fertilization actually reduces the need for pesticide use later - a strong lawn resists pests naturally.

If you have questions about what's being applied and why, ask. That's part of the service.

Most people think their landscape reaches maturity, overgrows, and then needs to be replaced. That's not how it works.Th...
08/17/2026

Most people think their landscape reaches maturity, overgrows, and then needs to be replaced. That's not how it works.

The reason most landscapes end up needing replanting isn't age. It's that they were never pruned properly.

"A front landscape might cost, you know, $8,000. But if you have us come in pruning regularly, we have services that prune monthly, and we have services that prune twice yearly. Either one will maintain your landscape, and then you'll be able to put off that large reinvestment of putting in new plants every 10 years or so." - Steve Costalos, Owner & Founder, Scape-Abilities

Pruning isn't cosmetic maintenance. It's the difference between a landscape that lasts a decade and one that lasts three decades. Compounded over the years you own the home, the math on regular pruning is not close.

Twice-yearly for most landscapes. Monthly for structural or specimen plantings.

If you're not sure what your landscape needs, scape-abilities.com or call for a property walk-through.

The right time to aerate and overseed a NJ lawn is mid-August to mid-September. Not spring. Not later fall. This specifi...
08/11/2026

The right time to aerate and overseed a NJ lawn is mid-August to mid-September. Not spring. Not later fall. This specific window.

Why: soil is still warm enough for seed germination, air temperatures are cooling into the 70s and 60s, autumn rains are more consistent than summer thunderstorm rain, w**ds are less active, and there's still enough growing season before winter for the new grass to establish deep roots.

The sequence that works:
- Core aeration first (pulls plugs out of the soil, relieves compaction, opens up the root zone).
- Overseeding within 48 hours (seed drops directly into the aeration holes, gets soil contact, germinates faster).
- Starter fertilizer to feed the new roots.
- Consistent light watering for the first two to three weeks until the seed establishes.

A review from a long-time client worth sharing."5 Stars. We have used Scape-Abilities for years. Spring cleanup, organic...
07/21/2026

A review from a long-time client worth sharing.

"5 Stars. We have used Scape-Abilities for years. Spring cleanup, organic fertilizer, shrub trimming, lawn care and the best in my opinion is Eco-Quiet lawn care. No blaring noise outside your window." - Bob Cosgriff

"No blaring noise outside your window." That's the whole case for Eco-Quiet in ten words.

The rest of what Bob mentions (spring cleanup, organic fertilizer, shrub trimming, lawn care, all on one property, all through one team) is the coordinated-care operating model that most of our long-tenured clients end up on. Once one thing on the property is done well, adding the next thing to the same schedule tends to make sense.

Thanks Bob.

France vs Spain plays tonight on 76,846 square feet of the most professionally maintained grass on the planet. England v...
07/14/2026

France vs Spain plays tonight on 76,846 square feet of the most professionally maintained grass on the planet. England vs Argentina tomorrow. And the final lands at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford this Sunday, on turf calibrated to the same standard, less than twenty miles from most of our clients.

World Cup pitches run on custom soil profiles, moisture sensors by zone, and ground crews who read the surface daily. The fundamentals scale down to an NJ residential lawn:

⚽ Consistent mowing height across the whole surface. Not one setting in front and another in back.
⚽ Proper soil conditioning so applied nutrients actually work.
⚽ Precise watering before 7am, never evening. Even the pitch crews at MetLife water before the sun catches the grass.
⚽ Foot-traffic recovery planned deliberately after busy weekends.

Enjoy the games.

If your own pitch is looking less than semi-final ready, scape-abilities.com for a walk-through.

07/07/2026

A quiet morning on a residential route. Crew members standing around a small ornamental tree.

Steven, who owns Scape-Abilities, runs common pruning knowledge tutorials for the crews. This morning's subject: small ornamental trees. The three objectives he was walking them through:
✅Habit correction. Reading the tree's growth pattern and identifying where it's headed if left alone. Deciding what to encourage and what to redirect.
✅Pruning for size. Controlling scale without triggering the aggressive regrowth that comes from over-cutting.
✅Pruning to keep the canopy open. Making judgment calls about which interior branches to remove so light and air can move through the tree.

These aren't decisions you make with a chart. They're judgment calls that take years to develop and years more to teach.

The work most people see is the cut. The work that matters is the moment before it.

A quick July 4th note from us.To everyone gathering today, hosting friends, watching kids run barefoot across freshly-cu...
07/04/2026

A quick July 4th note from us.

To everyone gathering today, hosting friends, watching kids run barefoot across freshly-cut lawns, and stopping to think about what the day means in between the fireworks: enjoy it.

We're closed today. The crews are with their families. Routes are back Monday morning.

Address

2470 Plainfield Avenue
Scotch Plains, NJ
07076

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 5pm
Thursday 8:30am - 5pm
Friday 8:30am - 5pm

Telephone

+19086541155

Website

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