Lawn Care in Hartly, DE

Delaware's smallest town, in the middle of farm country.

Hartly is Delaware's smallest town by both population and area, according to the Delaware Public Archives. Its limits cover about 36 acres around the crossroads of Arthursville Road (Route 11) and Main Street (Route 44), roughly 10 miles from Smyrna. Most Hartly-area yards sit outside that line. The 19953 ZIP area holds about 5,255 people, its median home dates to 1991, and about a third of its homes were built from 1980 to 1999 (ACS 2024 via Census Reporter). The town plan describes single-family homes lining the roads in and out, much of the land still farmed, and a strong Amish presence.

The crossroads shows up as Arthursville on the 1868 Beers Atlas and took the name Hartly from a railroad employee named Hart who helped bring the station. By 1882 it had a post office, a store, a school and a church, and in the late 1920s and 1930s a strawberry market, a large tomato market and a grain business. The last train ran in April 1982. An 1872 survey used the stump of an old white oak near today's crossroads as a corner marker. In town, older houses on smaller lots sit close to Main Street.

Inside town limits, Hartly's grass rule is tight. A 2016 ordinance makes it unlawful to let grass or weeds grow past six inches, or to let grass grow in sidewalks, walkways or driveways, and clippings must come off the sidewalk, street and storm drain areas the same day the lawn is cut. It names owners, renters and any contracted party who maintains the property, which includes a hired crew like ours. UD Extension's turf guide puts cool-season lawns at 3 to 4 inches, with no more than one third of the leaf taken per cut, so a lawn kept at 4 inches is due before it reaches 6.

Past the town line, Kent County's code takes over: grass and weeds no higher than 12 inches, with farms and wooded areas exempt, and dead limbs and dead trees removed outside the woods. The Gravelly Run and Hartly tax ditches carry storm water through town, and DNREC asks owners to keep landscaping and yard waste out of tax ditch rights-of-way. Country storms keep the brush coming. Trees fell in Hartly on July 2, 2014, one damaging a porch and another pulling wires down along Crystal Road, and large limbs were blown off in town on May 27, 2026.

What Hartly yards need most

• In-town lawns past six inches, Hartly's limit, with three days to fix after written notice.
• Clippings left on Main Street walks, streets or drains, which must be cleared the same day.
• Brush and yard waste piled inside the Gravelly Run or Hartly tax ditch rights-of-way.
• Trees and limbs down along country roads, like Crystal Road in July 2014 and again in July 2020.
• Dead limbs on yard trees outside the woods, which Kent County's code says must come down.
• Drives and walks buried by storms like January 3, 2022, when a 13-inch Hartly report topped Kent County.

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