Campton Hills sits just south of Elgin, about a 20-minute drive from our shop. It’s a young village with a lot of open ground, and ZGreen Landscape builds the kind of outdoor spaces that make sense on it: large paver patios, retaining walls on rolling lots, fire pits placed for the view, outdoor kitchens, lighting for dark rural nights, and plantings that tie a house to the land around it.
Country lots, 20 minutes from town
The village only incorporated in 2007, taking in about 17 square miles of Campton and Plato townships in western Kane County, between St. Charles and Lily Lake. Residents organized in large part to keep local control of zoning and hold on to the area’s rural feel, and it shows. There’s very little commercial development, plenty of open space, and a range of properties that runs from regular subdivision lots to homes on an acre or more, plus horse properties here and there. Route 64 runs through the area, past the old hamlet of Wasco.
That variety means no single template works. A half-acre subdivision lot needs a well-planned patio and plantings to make the backyard feel finished. A multi-acre property raises different questions: where the outdoor living area should sit, how you’ll get to it, and how to keep it from looking like a small suburban patio dropped into a big field.
Many Campton Hills properties, especially outside the platted subdivisions, run on private wells and septic systems. We locate both before we design, because a patio, wall or heavy equipment has no business sitting on a septic field.
Projects that make sense on bigger ground
On larger lots, scale matters. A patio that looks generous next to a townhouse can look lost next to a big house with open land behind it. We usually recommend building bigger than people first picture, then breaking the space into zones.
- A main paver patio off the back of the house for dining and everyday use
- A separate fire pit or outdoor fireplace area, often set a short walk out into the yard to take advantage of the view
- An outdoor kitchen close enough to the house that carrying food back and forth isn’t a chore
- Retaining walls and steps to level those spaces on sloping ground
- Landscape lighting along the paths between them. Where streetlights are few and far between, a backyard gets very dark
- Landscape design and installation for beds, screening and trees that frame the house without blocking the view
Projects that combine several of these are handled through our hardscape design and build service, with one plan covering the whole property. We also offer snow plowing and ice management, which is worth asking about if you have a long driveway.
Reading rolling ground
The name isn’t an accident. Much of Campton Hills is rolling, and if you’ve hiked Campton Forest Preserve on Town Hall Road, you’ve seen the pattern: wooded hilltops, then marsh and prairie in the low spots. Private yards follow the same shape. High ground drains. Low ground collects water and stays soft into late spring.
That shapes where we put things. We’d rather build a patio on naturally higher ground near the house than fill a low spot and hope it stays dry. When the best spot for a terrace is on a slope, we cut it in with retaining walls, backfilled with clean stone so water can drain through, and reinforced where the height needs it. Several short walls usually beat one tall one on this kind of ground.
Under the topsoil is the same dense clay found across northern Illinois. It swells when wet and heaves when it freezes, so every patio and walkway gets an excavated, compacted gravel base and a finished pitch that sends water away from the house. Open lots also catch more wind and drifting snow than sheltered in-town yards, which is one more reason to get the base right.
Stone and paver work runs from about April into November. Requirements vary by village, and we check what Campton Hills asks for before we build.
Close neighbors in our service area
ZGreen also works in St. Charles, Geneva and our home base of Elgin.
About ZGreen Landscape
We’ve been in business for more than 25 years, finished over 150 projects, and earned a 5.0-star rating on Google. Reviews are posted on our testimonials page. Our own in-house crew does most of each project, from site prep and grading for the base through hardscape and planting. The process starts with a conversation with our designers, followed by a custom design and detailed proposal, then the build.
Campton Hills landscaping FAQs
We have a few acres. Where should the patio go?
Usually close to the house, on the highest dry ground, with a clear line to the kitchen door. Secondary spaces like a fire pit can go farther out toward the view. We walk the property with you and look at sun, wind, drainage and sight lines before deciding.
Our property is on a septic system. Does that limit what we can build?
It limits where, not what. We keep hardscape and heavy equipment off the septic field and design around it. Knowing where it is at the start avoids problems later.
How do you keep a large patio from looking out of scale?
By sizing it to the house and the open space around it, breaking it into zones, and using walls, plantings and lighting to give it edges. A big patio with no structure around it can feel like a parking pad.
What does a project on a larger property cost?
It depends on the size of each space, the materials, how much grading and wall work the slope needs, and the distance materials travel on site. See our paver patio and retaining wall cost guides for the main factors.
Call 224-508-0252 or request a free estimate. We’ll get back to you within 24 hours.