# Eastern Horticultural Services > Exemplary Service. Unquestioned Expertise. ## Posts - [The 5th Annual Pepper Plant Prize: 24 Growers, One Winner and One Who Tasted Them All](https://easternhs.com/pepper-plant-prize-2026/): Every September, the EHS yard in Avondale, just west of Kennett Square, hosts the most competitive growing contest in Chester County. Nobody outside the company has ever heard of it. Inside the company, it’s the biggest day of the year. Welcome to the 5th Annual Pepper Plant Prize. The rules are simple. Anyone on the EHS team who wants in grows a jalapeño plant, Capsicum annuum, through the season. This year 24 people signed up. On a late September afternoon they carried the results back to the yard, lined the pots up under the umbrellas and waited for judgment. A handful […] - [September Opens the Real Planting Season. Here's How to Use It.](https://easternhs.com/september-planting-season-2026/): Spring gets the credit, but September is the month experienced gardeners plan around. The soil is still warm from summer, the air has finally cooled and the rain tends to come back into rhythm. Roots keep growing long after the leaves stop, and everything that goes into the ground now spends the next two months establishing below the surface instead of fighting the heat above it. For landscape maintenance in Kennett Square and across the Brandywine Valley, this is where next year’s garden is decided. Plant trees and shrubs now, not next April. Roots keep growing until the soil drops to […] - [August Doesn't Let Up. Here's Where to Put the Effort.](https://easternhs.com/august-doesnt-let-up-heres-where-to-put-the-effort/): Ann Waters on deadheading roses, shearing back catmint, watching for early grub damage in turf and keeping containers watered through Chester County's August heat. - [Watering Well: A July Survival Guide](https://easternhs.com/watering-well-a-july-survival-guide/): What a week for a garden. Several days in the high 90s with barely a drop of rain, and now the forecast turns around and delivers two days of downpours. Gardens across the Brandywine Valley are getting both extremes at once, and each one asks something different of us. Stretches like this separate thriving gardens from surviving ones, and the difference almost never comes down to effort. It comes down to water, and to knowing what actually got it. Don’t let the storm do your thinking. Here is the part that surprises people: a hard rain on drought-baked soil is not […] - [A July Fourth Kind of Tough](https://easternhs.com/a-july-fourth-kind-of-tough/): Some people sleep in on the Fourth of July. Gerardo Rivas ran a 5K. This morning, on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Gerardo laced up and ran the Rockford Park Firecracker 5K in Wilmington. Temperatures were already climbing by race time. He finished 10th overall out of 75 runners, 3rd in the M 50-59 bracket, at 58 years old, with a chip time of 23:13. The course winds through Rockford Park, one of Wilmington’s most storied green spaces. Just down the road sits Gibraltar, a landmark estate that represents exactly the kind of historic property Eastern was built […] - [What June Asks of a Garden](https://easternhs.com/what-june-asks-of-a-garden/): June is when the garden stops asking for patience and starts asking for attention. The spring show is behind us. The lilacs and viburnums have finished, the peonies have dropped their last petals and everything green is growing with real ambition. Around the Brandywine Valley this is the month a garden decides what kind of summer it’s going to have, and a little work now pays for itself through September. June rewards the gardener who shows up. If your landscape is asking for more attention than your calendar allows, the EHS professional gardening team spends this month doing exactly this work […] - [Running for More Than a Finish Line](https://easternhs.com/running-for-more-than-a-finish-line/): This morning, Gerardo Rivas laced up in Wilmington and ran the 10th Annual R.E.D. 5K. He finished 2nd overall out of 109 runners. First in his age group. Official time: 22:55. Not bad for a Saturday in June. Gerardo is a foreman on the EHS landscape install and maintenance teams. He is methodical, reliable and genuinely good at what he does. He is also, it turns out, a serious runner. Not just 