How to Find the Best Landscaping Company Near You in Chicagoland

August 31, 2026

The best landscaping company near you is the one with a valid Illinois license, real insurance, and hands-on experience with the exact work your yard needs, whether that's drainage, hardscape, or planting design. Tommy Pollina Landscape Company has served Chicagoland, including Arlington Heights, Barrington, Buffalo Grove, Chicago, Deer Park, and Deerfield, since 1982 under founder Joe Pollina, handling design, drainage engineering, and installation under one contract.

Key Takeaways

• Tommy Pollina Landscape Company has solved landscape and drainage problems in Chicagoland since 1982, with more than 10,000 drainage installations completed.
• Chicago's licensed-contractor directory lets you check a contractor's license number, expiration date, and insurance status before you sign anything, according to the City of Chicago.
• Illinois law requires contractors to hand over a "Home Repair: Know Your Consumer Rights" pamphlet on any home-repair contract over $1,000, per the Illinois General Assembly.
• We hold NDS Professional Drainage Contractor Certificates and are licensed and insured for landscape, drainage, and hardscape work across the North Shore and northwest suburbs.
• Managing design, drainage, hardscape, and planting under one contract avoids the coordination gaps that come with juggling separate specialists.

What to Look for in a Landscaping Company Near You

Anyone can put a truck logo on a website. What separates a landscaping company worth hiring is whether the work holds up after the first hard rain, the first freeze-thaw cycle, or the first five years of a growing perennial bed. A few things actually matter:

• License and insurance you can verify, not just claim.
• Drainage experience, since most yard problems in Chicagoland trace back to water and grade, not plant choice.
• One team for design, installation, and maintenance, so nobody's pointing fingers when something doesn't match the plan.
• Local project history, meaning work you can see in the towns you actually live in.
• A real office and a real crew, not a subcontractor relay.

We've built our own answer to every one of those points over 45 years, and it shows up in how we scope a project. Our landscape design work maps grading, drainage, hardscape, and planting together before installation starts, using detailed 3D renderings and walkthroughs, so the property gets priced and phased as one system instead of five disconnected jobs.

How Do I Check if a Landscaping Contractor Is Licensed in Chicago?

You can look up any general contractor working in Chicago on the city's public licensed-contractor directory, which lists the license number, license expiration date, insurance expiration date, and whether the contractor is active or inactive.

As of late August 2026, that directory is searchable directly through the City of Chicago, and it's worth checking before you sign anything, especially for drainage, grading, or hardscape work near your foundation. We're licensed and insured, and we hold NDS Professional Drainage Contractor Certificates on top of that, which matters specifically for the drainage and grading side of a project rather than for planting or maintenance work.

What Credentials Should a Chicagoland Landscaper Have?

The credentials worth asking about are license status, insurance, and any drainage-specific certification, since drainage is where poor work causes the most expensive damage. Tree work, hardscape, and planting each carry their own skill requirements too, so ask what a crew has actually installed, not just how long they've been in business.

We've been solving landscape problems for 45 years, starting as a one-truck operation on Chicago's Northwest Side in 1982 and growing into a full-service company based in Mt. Prospect, at 420 N. River Rd. Joe Pollina still runs operations as founder, and Daniel Katz serves as president. That continuity matters on drainage work in particular: we've completed more than 10,000 drainage installations using laser-guided measurements, exact elevations, and multiple collection points to move water below grade and disperse it safely, whether that's a French drain, a channel drain, a swale, or a river rock system tied into our drainage service.

Why Hardscapes Fail, and Why We're Called to Fix Them.

We get called out to redo brick and stone work that other crews installed without addressing grade or base preparation underneath it. A patio or retaining wall that ignores drainage and frost heave will crack, shift, or pool water within a few seasons, no matter how good the pavers look on day one.

What Illinois Law Requires Before You Sign a Landscaping Contract

Illinois's Home Repair and Remodeling Act requires contractors to give homeowners the "Home Repair: Know Your Consumer Rights" pamphlet before executing any home-repair or remodeling contract valued over $1,000. Both the homeowner and the contractor have to sign and date that acknowledgment, according to the Illinois General Assembly.

Beyond the pamphlet requirement, a contract signed in your home generally carries a three-business-day right to cancel, and homeowners age 65 or older get up to 15 business days, according to the Illinois Attorney General. Any landscaping company doing drainage, grading, hardscape, or design-and-installation work in the state should be walking you through this paperwork as a matter of course, not skipping it because the job is "just landscaping."

