Searching for backyard designers near Marengo, IL turns up companies that mean very different things by the word designer. Some have a trained designer on staff. Some send a salesperson with a template. Some outsource the drawing entirely and you meet the person who made your plan exactly once, on paper.

Marc Bolanos is a co-founder, owner and senior designer at M.A.B. Landscape Group, and he holds a degree in landscape design from Harper College, which is the sort of detail worth asking any firm about directly.