Hi there Moon,

We live in NE Cedar Rapids and hired Country Landscaping to do our backyard. We had them do the hardscape install too. I believe that you can hire them to simply draw up a design plan as well. The crew was wonderful, very hard workers. Our designer was very easy to work with although we didn't get to the phase of picking out individual plants because at that point we felt that we could do a more economical job of it ourselves. He definitely took what we said we wanted to use our backyard for and put together a plan to help facilitate that.

They prefer to use natural stones and cedar but the cost of the natural stones was more than our budget (so we ended up using blocks from Kings). My only suggestion (with whoever you work with) would be to be very clear on what you want accomplished and what your budget is to do it.

Dale Peterson at Ever-Green Landscaping on north Center Point Rd. in Cedar Rapids did a dry stream and associated landscape for us in front of our home and we LOVE it. His guys were super about cleaning up, watching out for the areas close to where they were working, and the stream looks like we built the house around it, not vice versa. Solved a nasty drainage problem we had in an unusual way. We even have a little plank bridge over the "stream" to the front door -- Dale's suggestion -- and friends got us a troll statue that hides underneath. . It has been too much fun. Dale has since gently talked me around to using plants that can actually live in our area in the planting beds associated with the stream, and more than one of each kind since it is a kind of big space. Ever-Green is also a great source for bulk mulch.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ever-Green Landscaping & Nursery