Lawn care in Pawcatuck, CT, on the Connecticut side of the river.

One downtown, two states, and a river doing the dividing.

The Pawcatuck River is the Connecticut and Rhode Island state line. Pawcatuck sits on the Connecticut bank and Westerly sits on the Rhode Island bank, and the two function as a single downtown joined by a bridge. You can stand on one side, look at shops on the other, and be looking at a different state's rules, taxes, contractors and salt trucks.

That produces a specific and very common confusion, and it costs people time. A Pawcatuck property is in the Town of Stonington, Connecticut. Permits, wetlands, zoning and land use go through Stonington. Westerly has no say, and, just as importantly, the separate rules of Stonington Borough do not apply out here either. The Borough is its own incorporated borough several miles west along the coast, and plenty of people assume its extra layer covers all of Stonington. It does not.

The river itself sets the physical work. It is tidal this far up, so the bottom of a riverfront garden is brackish, the bank is a regulated edge, and what you can mow, cut or plant near the water is not entirely your call. A planted buffer strip between lawn and bank is usually the right answer and it is often a required one.

Away from the water Pawcatuck is a compact working village: close-set nineteenth century houses on small level lots where neat and frequent beats ambitious. For the whole town, see lawn care in Stonington. The service area has the region.