What Does Tommy Pollina Landscape Company Offer Across Chicagoland?

We run design, drainage, installation, hardscape, and maintenance as one operation, which means one point of contact from first sketch to final walkthrough. Here's the full scope, grouped by how projects actually come together:

Design and drainage Landscape Design, Drainage Systems, Emergency / Expedited Drainage Service, Sump Pump Solutions, Basement Waterproofing, and Grading and Regrading.

Installation and planting Landscape Installations and Plantings, Artificial Turf Installations, Custom Planters, Seasonal Planter and Potted Plants, and Mulch Installation.

Hardscape and outdoor construction Hardscape: Brick and Stone Installation and Repair, Bluestone Hardscape Installation, Paving: Asphalt and Concrete, Outdoor Kitchens, Custom Putting Greens, Waterscaping, Landscape Lighting, Pool Removal, and full Outdoor Design & Build project and construction management.

Maintenance and seasonal care Lawn Maintenance, Spring Cleanup, Summer Makeover, Trimming and Pruning, Tree Trimming, Tree Removal and Stump Grinding, Core Aeration, Power Raking, Irrigation and Sprinkler Systems, and Cemetery Management.

Our plantings work has included more than 240 annual flowers across a single project, with more than 125 planted in one Barrington backyard alone, alongside Arborvitae, Green Giants, Blue Arrow Junipers, Judy Zuk Magnolias, hydrangeas, Japanese Maples, and Kentucky Bluegrass sod. You can see how those pieces come together across residential and commercial jobs in our project gallery, and the full list of services on our landscaping and hardscaping page.

A Project That Shows the Difference One Contract Makes

Hilary Krol hired us for the complete landscaping of a new construction home, and her own Google review captures why coordination matters as much as craftsmanship:

"We had a fantastic experience working with Tommy Pollina Landscape Company on the complete landscaping of our new construction home. They coordinated every aspect of the outdoor project, from the plants, trees, and shrubs to the steel fence with custom Buechel Stone columns, concrete patio, retaining wall, and Bluestone pavers, engineered NDS drainage, Kichler lighting, irrigation, and final sod installation. There were understandably some delays along the way (weather, material delays, etc), but the end result was absolutely worth it. Dan, Joe, Whitney & the entire crew brought everything together beautifully, and we're extremely happy with how our outdoor spaces turned out. The finished landscaping has completely transformed the property and made our new home feel truly complete. We would definitely recommend TPLC to anyone looking for a team that can manage a full-scale landscaping project from start to finish!" Hilary Krol, in a Google review

That project touched fencing, hardscape, drainage, lighting, irrigation, and sod, all under one team and one schedule. That's the kind of coordination we mean when we talk about handling a property as one system instead of a list of separate vendors. You can read more about how we approach that scope on our about page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Tommy Pollina Landscape Company handle commercial landscaping, not just residential yards?

Yes. We manage commercial properties across the North Shore, including maintaining the ivy wall at Gibson's Rosemont, which we've cared for continuously for more than 10 years. Commercial work includes design, hardscape, paving, lawn maintenance, spring cleanup, basement waterproofing, and tree care, detailed on our commercial landscaping page.

What towns does Tommy Pollina Landscape Company serve?

We serve Chicagoland broadly, with concentrated work in Arlington Heights, Barrington, Buffalo Grove, Chicago, Deer Park, and Deerfield, plus the wider North Shore and northwest suburbs. Our office sits at 420 N. River Rd. in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, and most of our project history is concentrated in these same communities.

Can Tommy Pollina Landscape Company manage a full outdoor renovation, not just one service?

Yes. Our Outdoor Design & Build offering covers full outsource project and construction management, meaning we handle design, drainage, hardscape, planting, lighting, and irrigation as one scheduled project rather than separate contracts you'd otherwise have to line up and manage yourself.

What if my yard has a drainage emergency right now?

We offer emergency and expedited drainage service for urgent yard-water, flooding, or foundation-protection situations. Reach out through our contact page or call our office directly so we can assess the situation and get a crew scheduled.

If you're weighing a drainage problem, a hardscape that's already failing, or a full outdoor makeover for next spring, tell us what's going on in the form below this article and we'll walk through what it would actually take to fix it.