Patios, retaining walls, plantings, and full-yard design across the Illinois Valley. Eighteen years drawing plans that actually get installed.
Joe Simmons, designer and founder. Ottawa, IL.
We walk your property with you, measure what's there, and talk through how you actually use the outdoor space. One visit, no pressure, no pitch deck.
We draft a real site plan. Grading, hardscape, plant palette, irrigation, drainage, and how the whole thing reads across a decade of growth. You get the plan whether or not we build it.
Our crews install what we drafted. Same foreman from start to finish, same warranty language in writing, and a walk-through before we pull off the property.
A historic Ottawa lot with a narrow side yard that the owners had given up on. We drafted a courtyard scheme built around one mature oak, with bluestone on a drainage base, a low wall bench in stacked limestone, and shade perennials underneath. Same courtyard hosts twenty people now.
Above-garage slope that lost four feet of topsoil the winter before we showed up. We drafted three tiered dry-stacked walls, regraded the pitch, and replanted with natives that hold soil. Two winters in, the terraces are intact and the plants are ahead of schedule.
Small commercial client on the 251 corridor wanted a redesigned entry that read as landscape, not decoration. We drafted a formal approach with a clipped hornbeam hedge, a low limestone wall, and perennials that carry color from May to frost. A project we still point at when a commercial prospect calls.
Illinois River frontage with seasonal flooding and a patio that had shifted two inches toward the bank. We drafted a reset patio on a fresh base, added a native buffer strip on the river side, and built a low wall to hold the pitch. The buffer does the hydrology work, the wall does the visual work.
A full site plan for your property, not a template pulled off a shelf. Grading, plant palette, hardscape, drainage, and how it ages across a decade.
Patios, retaining walls, fire features, outdoor kitchens, walkways. ICPI-certified paver work we stand behind for the life of the install.
Trees, shrubs, perennials, native restoration. Soil amendments included, because the soil is half the job.
French drains, swale regrade, downspout routing. Boring work that keeps the fun work from failing five years in.
Seasonal care tuned to the property we designed. Pruning calendar, bed refresh, mulch, and a spring walk-through with notes.
Spring and fall clean-up, holiday lighting on mature trees, and bed edging. For properties that already have a plan in place.
“Joe drafted a plan for our Ottawa courtyard that actually accounted for how the shade moves across the day. The crews installed it exactly how he drew it, and the oak looks like it was always supposed to be the centerpiece.”
Karen R., Ottawa, 14 days ago
“We had a failing slope above the garage for two years before we called Simmons. They came out once, drafted terraces, and were installing three weeks later. Two winters now and nothing has moved.”
Dan M., Utica, 28 days ago
“Good design-build is rare around here. Joe is genuinely a designer, not a salesperson, and the plan he drafted for our riverfront yard is the reason the flood did not take out the patio.”
Erin P., Marseilles, 41 days ago