Lawn Care in Townsend, DE

Townsend is an old railroad town wrapped in new subdivisions and woods.

Townsend's own comprehensive plan calls it a dichotomy of aging downtown residences surrounded by newer subdivisions. The town covered 111 acres when it incorporated in 1885 and 677.12 acres by 2020. The ACS 2024 5-year estimates, read through Census Reporter, put 2,832 people in 806 homes with a median build year of 2006, and 65 percent of homes in the 19734 ZIP date from 2000 or later. Handler Homes has built 163 houses in Townsend Village since 2007, Townsend Village II holds 221, and The Woods at Hidden Creek was zoned for 222 lots of at least 7,000 square feet.

The old core is a 46-acre National Register district, listed in 1986, and its nomination places Townsend halfway between Middletown and Smyrna. Its biggest building boom ran from 1880 to 1910, after the Delaware Railroad made the crossroads a stop in 1856 and peaches, grain and lumber shipped out. The survey recorded an 1882 peach evaporator house at Commerce and Gray Streets, 104 contributing outbuildings with 32 garages and 14 meat houses among the outbuildings, and a 1914 picket fence. The plan adds that the historic core has no stormwater-management system and that residents report standing water in streets and basements after rain.

Townsend's code runs on short clocks. Grass, weeds or other growth over 10 inches brings a posted notice and a mailed one, then 5 calendar days to fix it, and the town owes that notice only once a calendar year; after that it can mow without warning and bill by the hour. Snow and ice have to be off the sidewalk within 12 hours after daylight once it stops snowing. Burning leaves in an open pile is unlawful in town. Casella collects yard waste every other week from April 13 to December 21, 2026, with no bags, and branches over 3 inches thick or 4 feet long stay behind.

Woods and wet ground ring the newer streets. The 1986 nomination describes forest and wetlands to the south and northeast and the farm fields called the Levels to the north and northwest, and the plan maps mature forest stands and wooded wetlands in Townsend Village I and II and Hidden Creek. On August 4, 2020, Tropical Storm Isaias produced an EF2 tornado that snapped or uprooted trees along Blackbird Landing Road and Gum Bush Road and destroyed a garage. On July 6, 2017, flash flooding hit Wiggins Mill Road by Wiggins Mill Pond and washed out parts of Green Giant Road.

What Townsend yards need most

• Grass over 10 inches, which draws a posted notice, a mailed notice and only 5 days to fix.
• Sidewalks cleared within 12 hours after daylight once the snow stops, as Townsend's code requires.
• Branches thicker than 3 inches or longer than 4 feet, which Casella's yard waste pickup leaves behind.
• Leaf piles you cannot burn in town and cannot bag for the yard waste can.
• Fallen limbs from the wooded edges of Townsend Village I and II and Hidden Creek after storms like Isaias.
• Soggy low spots where Delaware's soil map shows Zekiah sandy loam, rated frequently flooded.

Our Services

Not sure where to start? Get a free estimate →

What clients say.

Townsend lawn care questions, answered.