Cultivar, Inc.

Name: Cultivar, Inc.
Address: Watertown, MA, 02472, United States
Telephone: +1 617-584-7989
Rating: 5

8 Reviews

Landscape Architects & Contractors

4 Hires on Houzz

Responds Quickly

Write a Review

About Us

27 years in business

Eco-friendly

3x Best of Houzz winner

Metro Boston Area Landscape Designer, Featured in The Boston Globe

Cultivar's style is elegant and naturalistic-- we design and build gardens that look beautiful in every season, and entice people outdoors. Laura McGrath and the Cultivar team design, install and care for residential gardens. Our projects range in scale from intimate urban spaces to properties with swaths of woodland and lawn. We invite you to take a look at our gardens and the services that we offer. Owner and Principal Designer Laura McGrath has had her hands in the dirt since childhood. While studying for her undergraduate degree in Biology and Environmental Studies at Brown University she took charge of a stunning formal garden when its owner was transferred overseas. Thus began Laura’s career building collaborative relationships and beautiful spaces. In 1995, after honing her eye for design through the Radcliffe Certificate Program in Landscape Design, she founded Cultivar and began designing and building gardens in Cambridge and surrounding communities. Laura McGrath approaches projects with an ear attuned to the desires of each client and an eye for the relationship between the built environment and a site’s natural beauty.

Services Provided

Garden Design, Hardscaping, Landscape Design, Landscape Plans, Site Planning, Project Construction, Installation & Maintenance

Areas Served

Arlington, Belmont, Brookline, Cambridge, Chestnut Hill, Concord, Lexington, Newton, Wayland, Wellesley, Weston, Wellesley Hills

12 Projects

Pool, patio and steps of large natural stone

Business Details

Business Name

Cultivar, Inc.

Phone Number

+1 617-584-7989

Website

cultivargardens.com

Address

Watertown, MA 02472

Typical Job Cost

$5,000 - 150,000

License Number

020634428

Followers

37 Followers

Socials

Back to Navigation

Credentials

Back to Navigation

Featured Review

Hong Jiang

I want landscape Design for my courtyard job. likely yard fence, flat surface ground, replace the grass , build path thanks!Read Full Review

Write a Review

8 Reviews for Cultivar, Inc.

Newest first

5.0|8 reviews

Work Quality

5.0

Communication

5.0

Value

5.0

Brooke

We started working with Laura when we began building our house a few years ago. Laura has a strong creative intuition for the client and is a joy to be around. The schematics felt creative and flowing as we worked closely to design a wild garden grown almost entirely from seed. This involved a lot of learning on my part! Along the way, Laura offered a depth of knowledge and insight while also listening very carefully. If there was a tree or plant that was unfamiliar to me, we would go see it in person. If either of us were inspired out in the world, we would exchange texts. Our vision ultimately turned into the most beautiful garden I could imagine - wild, complex, bountiful, native and balanced. It is without a doubt my family's favorite place to be. With each season, Laura and her team show up regularly to nurture the garden and sprinkle in new seed. Every time we see the truck, it makes our day!

28 April 2023

Jason Ruth

Laura transformed our backyard and into an oasis and we’re working with her on our front yard next year!

28 September 2022

alixbase

I hired Cultivar to work on my front yard. I live on a street that is used for parking in a Newton village and I always felt like I lived in a parking lot! I wanted to create some privacy. I also had a giant sugar maple in the center of my yard which was beautiful but posed some challenges for creating privacy. Laura suggested moving the walkway and carefully chose and positioned a variety of small trees and shrubs along the front edge of my yard to block the cars. She also managed to create an extremely natural and friendly feeling as well. I was so amazed! I cant wait to see how she handles the rest of my landscaping challeges. She also thoughtfully repositioned some of my existing plants, helping to cut down on project costs, which I appreciated. She is also a genius with planters and railing boxes! Everything is always interesting, natural looking and beautiful!

16 October 2021

Meredith Salisbury

My daughter first recommended Laura McGrath, the owner of Cultivar, to me when we moved to Lexington in 2002. She worked closely with us to redo and expand all our gardens in our rather shady front and back yards, teaching us a lot about native species and how they can flourish. She and her team maintain the existing gardens and we with her advice continue to add more planted space, cutting down on the lawn that needs to be mowed. It's really beautiful; Laura is so responsive and her team industrious and friendly. I can't recommend their work highly enough. Since we've done it bit by bit over the years, I can't give a specific date or project cost, but she is careful to buy plants and trees when they are least expensive, and we find the labor costs very reasonable.

28 February 2018

Dorothy Dundas

Cultivar is an excellent company! They made us a beautiful garden which they now come back to lovingly care for. All of the workers are wonderful people and I highly recommend them.

27 February 2018

Barrett Tree Service East, Inc.

Barrett Tree Service East has the pleasure of working with Cultivar Gardens on many properties in the Greater Boston area. We find Laura McGrath and her team to be very responsive, professional and dedicated to the best interests of their clients and landscapes. Laura has an unique sense of design and an attention to detail leading to beautiful results. We recommend Cultivar Gardens for those looking for help to care for their established gardens areas or reinvigorate existing outdoor spaces with new design ideas.

9 May 2016

lisarubi73

Laura helped me design a garden from scratch, creating the roll of land, stone work, and then the plantings. (Ours is 'Winchester Garden with Asian Influences,' pictured under gardens.) She was fantastic to work with--both having suggestions, and also really encouraging me to explore my own vision. I feel as if we were able to bring it alive from my deepest sense of how it could be. Over the years since, she has been there as much or as little as I wanted--some years, I have done most of care myself, other years, I ask her to step in. She is available, reliable, reasonable in price--can't say enough!

30 December 2015

Comment from Cultivar, Inc.:

Thank you, Lisa. It has been wonderful to watch your garden mature over the years, and see you enjoying it.

rcoe85

Laura and her Cultivar team did an outstanding job for us as we did a full outdoor renovation: new plants and beds, trees, replaced the lawn, added an irrigation and drainage system, patio and pergola install, deck work, stone walls and paths and outdoor lighting. We are thrilled with the results and continue to work with Cultivar for maintenance. Laura knows her stuff and is very approachable and easy to work with. She listens to what you want but also offers ideas and suggestions that are spot on. I HIGHLY recommend Cultivar for any outdoor projects you are considering.

21 July 2015

Back to Navigation

2 Ideabooks

Back to Navigation

2 Comments

Commented: Front Yard LandscapingHi Beckie, The shrubs are old yews which probably have deep roots. Be sure to have DigSafe mark any underground utilities before you dig them out. About how many hours of sunlight do you have in fro...

3 January 2016 in Design Dilemma

Commented: Love this border! What are the purple/pink clumps of flowers?Hi Kelly, I am so glad you like this shade garden. The purple flowers are stachys hummelo. They are wonderful in part shade situations, blooming as a bridge between the spring and summer bloom.

2 July 2015

Cultivar, Inc.