Photo: Tony Carrick for bobvila.com We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn More › Home Advice You Can Trust Tips, tricks & ideas for a better home and yard, delivered to your inbox daily. When my wife and I decided it was time to add landscaping to our backyard we decided to make life easier on ourselves by hiring a professional to handle the job, or so we thought. Hiring a landscaping company meant I could leave most of the technical planning for the job, along with the labor, to the pros. I figured they knew such elements as what plants to plant, when to plant them, and how to space them. When we asked for a fire pit with a pea gravel pad to be integrated into the plan, we assumed they would do it right.  Thus, my wife and I only concerned ourselves with what the landscaping would look like rather than the technical aspects. When it came time for the install, we left it up to the pros. As we realized later, this was a mistake.…