Hillside Landscape Construction & Design in El Dorado Hills, CA
Rated 4.9★ by El Dorado Hills homeowners | Licensed - Bonded - Insured | Since 2008.
Almost every El Dorado Hills lot has two things in common: it sits on a grade, and the plans go in front of an architectural review committee before a shovel hits the dirt.
That makes EDH landscaping a different job than Folsom or Sacramento – it’s Hillside engineering and HOA submittal work as much as it is design.
South Canyon Construction is the landscape contractor in El Dorado Hills that has been doing both since 2008.
We engineer the retaining walls, terraces, and drainage that the slope demands, draw plans that pass the Serrano, Blackstone, Promontory, or Heritage architectural review on the first submittal, and build the patio, outdoor kitchen, lighting, and planting on top of it with the same in-house crew.
One license, one schedule, one accountable team from concept through final walkthrough.
All of Our El Dorado Hills Landscape Services
Every EDH project starts with the slope, the soil, and the HOA submittal packet – and from there scales into whatever the lot calls for.
Patios that step down a grade, outdoor kitchens cantilevered off a retaining wall, drought-tolerant front yards built to a community plant palette, or full backyard design-builds with pool, pergola, and lighting.
Pick the service that fits your project; we’ll quote scope, materials, and a real schedule the same way for any of them.
Hillside Engineering Is the Job, Not an Add-On
We start every EDH project by reading the lot – the cut-and-fill history, the existing grades, where water actually goes during a January storm, and how deep we’ll hit decomposed granite or clay on the dig.
A flat-lot landscape contractor learns the El Dorado Hills market the hard way.
Most Hillside landscaping projects deal with the same 3 problems:
- Retaining walls that aren’t keyed into the slope shift in the second wet winter.
- Patios poured without a graded subbase telegraph cracks within a year.
- Drainage that wasn’t designed for a hillside dumps sheet flow against the neighbor’s foundation downhill.
This is how our team at South Canyon Engineers the right way:
- Retaining walls sized for the soil and surcharge, with proper drainage stone, geogrid where it’s needed, and weep outlets that work.
- Terraced patios and stairs that step the grade in usable elevations instead of fighting it.
- Drainage systems – French drains, area drains, swales, and pop-up emitters – sized for the contributing area, not a generic spec.
- Hardscape footings that account for the slope and the bearing layer underneath.
This is the part of an EDH job that doesn’t show up in the finish photos but determines whether the finish photos still look good five winters from now.
HOA-Ready Landscape Design Packages for Serrano, Blackstone, Promontory & Heritage
If you live in one of the gated master-planned communities, you already know the architectural review process can stall a project for weeks if the submittal isn’t complete.
Most of the friction comes from the same handful of misses: hardscape coverage over the allowed percentage, plant palette outside the community list, fence height or material out of spec, missing elevations or product cut-sheets.
South Canyon Construction Inc. designs to the community standards from the first sketch. The submittal package we hand you includes:
- Dimensioned site plan and grading plan
- Elevations and sections for walls, structures, and pool surrounds
- Product cut-sheets for pavers, stone veneer, lighting, and outdoor kitchen components
- Color and material selections noted on the plan
- A plant list checked against the community palette for water use and form
If the architectural review committee asks for a revision, we own it – we don’t bill it back to you.
Why El Dorado Hills Homeowners Choose South Canyon
- One licensed design-build team. Design, engineering coordination, HOA submittal, permits, procurement, build, and punch list under one contract and one schedule. CA License #919620, bonded, insured.
- Hillside-first construction. Retaining walls, terraced patios, and drainage engineered for the actual grade and soil on your lot, not a flat-lot template.
- El Dorado County experience. We pull the EDH permits, coordinate with the county on grading and pool work, and know what the inspectors want to see.
- HOA-fluent design. Plans drawn to Serrano, Blackstone, Promontory, Heritage, and Four Seasons standards so submittals don’t bounce.
- Local craftsmanship and recognition. Code-compliant gas and electric, real masonry, code-rated finishes – and a 4.9 reputation built since 2008.
- Honest scopes. Written scope, transparent allowance line items, scheduled milestones, and daily on-site cleanup.
El Dorado Hills Communities We Serve
We work across all of EDH, including:
- Serrano
- Blackstone
- Promontory
- Highland View
- The Heritage and Four Seasons
- Lake Forest
- The Original Villages
We also serve the immediately adjacent areas – Cameron Park, Shingle Springs, Rescue, and the Folsom side of the lake – across El Dorado, Sacramento, and Placer Counties.
Get an El Dorado Hills Design Consultation
Tell us what you’re picturing – a hillside backyard with terraced patios and an outdoor kitchen, a Serrano front-yard refresh built to the architectural review standards, a retaining-wall and drainage fix that’s been on the list since last winter, or a full design-build from the ground up.
We’ll walk the site, talk through the slope, the HOA implications, and the build sequence, and put a real scope and schedule on paper.
Call (916) 742-3992 or request a consultation through the form. Most EDH site visits get scheduled within the week.
- Phone: (916) 742-3992
- Email: Zak.dennisss@gmail.com
- Shop: 7520 Telegraph Ave, Orangevale, CA 95662
- Hours: 8 AM – 7 PM, Mon-Sun
- License: CA #919620 – licensed, bonded, insured