A Landscape Construction Company in Holly Springs, NC.
Paver patios, retaining walls, drainage, and new lawns for Apex homeowners. One local crew. One written price. Nobody to chase.
By Bryan Harvey, Founder | Updated
Birch & Boulder is a landscape design and build company based in Holly Springs, about 15 minutes from downtown Apex, led by founder Bryan Harvey.
Next door in Holly Springs. Serving Apex 27502, 27523, and 27539.
Bryan Harvey, a North Carolina native, leads every project.
Techo-Bloc and Belgard certified. Aquascape certified for ponds.
One crew for hardscapes, drainage, sod, fire pits, and plantings.
Full liability coverage. Your price in writing before we dig.
Most new projects come from people who hired us first.
You found a landscaper in the neighborhood Facebook group. He sounded great on the phone. Then the start date slid three weeks. The crew showed up with the wrong block. And the new patio drains straight toward your back door.
Or maybe you're still at square one. Five calls. Two callbacks. One quote scribbled on the back of a business card.
Meanwhile, the slope out back sheds mulch into the street every storm. A pond forms by the garage. The backyard is still a strip of tired builder sod.
You don't need a sales pitch. You need someone who shows up, prices it straight, and builds it to last.
Bryan Harvey has heard every one of those stories. He started Birch & Boulder to be the contractor people stop worrying about.
Bryan grew up in North Carolina and has spent about 15 years building yards across the Triangle. Our shop sits in Holly Springs, a short drive up NC 55. Apex isn't a long haul for us. It's home turf.
Here's what you can count on. We answer the phone. We show up on the day we set. Your price is in writing before we break ground. And the job isn't done until you've walked it with us.
That's why most of our work comes from referrals. Someone in Scotts Mill sees a new patio over the fence and asks who built it. That's how we like to grow.
Birch & Boulder builds the whole yard for Apex homeowners, from patios and retaining walls to drainage, sod, and fire pits.
Most Apex backyards end at a sliding door and a slab the size of a grill. We turn that into an outdoor room. Techo-Bloc and Belgard pavers go down on a deep, compacted gravel base, then get edged and locked so they stay put. Add a seat wall or fire pit and the space works ten months a year. See paver patios.
Plenty of Apex lots drop off toward a creek or a neighbor's fence. We build block retaining walls with drain stone, fabric, and a perforated pipe at the base. Water gets out. The wall stays straight. Taller walls get engineered plans and a Town of Apex permit before we dig. Learn about retaining walls.
Is your yard still soggy two days after a storm? The ground is telling you something. We regrade, run French drains, bury downspout lines, and build dry creek beds that carry water away from the house. Fix your drainage.
Tall fescue for shady lots under big oaks. Bermuda or zoysia for full sun. We loosen and amend the clay first, so the roots grow down instead of sideways. Get a new lawn.
Start with a drawing, not a guess. We plan the whole yard and build it in the right order. Drainage before the patio. Patio before the plants. Want to phase it over two seasons? We'll map that too. Plan your yard.
Gas or wood-burning fire pits, grill islands, and full outdoor kitchens. Built from the same block as your patio, so it all looks like one plan. See fire pits.
Bryan is Aquascape certified. We build ponds, pondless waterfalls, and rain gardens that slow runoff and give it somewhere pretty to go. Explore water features.
Hiring Birch & Boulder in Apex takes three steps: a free yard visit, a written plan and price, and the build.
Call, text, or fill out the form. Bryan walks your yard with you, listens to what you want, and checks the grade, the soil, and where the water runs.
Within a couple days, you get a written plan and a fixed price. No ranges. No add-ons later. You'll know what we're building, what it costs, and when we start.
Our crew builds it, cleans up every day, and walks the finished job with you. If something's off, we fix it.
Apex yards sit on two kinds of tough ground, and both punish shortcuts.
On the east side, toward Holly Springs and Cary, it's Piedmont red clay. It sheds rain, holds puddles, and bakes hard by August.
Head west toward Green Level, Friendship, and New Hill, and much of the ground sits in the Triassic Basin. Soils there, like Creedmoor and White Store series (USDA soil surveys), rank high to very high for shrink-swell potential, meaning the clay swells when wet and shrinks when dry. That movement sinks paver corners and leans walls built on a thin base.
