Dover sits at a modest 30 feet on the flat Delaware coastal plain, where the St. Jones River threads past Capitol Green and Silver Lake before heading east toward the bay. That low, level terrain paired with sandy loam soil means landscape beds drain freely, leaving plantings surprisingly thirsty during dry summer stretches even with 45 inches of annual rainfall. The Capital City's older tree-lined streets put a real premium on quality mulch to protect shallow surface roots through zone 7b summers. Neighbors to the north in Smyrna and south in Milford share nearly identical sandy soil conditions, and customers coming in from Chestertown face the same quick-draining profiles that make organic soil amendments and consistent mulch cover essential to keeping beds productive season after season.