A landscape plan built around your yard
Good landscape design starts in your yard, not on a screen. Our designers walk the property with you and look at sun and shade, slopes, where water sits after a rain, the views from the windows you use most, and how you want to use the space. We also ask how much upkeep you’re up for, because a plan that needs weekly deadheading isn’t right for everyone.
From there we draw a plan: bed shapes and sizes, walkways, plant locations, and any hardscape like a patio, wall, or steps. Plants are chosen for northern Illinois, which means they can take our winters, our heavy clay, and the hot, humid stretch in July and August. We plan for mature size, so a shrub by the front steps doesn’t swallow them in five years.
Planting and hardscape, designed together
Many of our projects combine planting with hardscape design and build. Designing both at once means grades, bed edges, and patio borders line up, and lighting cable can go in before beds are planted. You get a detailed proposal listing plants, materials, and scope before any work begins.
Plants and materials that hold up here
Fox Valley yards are hard on plants. Most lots sit on heavy clay that stays wet in spring and bakes hard in August. Freeze-thaw cycles heave shallow roots, and road salt from plows burns anything planted too close to the driveway or street.
We plan around that. Beds are prepared so roots can spread in clay. Salt-tolerant plants go along drives and walks, and more sensitive ones stay back. Shrubs, perennials, and trees are picked for hardiness in our zone, not just for how they look at the nursery. For bed cover, we use mulch or decorative stone depending on the look you want and how much upkeep you’re willing to do.
From bare ground to finished beds
Most of our work is done in-house by our own crew, from site prep to the last plant. Installation starts with clearing and grading, then bed preparation: removing existing turf and weeds, loosening compacted soil, and working in amendments where the clay needs help.
Next come the plants, set at the right depth and spaced for their mature size. We cut clean bed edges or install edging, then finish beds with mulch or stone. If you want the yard to look good after dark, we can add low-voltage landscape lighting while the beds are open, which is much easier than adding it later. We clean up the site before we leave.