As I await my next feature, I look up to see the fierce and bold stature of a man, his forearms scuffed and cut as a badge of honor from a landscaper’s day of labor. He sits down to join me at a tall table, amber-colored beers before us both, as we settle in for our interview at a local brewery. For Zach Averill of Oak & Stone Design, that setting feels exactly right for this article: after a day of labor, across the aisle from someone who understands both his gift and his humility, with the easy hum of Northern Colorado life moving around us. The sound of glasses meeting tables, the low murmur of conversation, the grounded familiarity of craft beer and community.
He carries the kind of presence that does not need to announce itself because it already has. He is 37 years old, running an extremely successful landscape design business, and there is something about him that feels larger than life without feeling performative. He has the grit of a man who has worked with his hands, the mind of a strategist, and the heart of someone who has not forgotten where he came from. Zach is not interested in building ordinary outdoor spaces. He is building places that invite people to explore their own lives differently. Colorado landscapes that do not pretend to be somewhere else, but instead rise up from the soil with native beauty, rugged resilience, and quiet wonder.
Oak & Stone Design is a company rooted in hardscapes, water features, xeriscaping, and outdoor living, but underneath all of that is a deeper philosophy. Zach understands Colorado because Colorado made him. He knows its dry heat, its stubborn clay, its sudden storms, its wildness, and its demand for respect. “I know the plants, the fauna and flora. I'm very well versed with everything out here, but I'm also, and have always been, a big proponent of xeriscaping and lower water plants, and incorporating a lot of the plants that are native to Colorado that people might not even know of.”
That knowledge is more than technical expertise. Zach speaks the language of this land. He knows that beauty here does not have to be forced into lush lawns or thirsty landscapes that fight against the region’s natural rhythm. He knows that Colorado has its own palette, its own architecture, its own fierce and unexpected softness. In his world, xeriscaping is not a compromise. It is an invitation. It is the adventure of discovering that native and water-wise plants can be colorful, textured, surprising, and alive with character. It is the realization that a yard can be both practical and poetic. Sustainability does not have to feel sparse. A Colorado landscape can be designed to endure, thrive, and still take your breath away.
“You can always point out a lot of our projects, because when you walk by, there's a paver walkway, but there's also all these really unique plants that people have never seen before, and that's usually a good sign that I did it.”
That is the signature of Oak & Stone Design. A plant someone has never seen before becomes a conversation starter, a little spark of discovery tucked into the landscape. Zach’s work carries a sense of exploration because he is not simply installing materials. He is creating destinations. He is asking what an outdoor space could become if people stopped settling for cracked concrete, tired grass, and designs that never belonged here in the first place.
That business-forward instinct is part of what makes him so compelling. Zach is not trying to be everything to everyone. He knows his lane. He knows his strengths. He knows the work that lights him up and the work that dilutes the vision. There is power in knowing the difference between growth and chaos.
He talks about business with the sharpness of someone who has learned through experience, but also with the generosity of someone who wants the people around him to win. He partners with other trades when their expertise serves the project better. He mentors younger landscapers. He builds relationships through chambers, referrals, and community events. He shows up where he can, not because it looks good on paper, but because it matters.“I try to get out and do as much as I can, whether it's through the business or just myself, because I grew up poor, so doing Habitat for Humanity would be nice just to help people.” Behind the strong presence and ambitious business mind is a man who understands what it means to need help. He is not removed from that reality. He is connected to it.
Zach’s generosity is not soft in a fragile way. It is strong. It is practical. It shows up with tools, labor, referrals, mentorship, time, and problem-solving. It is the kind of kindness that puts on work boots and gets something done. That may be what makes him the modern Northern Colorado builder of dreams. He is creating something tangible, lasting, and useful. Something that changes the way a person experiences home.
And that, perhaps, is where the real magic of Oak & Stone Design lives. Not only in the boulders set with intention, or the pavers laid with craftsmanship, or the native plants chosen with ecological wisdom, but in the moment when a client sees what Zach saw all along.
A finished outdoor space has a way of becoming emotional for Zach. After weeks of dirt, dust, equipment, and anticipation, suddenly there it is. The vision made visible. The place where coffee will be sipped, friends will gather, kids will play, dogs will nap in the sun, and quiet evenings will stretch a little longer under the Colorado sky.
“One of my clients told me, "Every morning I get up and I go out and I sit down and I eat my cereal and just look out at that patio and just think we made the right choice." That feels good.”
Of course it does.
Because that is not just a review. That is a life being lived differently because of his work. That is someone beginning their day in beauty. That is a backyard becoming a ritual. That is craftsmanship becoming belonging.
Zach Averill embodies exploration in a way that feels both adventurous and deeply grounded. He explores what Colorado landscapes can be when they are designed with intelligence, restraint, creativity, and courage. He explores what business can become when ambition and integrity are allowed to stand side by side. He explores what community means when success is not hoarded, but circulated.
Sitting across from him, beer in hand, I see a man who is building more than patios and water features. He is building a reputation. A legacy. A company with roots. A brand that feels fierce enough to grow and kind enough to matter. His stature, the thing that captivated me at the beginning, is more than just his size. It is his power in what he creates and how he breathes life into that vision.
Zach Averill is not chasing ordinary.
He is carving something bold into the Northern Colorado landscape, one stone, one plant, one water-wise oasis at a time.
“Behind the strong presence and ambitious business mind is a man who understands what it means to need help. He is not removed from that reality. He is connected to it.”