5Ks. Gerardo competes at distance. Half marathons and beyond. The kind of runner who treats a 5K like a tune-up. The R.E.D. Run raises money for education and scholarship […] - [May Has Its Own Urgency. Here's Where to Focus.](https://easternhs.com/may-has-its-own-urgency-heres-where-to-focus/): May in the Brandywine valley is the month the garden shows you everything it’s capable of. The peonies are coming in, the alliums are standing up over the borders, the Viburnum plicatum is doing exactly what a well-placed Viburnum should do. It’s genuinely beautiful right now. It’s also the month most people lose track of what needs doing, because the beauty makes it easy to just stand there. There’s a hard deadline on spring-blooming shrubs that most people miss. Forsythia, lilac, weigela, Deutzia — these shrubs set next year’s flower buds on the wood they grow this summer. If you prune […] - [We were at Willowdale last weekend. We brought a bar.](https://easternhs.com/we-were-at-willowdale-last-weekend-we-brought-a-bar/): Not a cooler. A bar. Tiki umbrella, full setup, built right into the back of an EHS truck. Bourbon, mixers, the works. If you were there and you found us, you know exactly what I mean. If you didn’t find us, I’m sorry. You missed Thomas Arthur’s smoked burnt ends, and I truly cannot overstate what a loss that was. We are not just a landscaping company that works in Chester County. We are part of it. That distinction matters to us, and days like Willowdale are the proof. The Willowdale Steeplechase is one of those days that reminds you why […] - [A Wellness Garden For The Homebound](https://easternhs.com/wildlife-habitat-garden-homebound/): The R.O.O.S.T. (Rosewood Ornithological Observatory, Sanctuary & Tweetzone)Certified Wildlife Habitat The Wellness Garden in my backyard is a miracle! All year long I get to “escape my bonds” and get away. It boosts morale, keeps the mind active and always surprises. It’s a wildlife habitat with a variety of food, water and shelter for the critters. Time passes unnoticed as I wait to see the next new bird or discover another crazy thing squirrels do or sit perfectly still as a skunk snouts around right under my elbow! It’s a wonderful way to repurpose a space in your yard that will […] - [April Moves Fast. Here's What Not to Miss.](https://easternhs.com/april-moves-fast-heres-what-not-to-miss/): April in Chester County is not a month for standing still. The garden doesn’t wait for a convenient moment, it pushes forward whether you’re ready or not, and the windows for the most important spring tasks are shorter than most people realize. Right now, ornamental grasses that weren’t cut back in late winter are the priority. Once the new growth starts pushing through the base, you’re working around it. A clean cut to about four inches before that happens makes all the difference, not just aesthetically, but for the health of the crown going into summer. Perennials are another April conversation. […] ## Pages - [Careers](https://easternhs.com/careers/) - [North Star Residence](https://easternhs.com/our-work/north-star-residence/) - [Kennett Square Residence](https://easternhs.com/our-work/kennett-square-residence/) - [Fairville Friends School](https://easternhs.com/our-work/fairville-friends-school/) - [Gibraltar](https://easternhs.com/our-work/gibraltar/) - [Longwood Gardens](https://easternhs.com/our-work/longwood-gardens/) - [Lighting & Irrigation](https://easternhs.com/our-trades/lighting-irrigation/) - [Masonry](https://easternhs.com/our-trades/masonry/) - [Procurement & Planting](https://easternhs.com/our-trades/procurement-planting/) - [Horticultural Maintenance](https://easternhs.com/our-specialties/horticultural-maintenance/) - [Historic Restoration](https://easternhs.com/our-specialties/historic-restoration/) - [Design & Build](https://easternhs.com/our-specialties/design-build/) - [About](https://easternhs.com/about/) - [Our Trades](https://easternhs.com/our-trades/) - [Our Specialties](https://easternhs.com/our-specialties/) - [Contact](https://easternhs.com/contact/) - [Our Work](https://easternhs.com/our-work/) - [Field Notes](https://easternhs.com/field-notes/) - [Home](https://easternhs.com/) ## Optional - [Agent (MCP protocol)](websites-agents.hostinger.com/easternhs.com/mcp) [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)