So we dig deeper, base thicker, and drain everything. It costs a little more up front. It costs a lot less than a redo.
Apex neighborhoods vary too. Around downtown and Salem Street, older homes sit on bigger lots under mature oaks, so roots shape the plan. Newer communities like Sweetwater, Abbington, and Salem Village have builder grading, tight side yards, and HOA review. We plan for both. We'll hand your architectural committee the drawings and material specs it asks for.
In Apex, a residential retaining wall needs a building permit if it holds back more than 4 feet of soil, supports a structure, crosses a property line, or is part of a wall system with more than 5 feet of total rise within 50 feet.
The Town also limits residential walls to 6 feet above grade and two tiers. Need 10 feet of grade change? That means two terraced walls. A 4-foot wall that meets none of those triggers needs no permit.
Permitted walls need stamped engineering and third-party inspections. We coordinate the engineer and the paperwork, so you don't have to. Source: Town of Apex Building Inspections & Permitting, "Retaining Walls" guide.
Clay doesn't sit still. Every wet spring and dry summer nudges a sinking patio lower and a leaning wall further out. Small fixes turn into rebuilds.
Spring calendars fill fast. Plan this fall and winter, and you build first.
It's PeakFest weekend in May. You get home from Salem Street, kick off your shoes, and drop into a chair on the new patio. It's dead level. The washed-out slope is now a two-tier wall with hydrangeas on top. Last night's storm? The yard drained before breakfast.
That evening, the neighbors wander over. Someone asks who built the fire pit. You hand them Bryan's number.
Nothing to chase. No surprise bill. Just a backyard that works and a crew you'd call again.
"We have hired Birch & Boulder for two jobs. One was a drainage system and another was a large rock bed and retaining wall. The owner Bryan did a great job listening to what we had thought about and added some great insight and ideas to our original plans. The results of both jobs were excellent. The workers and Bryan all went the extra mile to make sure that the yard was in as good a shape as possible when they were done. Good value, honest quotes, punctual, good communication both in person and by phone and email, finished on time, just an all around good experience. I highly recommend you consider having them quote whatever project you are considering."
A typical backyard landscaping project in Apex, NC costs between [$X] and [$Y] with Birch & Boulder. Paver patios run about [$X to $Y] per square foot installed, and retaining walls run about [$X to $Y] per face foot. Size, slope, soil, access, and materials set the final price. Every Apex estimate comes in writing after a free yard visit.
The Town of Apex requires a building permit for a residential retaining wall that holds back more than 4 feet of soil, supports a structure, crosses a property line, or adds up to more than 5 feet of rise within 50 feet. Residential walls are capped at 6 feet above grade and two tiers. A 4-foot wall with none of those conditions needs no permit, though your HOA may still require approval.
Patios and walls shift in Apex because much of the town sits on dense clay, and western Apex sits in the Triassic Basin, where soils have high shrink-swell potential. The clay swells when wet and shrinks when dry. A deep compacted gravel base and good drainage keep pavers and walls from moving.
Fall is the best time to lay tall fescue sod in Apex, from mid-September through November, with early spring as a backup. Bermuda and zoysia, the warm-season grasses, do best when laid from late spring through summer.
Yes. Birch & Boulder provides drawings and material specs for HOA architectural review in Apex neighborhoods like Sweetwater, Abbington, and Salem Village, and waits for approval before building.
Yes. Birch & Boulder is based in Holly Springs, about 15 minutes south of downtown Apex on NC 55, and serves all three Apex ZIP codes: 27502, 27523, and 27539. The team also works in Cary, Fuquay-Varina, Raleigh, Morrisville, and the rest of the Triangle.
Birch & Boulder carries full liability insurance on every job. [Add NC Landscape Contractors' Licensing Board license number if applicable.] The team is certified by Techo-Bloc, Belgard, and Aquascape.
Book your free Apex yard visit. We'll walk the property, answer your questions, and send a written plan and price. No pressure. No runaround.
Birch & Boulder Landscaping serves Holly Springs and the Triangle area. We do quality work at fair prices—no surprises, no excuses. After more than ten years in business, most of our work comes from referrals. We show up when we say we will. We finish what we start. And we leave your property better than we found it.
180 Jacob Street, Holly Springs NC 27550
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