A homeowner from Ankeny contacted TeBock’s Landscape due to water drainage problems in her backyard. Due to the limited slope of the neighborhood, all the water from the neighbors’ properties flowed through her backyard creating a muddy mess. This made it very difficult to mow and the standing water created the perfect breeding grounds for mosquitos. As a solution, we designed a dry stream bed using river rock and created a channel for the water to flow through her backyard. This was accomplished by digging a trench where the water would flow through the rocks and have more surface area to naturally drain into the ground. During excessive rain, the water flows on top of the rocks. Because of the larger size of the rocks, the erosion issues were solved for the homeowner. The trench was filled level with the river rock so the homeowner could push her mower over to get to the other side with ease.
A local childcare center contacted TeBock’s landscape for an upgrade to their playground. The goal of the project was to create a landscape with many textures and colors that the children could explore. We created with curvy walkway and installed what we termed “fern canyon” using these large Iowa Buff Outcropping slabs. The outcropping created some very unique interest for the children to run through and we planted large ferns on both sides which over time will grow tall and create a land before time effect. The walkway was created with cobble pavers and secured with polymeric sand which will hold the pavers together and prevent weeds from growing in between the pavers.
We worked with the director of the center to create a unique landscape and ensured the plants we selected would not be toxic to the children. When we work on our landscape designs, we love to work with customers who allow us to think outside of the box and create unique landscapes.
This customer from Des Moines was looking to add an outdoor living space their backyard. We were able to accomplish this by adding a paver patio to their backyard. The customer requested this for their 4th of July party they were hosting, and we were able to make sure to get it completed in time for the festivities. We created this patio by using a three-piece square paver system which adds visual interest and we created a black border which added depth to the patio.
This customer near Easter Lake on the south side of Des Moines was debating whether to hire a contactor to build a wooden deck or to hire a landscaping company to build a paver patio. They ultimately ended up selecting TeBock’s Landscape to build a paver patio since pavers are less maintenance than a wooden deck. The backyard was sloped too much to make a ground level patio not feasible, so we used versa lok retaining wall block to build a level platform which we were able to place the pavers on for a usable outdoor living area. We used earth tone pavers with black bullnose pavers to create this outdoor seating area. The customer also had on order a natural gas fireplace which we roughed in piping for. To make everything flow together, we also built stone steps leading from the screen porch to the patio level.
This customer who lived between Altoona and Pleasant Hill contacted us to landscape the side of their house. The front of the house was built at street level and the back of the house was a walkout basement which created a very steep side hill. The main complaint of the customer was that the groundcover in the foundation bed constantly washed to the bottom of the hill. They had tried both mulch and rock with no luck keeping it in place. Our solution was to build a tiered retaining wall system with multiple planting levels which were level and allowed the ground cover to stay in place. The customer loved this solution and was able to use each tier for a different purpose including an herb garden, a vegetable garden, and space for annuals and perennials.
This customer from Waukee was looking for a solution to their landscaping which included replacement of their existing rotten wooden steps coming off their patio door. In this project we removed the existing concrete patio and replaced it with a brickstone, also known as holland paver patio. Instead of rebuilding the wooden steps with new wood, we replaced the steps with concrete block and pavers creating stairs which wont rot over time and wont’ require annual maintenance by staining.