About Arborith · design-build, Yonkers, NY

mostly, we’re a drawing habit with a crew attached.

We measure your yard, draw it plant by plant and stone by stone, render it so you can stand in it — then our own crew builds exactly that. Everything else on this page is just why we insist on doing it in that order.

Start with a site walk (718) 601-3298
A drafting table with an inked backyard planting plan, yellow trace paper, a scale ruler, stone samples and a soil jar
ProjectArborith, the studio
Sheet02 · About
Issued10.13.2026
Drawn at687 Bronx River Rd
Scale1 : 1, in person
StatusIssued for reading

Sheet 02-A · the backstory

Paper first, then dirt

Margin note: if a plan can’t be built from, it’s a mood board. We don’t make mood boards.

Arborith started at a drafting table, not behind a mower. That’s still the order of operations: measure, draw, render, then dig.

Most backyards around here weren’t designed — they accumulated. A patio poured whenever. A yew someone planted during a heatwave. A slope everybody just quietly avoids. We genuinely like those yards; they have opinions. The job is to read them carefully, keep what’s already working (especially the old trees), and redraw the rest so it holds up through a Westchester February and an August cookout.

Being a design-build shop means our drawings aren’t a pitch deck. They’re the exact set our crew builds from, so they have to be right — dimensioned, specced, and checked against what’s actually going on in your soil. And because we bill per milestone, you’re never paying ahead for something that only exists in our heads.

Revision log — how the studio got its shape
RevWhat changedWhy
A Drawings onlyPlanting plans and hardscape sets, handed off for someone else to build. Turns out a beautiful set can still get built wrong.
B Renders addedFour views of the real lot, one of them at dusk. A plan view is a bird’s-eye. You live at eye level.
C Crew on boardOur own install crew, building from our own sheets. So the bluestone lands where the dimension says, not where the truck stopped.
D Billed per milestoneFive nodes, each invoiced only once it’s finished. You should pay for things you can hold, not a deposit and a hope.

Sheet 02-B · applies to every yard

General notes we build by

On a construction set, the general notes are the rules that apply to every sheet. These are ours — the stuff we won’t negotiate on, whether it’s a 25-foot rowhouse strip or a corner lot.

Contractor shall read all notes before digging. Homeowner is encouraged to read them before calling.

  1. Natives first, not natives only

    Little bluestem, amsonia, aster and woodland sedge do the heavy lifting. The hydrangea your grandmother planted stays if it’s happy.Zone 7a, specified per bed.

  2. Water goes somewhere on purpose

    Every hardscape set shows where the rain runs — pitch, drains, dry wells. No new puddle gets to be a surprise feature.

  3. Dimensioned to the inch

    Patios, walls and steps are drawn with real measurements and material callouts. “About here” isn’t a dimension.

  4. Old trees get a fence before we get a machine

    Root zones of existing trees are marked and protected before any equipment shows up. An oak took decades; a skid steer takes minutes.

  5. The render matches the build

    If something changes on site, you see a revised sheet first — then we build it. The picture you approved is the yard you get.

  6. Invoices follow finished work

    Site walk, plan, render, hardscape set, build in thirds. Each one billed after it’s done and in your hands — never before.

A site-walk kit laid out on black: measuring wheel, soil probe, level, green string line, scale ruler, tracing paper and a soil jar
Everything in the bag for a $385 site walk. Ninety minutes, one lot.

Sheet 02-C · field equipment

Kit we bring to your yard

Every line on the plan traces back to something one of these told us. No guessing from satellite photos, no “we’ll figure it out on install day.”

Measuring wheel
Lot lines, bed edges and every awkward jog in the fence, to the inch.
Soil probe
How deep the topsoil goes before it turns to Westchester clay — and where the old fill is hiding.
Level & string line
Real grade, not vibes. This is what tells us whether you need a wall or just a smarter slope.
A compass
Which corner gets the 4pm sun, which stays damp till noon, and where the dinner table should face.
Mason-jar soil test
Shake, settle, read the layers: sand, silt, clay. It decides half the plant list.
Yellow trace & scale
First sketches go right over the survey at 1:96, before anything goes on a screen.

The survey, notes and photo log from the walk are yours to keep, whatever happens next.

Book the walk — $385
HUDSON 687 RING 1 RING 2 RING 3 N

Sheet 02-D · where we dig

Close enough to show up twice

Good design needs repeat visits — the first walk, the render check-in, a walkthrough after every build third. So we keep our work within easy reach of home base on Bronx River Rd.

Ring 1 · Yonkers

  • Crestwood
  • Park Hill
  • Lincoln Park
  • Dunwoodie
  • Colonial Heights
  • Ludlow

Ring 2 · next door

  • Bronxville
  • Tuckahoe
  • Mount Vernon
  • Eastchester
  • Hastings-on-Hudson
  • Scarsdale

Ring 3 · over the line

  • Riverdale
  • Fieldston
  • Woodlawn
  • Wakefield
  • Dobbs Ferry
  • Ardsley

Not on the list? Write anyway. We’ll tell you straight whether the drive makes sense for your project before you book anything.

Sheet 02 — end of notes

Your yard could be the next sheet 01

Send a few lines about what’s out there now and what you wish was. We’ll reply with a site-walk slot and what node 01 looks like for your lot.

Node 01 · site walk

$385

Measured survey, sun & drainage notes, full photo log. Billed after the walk.

Send us your yard Or call (718) 601-3298
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