Annette Held Landscape Design | Experienced Landscapers in Chicago, IL

Our process is collaborative and thorough. It starts with an on-site consultation at your Chicago home, where we assess the specific conditions of your space—its size, sunlight exposure, soil type, and how you wish to use it. We discuss your goals and ideas in detail. Back at our studio, we develop several initial concept drawings based on this information. We then meet again to review these concepts together, refining the design until it perfectly matches your vision for a beautiful, functional urban garden.

Absolutely. We proactively address these local challenges in our designs and installations. For Chicago's often dense, compacted soil, we use techniques like soil aeration and amendment with organic matter to improve drainage and root health. Regarding irrigation, we design efficient, seasonally appropriate watering systems and can provide guidance on proper timer use and winterization to prevent common failures, ensuring your garden thrives with less maintenance.

We specialize in making the most of urban spaces of all sizes. While we design full gardens, a significant part of our work is creating beautiful, impactful designs for smaller areas like patios, balconies, and entryways. We excel with container gardens and window boxes, which are perfect for adding greenery and color to compact Chicago homes without requiring extensive ground space.